Deborah Woehr

Sitepoint is offering their Photoshop Anthology ebook as a free download for the next thirteen days. If you’re looking for a book that will help you utilize Photoshop in designing web pages, this book has plenty of information (296-pages worth) to help you create stunning effects. Here’s a taste of what you’ll get.

* Design attractive web graphics
* Touch up photographs for web use
* Create web site mockups using Photoshop
* Improve your digital workflow
* Master menus, buttons and background tiles
* Use nondestructive editing techniques

Go to Sitepoint to learn more information about this book and to download it before time runs out. A word of warning: It seems as though they are getting inundated with requests. So, if you don’t receive the link to the ebook right away, don’t panic and think that you’ve been phished. It may take them a full day to send you the link, but you will get it.

I was browsing through the NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) tutorials this morning and came across a tutorial for Smart Gradients. By the way, you’ll find tons of great tutorials in this members-only website. Anyway, this tutorial involved creating smart objects, and then creating wavy gradients with the freeform warp tool. The first image is the result of my initial test.

After I save my first image, I decided to experiment with the freeform warp tool to see just how far I could push it.

Gradient 1

I liked the color combination and the somewhat 3D look of this design.

Gradient 2

This took me all of two seconds to create, once I set up the color scheme.

Gradient 3

This design was created by distorting the radial blur.

I’ve started a collection of tutorials for Photoshop late last year so I can learn how to do everything from creating snazzy web buttons to illustrations. This morning, I found a neat collection from Smashing Magazine that covers a wide gamut of subjects and techniques. They’ve also included a list of resources at the end.

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials - Best Of