I’m generally working from a textbook to teach Photoshop, but sometimes the one I’m using is just too simplistic. In order to show a taste of the true artistic power of Photoshop, I put together the following design project for my students.

Let’s take your knowledge of color adjustments and blend modes one step further. Create three very different versions of a composite image.

1. Find two interesting and colorful images online which you can overlap in your composite. Save them into your folder. Open them in Photoshop.

One image will be my Flower layer and the other will be my Swirl layer.

2. Add one image onto the other in some way. Give a suitable name to each layer. Save the composite file as Color Experiment.psd. This will be your starting point for each of three versions.
3. Save the file again as Color Experiment 1.psd.
   1. Apply an artistic filter to one of the layers (Filter > Artistic). You can try other filters instead. Filter > Distort has some cool ones.
   2. Apply a color adjustment to the other layer (Image > Adjustments). Try Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, or Variations.
   3. Select your top-most layer. In the layers palette, change the blend mode from Normal to something else. Try out a bunch until you find a neat combination.
   4. Save your file.
4. Re-open Color Experiment.psd and save it as Color Experiment 2.psd. Repeat steps a – d above but with all different settings. You can change the order of the layers if you like. Save your file.
5. Re-open Color Experiment.psd and save it as Color Experiment 3.psd. Repeat steps a – d above but with all different settings. You can change the order of the layers if you like. Save your file.

My results are below:

The Flower layer on the bottom has the Plastic Wrap filter applied to it. The Swirl layer on top has had a hue increase and a Difference blend mode applied.

The Swirl layer on the bottom has the Cutout filter applied to it. The Flower layer on top has had a hue increase and a Lighten blend mode applied.

The Swirl layer on the bottom has been colorized to a monotone purple. The Flower layer on top has the Ocean Ripple filter and a Linear Light blend mode applied.

UPDATE 12/13/08: Student Work

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I started having my design students use a forum I installed on our class web site. Every Monday, students read a posting by me and respond to a prompt. This week, I just wanted to get their feedback on the class. The results just go to show that a mixture of activities is best for all students. What one student hates another loves, and what the first student loves the second one hates.

A couple of examples:

“ive liked the chapter lessons and the work with photoshop, i didnt like the posters, they were boring and irritating”

“my favorite thing and that i learned from was making posters about different thingslike proximity and stuff like that. i dont like doing different lessons”

“My favorite thing i did in this class was when we looked at actual photoshop contests and we looked at all of them. Also i learned how to use photoshop now…kinda ”

“I really enjoy the Photoshop lessons, & i didn’t like the poster redesigning”

“My favorite thing I’ve done so far are the diffrent posters that we made about proximity,repetition etc. I dont really like all the quizes and photoshop.”

And, finally,

“My favorite thing that we have done in this class is freetime when you finish your work.”

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