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A Great Retro Pattern

by Matt Kloskowski
ExtremePhotoshop.com

Hi and welcome back. If you follow my columns here at the NAPP at all you know that I
love retro-style effects. This week we're going to create a great retro pattern that you
can use in most retro style illustrations. The great part about it is that it is so easy it
should be a crime. Here goes...
Step 1: Create a new canvas in 500 x 500 pixel Photoshop. Next, be sure you have your
rulers turned on (Ctrl/Cmd + R) and make sure Snapping is turned on as well (View >
Snap). Then drag two guides out - one vertically and one horizontally. Notice how they
snap into place as you get toward the center of the canvas.

Step 2: Select the Gradient Tool. Notice the gradient settings area up on the options
bar. First, select the Diamond Gradient. Then Click on the small arrow to expand the
gradient settings and pick the "Blue, Red, Yellow" gradient.

Step 3: Now, position the gradient tool in the center of the two guides and drag
outward to the edge of the canvas. You should have something like this.

Step 4: Great, now the fun part. Click the adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the
layers palette and select Posterize. This will bring up a small Posterize dialog box. Enter
4 for the Levels setting and click OK. You should have something like the second image
below.

Step 5: Cool huh. No need to stop here though. Go back and double click on the
adjustment layer. Change the settings to a larger number to produce a different effect.
Here I used 9.

Step 6: Again, no need to stop here. Create a new layer above the others. This time
select the Radial Gradient option and drag the same way you did in step 3. You should
have something like this.

Step 7: Repeat step 4 again with various settings to produce some more cool effects. I
used 7 and 12 here.

Step 8: Finally, here is an example where the Angle Gradient was used in the same way.

Step 9: Just add some retro silhouettes in there and you have a funky colored retro
illustration.

As always, feel free to email me with any questions at ExtremePhotoshop@yahoo.com or

stop by my website for more tutorials (www.Extremephotoshop.com). Until next time...

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