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Use the Photoshop Line Tool to Create Guide Lines!The Photoshop line tool will help you to measure you drawings so that you can calculate the correct size, distance, and outline. This is because, regardless of what drawing you’re doing, You will need to look at how the objects behave in space.Let me explain with one simple question. Have you ever used a ruler before? I bet the answer is definitely a yes! As you have used a ruler, what advantages have you discovered from using one? For starters, you can draw straighter lines. As well, you can measure exactly how big the object is supposed to be. Moreover, you can create guide lines to guide your entire composition! 1. Locating the Photoshop Line ToolWhen you look at the main tool box, look for a simple straight line. It is located under the type tool and to the right of the pen tool.
If you hold onto the line tool icon, it brings up other shaping tools that create specific shapes such as the rectangles, eclipses, and polygons. But we’re only interested in the line tool at this moment. For your next instruction, I’m going to ask you to start up a new layer as we’re going to use the Photoshop line tool to create simple guide lines. But first, let me walkthrough the different types of guide lines that are possible. 2. Knowing the guide line options availableAs you click on the Photoshop line tool, several options open up on the top. Some of them you should be familiar with by now such as opacity and mode. From there, there are three options that will determine how your Photoshop line tool will behave.
From left to right, the options are: shape layers, paths, and fill pixels. They look like boxes that have different characteristics. For instance, the fill pixels option is a solid box whereas the other options are an outline of a box with four little squared corners. What those boxes mean is that you can manipulate the actually shape of the layer when you’re using the shape layers option, or create a shape on top the layer to mask the underlying object with different color blends. We’re going to start simple and use the fill pixel tool as we are only interested in making guide lines. 3. Creating those important guide lines!In your newly created layer, I want you to just get a feel for the line tool. Draw several lines in freehand mode. See if you can control it to get a specific angle.Then, use the shift key on the keyboard. When you hold the shift key down, you can lock the line tool into specific angles within a 45 degree separation. With that in mind, create a Cartesian plain. The plain is a cross where the x axis meets the y axis. Then, you will sketch the guide lines that protrude from the y the axis. Just as a reminder, the y axis moves from top to bottom while the x axis moves from left to right.
Once you’ve done that, open up a picture. It can be any picture but I highly recommend something that has a sense of perspective like an overhead photo of a city. What you’re going to do is to ‘trace’ the perspective lines of the photo so they all meet at one point. This will get you started on looking at one-point perspective. Of course, I will teach you the complexities of perspective once you have understood how to make guide lines not only in Photoshop, but in other graphical programs as well since guide lines are the basic tools to setting up perspective in your picture. 4. Learning more!The reason that I asked you to start the guide lines with the Photoshop line tool on a separate layer is to get you into the mindset of incorporating guide lines in all your compositions. You may have also noticed that you can assign blend modes to the line. Just as a refresher, these are modes that dictate how colors behave based on the interaction between the top layer colors and the underlying layer. Plus, as it is a separate layer, you can remove it at will when you’re done or you can assign blend modes to the guide lines to help you draw. The benefit is that it lets organize the perspective without being cluttered up with too many guide lines. Moreover, you can even do a perspective grid with the guide lines! Use the shift key to create a grid. Then, you can distort the layer by hitting edit > transform > perspective to form a perspective grid which will help you judge object size! Creating perspective grids are very important in 2d digital art. As you don’t have a ruler, your grid and your guide lines will form the backbone of any perspective drawings in the 2d digital art world. You can even save the grid layer as a separate file and then import it to another picture. This saves time as you don’t need to do the grid all over again in a new painting. So take your time to do a nice grid! It’s a lot to digest because you’re building on existing concepts in Photoshop such as blend modes and layers alongside the Photoshop line tool. However, stay motivated to learn and these concepts will become second nature!
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