Gradient Tool

Open a blank document.

1. Open Photoshop

2. Open a new blank document by going to the File menu and selecting New.

3. Set the Width at 8.5 and the Height at 11 inches, Set the Resolution to 300 dpi,

Color Mode should be RGB 8 bit, Choose White for the Color

4. Make sure the Layers Palette is visible, if not go to Window - > Layers

5. Choose the Marquee (Keyboard shortcut is M) from the Tools Palette and set the Feather to 25 pixels.

6. Choose your foreground color by clicking on the top colored square at the bottom of the tool palette. Choose a shade of blue. We will leave the background color as black for now. (If it is not already black, set it to black)

7. Draw out a square Marquee Tool.

8. Click on the Gradient Tool (Keyboard shortcut is G)

9. Choose the Type of Gradient in the drop down menu (we will use the first one)

10. Inside the Marquee Tool, click and drag out your Gradient Tool. You will see the longer you stretch the Gradient Tool, the more of the foreground color is visible. The shorter you draw out the Gradient Tool, the more of the background color is visible.

11. Repeat this process (steps 5-10) with different Marquee tools and different colors. Try again with a different Gradient.

Advanced:

You may continue to add more layers of varying colors or play with erasing parts of the layers until you are happy.

Try flipping the canvas as you create the work to see how it varies. (Image menu - Rotate Canvas - 180 degrees)

You can also add additional Hue/Saturation layers to see how they change the image.

Save the image:

Save your image by going to the File menu and Save As (Choose JPEG for finished images and PSD for unfinished images). For JPEG save the image at the highest size (Size 12).

***REMEMBER YOU CAN ALWAYS GO BACKWARDS ONE STEP WITH THE KEYBOARD SHORCUT CONTROL + Z or COMMAND + Z***

*If you finish with extra time you can try it with one of your own images.