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I am trying to recreate the attached graphic I seen online for my upcoming wedding. I have used both the pencil and brush tools to draw two interlocking hearts to no avail. The problem I have is that my pic has too many jaggies. Is there a way to make this smoothly. I wanted to create a large 8x10 one.
Are you familiar with drawing paths? Using the pen tool and setting up an oval brush with shape dynamics may be the easiest way to go...if you are familiar with the tools. Here's a brief sample...
If you aren't familiar with the tools, do not fear, the heart is one of the best shapes possible on which to learn. I'm off to work away from my computer this morning, but if you need help, I'd be glad to create a tutorial this evening when I get home...if someone else hasn't done it already
Each side of the heart is made by stroking a path with a brush and then using Layer Styles to give it dimensions. The path is made with the Pen Tool (1) and Paths selected in the Tool Bar Options (2). Open a new practice document at least 360 X 360 px. In order to make this little drawing easier, activate the Grid... View > Show > Grid (Command/Control ?). Now pick a point on the grid above center vertically and centered horizontally. With the pen tool, click on that point and continue to hold down the mouse button and drag upward 1?. If you hold down the shift key as you drag, the handle which you are dragging out will be constrained to 90?.
Release the mouse button and move the Pen tool over 1.5? on the same horizontal grid line on which you first clicked to make your Anchor point. (Click to create an anchor point, drag to create handles.) Click, hold, and drag down 1? using the shift key to constrain the mouse movement. You how have two anchor points with handles and can see the curve of the path you are creating.
Each side of the heart only requires 3 anchor points. For the third, go back to the vertical line of the grid on which you placed your first anchor point but two inches below it. Click, hold, and drag down about 3/4?. That?s all there is to creating the path which will be one side of a heart!
If you want to change one of the curves, you use the Direct Selection tool which looks like an arrow with a white point. You can click on an anchor point and move it or a handle and change the curvature. I always draw with one hand on the mouse and the other hovering over the Command (Control) and shift keys. With the pen active, you can hold down the Command (Control) key and the pen turns into the direct selection tool. You can draw very rapidly this way.
Now that you have a path created, the objective is to stroke it with a brush. To do so you have to adjust the brush so it acts a bit like a calligraphic brush, an angled oval. Select the brush tool and open the Brushes palette. Click on Brush Tip Shape and you can try the settings which I?ve used in the image below. The only other setting I used for this brush was the Minimum Diameter (5%) which I set by checking the box next to the Shape Dynamics and then clicking on the words to make that window available.
Once you have the brush set up, first create a new layer in the Layers Palette, then go back to your pen tool, point at the path and control click/right click to get the contextual menu and choose Stroke Path. When the Stroke Path dialog comes up, make sure the Tool is Brush, check simulate pressure and Click OK. There you have one half a heart!
For the second half, in the Paths palette, click the Create New Path button (next to the little trash can at the bottom of the Paths palette.) This will allow you to create a new path isolated from the first. Once you have the second path drawn, move the whole path upward and to the side slightly by using the Path Selection Tool. Create a new layer and stroke it! Now you have both sides of the heart on separate layers for easy moving, adjusting etc. To give them a three dimensional effect use layer styles...bevel and emboss etc.
great tutorial Welles. It hope it helps beedyb220 as much as it did me. I am now semi-confident with Paths. I tried a few other tutorials the other day, and now this one.
beedyb220, the Photoshop Bible will help a lot. I used to get so irritated with the tools until I got some basic Photoshop concepts into my head thanks to the Bible. Adobe's manual is pretty poor because there are no real examples to learn from, so tutorials, I think, are the best, but take your time with them and read carefully.
Bottom line: never underestimate the power of the keyboard. Shortcuts will save u heaps of time and frustration, so it's good to get into a habit to use them early on, I reckon.
Drawing in Photoshop CS 
Linear Mode
