Photoshop CS Tutorial - Drawing Logos with the Pen Tool

[Ripper]

This is a Adobe Photoshop video tutorial that will walk you through the basics of redrawing logos that you might need for your projects, this video is only useful if you have Adobe Photoshop.

Click here for video (http://www.ncrypt.net/touchscreen/cqc/tutorial/Drawing%20with%20the%20Pen/Drawing%20with%20the%20Pen.html)

This video is approx. 20 minutes long and in three parts that will play one after another and has audio so I'll be walking you through it the best I can..the video may take 10-20 seconds to start playing depending on your connection.

After watching this and with some practice you should be able to recreate most logos from an image or scanned magazine or manual without to many problems..practice makes perfect.

Using the pen tool it is also possible to draw custom shapes and interfaces you can't draw easily with the normal tools..this tool makes it simple to draw curves and keep lines flowing.

**I would make more of these videos but this one is about 100MB and just teachs the basics..they also take a while to plan and make so people can understand, I have to go in slo-mo :-)


Here is an example of what you can do, you would start with this UPS logo as an example

http://www.ncrypt.net/touchscreen/cqc/tutorial/Drawing%20with%20the%20Pen/ups-before.jpg

And here is what you could make after learning to use the pen tool, basic example but it can be changed 1 million ways once you trace it and have the line art.

http://www.ncrypt.net/touchscreen/cqc/tutorial/Drawing%20with%20the%20Pen/ups-after.jpg

And heres another slight variation, these changes can be made in seconds once you have the artwork in photoshop.

http://www.ncrypt.net/touchscreen/cqc/tutorial/Drawing%20with%20the%20Pen/ups-custom.jpg

Here is the photoshop file I used while creating the video if you need it Click Here (http://www.ncrypt.net/touchscreen/cqc/tutorial/Drawing with the Pen/UPS-logo-example.zip)

(http://www.ncrypt.net/touchscreen/cqc/tutorial/Drawing)

[MikeW]

This really makes me want to get Photoshop. Is Photoshop CS2 the program to get? I've seen different versions and I want to make sure that I'm shopping for the correct program, especially at the prices I've seen.

MikeW

[ellisr63]

Thanks Ripper, Another great tutorial.
Ron

[ellisr63]

This really makes me want to get Photoshop. Is Photoshop CS2 the program to get? I've seen different versions and I want to make sure that I'm shopping for the correct program, especially at the prices I've seen.

MikeW
It is the newest version and also the one I use :-)

[MikeW]

Are any of the Photoshop users here using any third-party plugin tools? I was looking around on the net for some pricing info and I saw a bundle which also came with a program called "Alien Skin Eye Candy 5: Impact". Part of the description for this program is:

"Eye Candy 5: Impact is a collection of ten Photoshop filters which create chrome, brushed metal, glass, bevels, shadows, reflections and more....."

Some of the templates I've seen users here create contain a "brushed metal" look. Can this be done within Photoshop itself or do you need a third-party program like this?

MikeW

[Ripper]

Some of the templates I've seen users here create contain a "brushed metal" look. Can this be done within Photoshop itself or do you need a third-party program like this?
MikeW
You can make brushed metal in photoshop without any of those third party plugins, the plugins are convenient for new users to get certain effects but the same can be done with *styles*...simply what styles are is settings made on a layer for bevel, coler,, shadows, gradients etc that can be saved and applied at any time with one click...here are a few examples of free tutorials to make metals http://www.refdev.com/tutorials/Photoshop/Metal/

**I don't actually use any of those Eye Candy plugins or anything like that, everything is done with *styles* which are essentially the same thing that I have created myself or I have taken another style from the net and altered it slightly and saved as my own.

Many free tutorials for photoshop on the net to learn, you wont learn everything overnight but with practice you will be making cool stuff in no time at all.

**In part 3 of the video you will see me applying the styles I am talking about, a small window pops open with 100 or so default ones I have loaded that I can use instantly and as well change them slightly to make what I need.

Last but not least Photoshop is expensive but in my opinion is worth every dollar, it can be used for alot more things than making stuff like this..if you take digital photos it can be used for editing them and removing small flaws such as Red eye, Many cheaper graphics programs can also do this but Photoshop is basically the Swiss Army knife of them all and the amount of tutorials on the internet is never ending....previously I posted hundreds of tutorials I have collected over the years in one archive to make many common effects people want, I'll try to post that link or just search for posts by me and it should be easy to find.

Here they are here http://www.charmedquark.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=1085

[ellisr63]

A lot of excellent info on that site :-)

[Ripper]

Yes its a good site, the thing is with Photoshop you just search on google for photoshop+tutorial or photoshop+metal and you will find thousands of tutorials...I'll admit I have bought a few books over the years but they are nothing compared to the free tutorials you can find on the Internet.

I would estimate 99.9% of what I have learned about photoshop and put to use has been found freely on the Internet tutorials, its an expensive program but I have faithfully upgraded since 1995 and its paid itself off many times over....dammit I wonder when I start gaining *Adobe Points* for bragging about them so much ;-)

[ellisr63]

Yes its a good site, the thing is with Photoshop you just search on google for photoshop+tutorial or photoshop+metal and you will find thousands of tutorials...I'll admit I have bought a few books over the years but they are nothing compared to the free tutorials you can find on the Internet.

I would estimate 99.9% of what I have learned about photoshop and put to use has been found freely on the Internet tutorials, its an expensive program but I have faithfully upgraded since 1995 and its paid itself off many times over....dammit I wonder when I start gaining *Adobe Points* for bragging about them so much ;-)
I had searched before and not found much... so I purchased 2 books, the link you posted showed me more of what I needed to know than both books put together.

[znelbok]

Can the video be downloaded. I only have ISDN and hence cantreally do video. If I can download it and play it later it would suit me much better (and I can download it at work then too)

Mick

[Ripper]

You can download it here Mick

http://www.ncrypt.net/touchscreen/cqc/download/pen.zip

Its 100MB and after you download, extract the contents to your deskop and open the .html file "Drawing with the Pen.html" to view the video..everything will be in one folder when you extract.

**I will leave this up for about 1 week and will then delete it to save space

[lpott6]

Ripper,
Thanks for all the PS tutorials and also for all the generoisty with sharing your graphics. Much appreciated.
:-)

[MikeW]

I don't know what I just got myself into, but I just pulled the trigger and ordered Photoshop. I'm just hoping I can make things look half as nice as some of the other members of this forum.

MikeW

[ellisr63]

I don't know what I just got myself into, but I just pulled the trigger and ordered Photoshop. I'm just hoping I can make things look half as nice as some of the other members of this forum.

MikeW
Don't worry.... If I can do it anyone can.

[Ripper]

I was just gonna mention..look at some of the first thing Elissr drew with photoshop and now look a couple of months later, takes practice of course and have to read tutorials but you will catch on and learn as you go along..its not something you will learn overnight but their are thousands of tutorials available for free on the internet.

The "Photoshop WOW" books are a good book for beginners and teach you alof of the basics.

[ellisr63]

I was just gonna mention..look at some of the first thing Elissr drew with photoshop and now look a couple of months later, takes practice of course and have to read tutorials but you will catch on and learn as you go along..its not something you will learn overnight but their are thousands of tutorials available for free on the internet.

The "Photoshop WOW" books are a good book for beginners and teach you alof of the basics.

With a LOT of help from Allen. :-)
Thanks again Allen.

[znelbok]

Thanks for making that available for download

Mick

[TLCNORM]

Is there a video on the way for a beginner starting out with CQC?

[Ripper]

I had plans to attempt this one day but lately have been very busy with work and the NHL playoffs..its over now and my team lost after and amazing comeback :-(

I do plan to hopefully attempt something like this in the future but it comes down to spare time and the amount of work it takes and of course the size of the videos that have to be made for people to understand many of the key points...can't give any definite timeframe because of my schedule but it is something I hope I can do when I have more spare time.

[ellisr63]

Bump for an excellent tutorial

[znelbok]

I finally got to try this and read some other tuts as well.

I would like to add that you can easily use the channels tab in the layer window to do the same thing. Just drag the small previes windo onto the dotten circle at the bottom of the pane (Load channel as selection) and then layer via copy.

While it did not work with the ups logo because of the shading, doing it with a B&W logo form a manual (like a PDF manual - just did a runco one), it is so much faster than using the pen. Dont forget to invert the selection though

Mick

[Ripper]

Yes using channels will work great for black/white logos but like you mentioned you might have problems with shaded stuff and your selection isn't accurate.

I basically wanted to show people(like Ron :0) how to use the pen tool to make accurate selections..the Pen tool is one of the hardest things to learn but is very powerful and later if you decide to try Illustrator its good to understand the basics of using the Pen Tool.

**BTW most logos when I make them I also get them from the .pdf manuals :-)