Novice Rainbow in space

[DeletedUser]

Today we're going to be making a rainbow in space. We'll start off in Phototshop, with a 700x600 canvas, and the first layer should be transparent.

Now there are several ways to do the next step. All we're going to do it make another layer, and make it fully black. This will be our space background. Simplest way to do this is to grab the brush, make it 100% opaque, and colour in the whole layer. Make sure it's all coloured.

Now we're going to make another layer, and start the colours of the rainbow. Just letting you know in advance, we're going to have a different layer for each colour and merge them later. change the brush to the fan one, shown below, and shift click to get a straight line, shown below the brush.

Now make another layer, name it the colour you want (I'm going from purple to red, but you can go whereever), and progress through the colours, making a new layer for each one. This picture represents how colours are in a rainbow due to the spectrum, so bear that in mind if you're doing an abtract colour scheme.

Okay, so as I said, progress through the colours, shift clicking them to make them straight. All on different layers.

Eventually you should have something that looks like this;

And your layers should look like this;

Now go into Image -> Adjustments -> Vibrance, and increase the Saturation all the way. It won't look too different, it's just making the colours more intense.

Now merge all of those coloured layers together, by right clicking them from the top going down, and clicking merge down. Going from top to bottom is important, because if you do it from bottom to top, the first one will merge into the black, and we don't want that. We want all of the colours in one layer, like so;

Now grab our favourite tool, the smudge tool. Make the diameter slightly more than the entire width of the rainbow, and start in the center, and go outwards. when the whole length is done, go back to the center and go the other way. I do this, because going from the side brings un-wanted drag and black into the picture. It also helps to vibrate the tool slightly across the colours, to make them merge a bit more.

Or, if you're feeling a bit more confident, have a go at something with a bit more shape. You can get things like this from some easy movements with the same smudge tool, with a slightly larger diameter.

 

[DeletedUser]

Now right click on your rainbow layer, and near the top of the options you'll see blending options. Click that, and have a mess with the settings. I liked the ones I put in the pic below, but have a play around and see what you like. Bear in mind that this will dictate what kind of picture you'll end up with. When we do stars and stuff, it will have to have similar effects.

Okay, now we're going to make some cool star-kinda-thingymajigs. They're not astronomically accurate, but let's see how it goes. First you want to grab a normal round brush, with 100% hardness. Whatever size you want will do. Make a few dots around the page whereever you want them (they could even be on the rainbow!). Now do the same thing as what you did on the rainbow. Right click on the layer (the dots should all be on one layer, but separate from anything else) Drop shadow won't do anything, so skip that. Inside shadow will look good with a bevel and emboss scheme would look good. Choose a nice colour that compliments the rainbow for an outer glow.

Now we're going to make a sort of misty effect. It's not going to look like a nebular, it's just going to add some detail to the pic. It serves to purpose whatsoever! What you're going to want to do, is get the brush tool with 100% hardness, but turn down the transparency to about 40%. Now make one big dot, about 270 pixels in my case. Now smudge it out in a simple pattern. If you make it too complex, it will ruin the image, and you'll have to either delete the layer or make major adjustments. Now, back to the blending options! I used the ones below, but mewss around and see what you can get.

There ya go!

 

[DeletedUser]

sorry, but it really doesn't look all that great. Maybe if the shape of the rainbow was different...

 

[DeletedUser]

The goal of a tutorial is for you to learn new things, not to have a nice "finished" art ;-)