Methods for drawing straight lines. How to draw a straight line in Photoshop: regular, broken or at an angle

IN Adobe Photoshop There are a huge number of built-in functions that can be used to create various objects, retouch photos and more. A novice user who has just begun to comprehend the basics of this program would do well to consider the problem of how to draw a straight line in Photoshop. And those who have been in this environment for a long time may be interested in remembering the basic ways of drawing a straight line. One method or another will be useful in individual cases.

How to draw a straight line in Photoshop?

There are many ways and techniques of drawing different lines and elements. But before you draw a straight line in Photoshop, you need to keep in mind that there are three main and quick ways line images: Brush, Pen, and Line tools. Despite their simplicity, it can be assumed that everyone has their own drawing technique and each user chooses the tool himself, guided by his preferences and the task that faces him.

Brush tool

The simplest and most understandable method is drawing using the Pencil and Brush tools in Photoshop. It is worth keeping in mind that these tools draw and do not create some kind of object, so the image of the lines will be on the selected layer itself. You can avoid this situation and draw the line on a separately created layer. In this case, you can edit the brush mark without restrictions without harming other layers.

To draw a line, just select the Brush or Pencil tool. Then click on the left mouse button and use the cursor to set the direction of the line. In addition, you can use the right mouse button to open an auxiliary window with settings, where you can select the type of brush, determine the hardness and shape of the tip.

A straight line can be drawn using the tool in question using the method of multiple magnifications of the image. The closer the image is, the greater the chances of drawing a more or less straight line manually. A perfectly straight line can be created by holding down the Shift key and using the same Brush/Pencil tool. By activating the right tool, hold down the left mouse button and the Shift key - we observe the construction of a straight line, controlled by the cursor.

Line tool

There is another way to draw a straight line using the Line Tool in Photoshop. The quick access panel includes a block that combines a number of geometric tools, including the one in question. The created lines will be distributed into new layers, which will be formed automatically after constructing a straight line.

Before drawing a straight line in Photoshop, you need to select the tool of the same name and click on the left mouse button at the point where the beginning of this element will be. To complete the construction, you need to click on the LMB again.

The convenience of this method is that lines can be combined into a common layer and provide full editing of a group of constructed elements. The merged layer, after finishing work on it, can be rasterized, but it will no longer be possible to work with the merged elements in vector graphics format. You can format a rasterized layer in the same way as others. Another advantage is the fact that you can edit the lines themselves without losing quality. The vector line editing menu is located at the top of the program - its header. Here you can set the line color, its outline, shape and thickness.

Pen tool

A universal tool for creating shapes of varying complexity. With this function and the multiple magnification method, you can select new figure hard-to-reach areas in the image. So, for example, you can draw both straight lines in Photoshop and curves. Mastering this tool is extremely important - it is used everywhere in many creative works when you need to cut out an image or create a new one graphic interpretation.

How the Brush and Pen Tools Work Together

You can easily draw with a pen straight line in Photoshop. To do this, you must first select the "Brush" tool, where using the right mouse button, a dialog box opens and the desired hardness, size and color are entered. future line. Now you should activate the Pen tool in the quick access panel (in addition to the regular pen, there are other types of the Pen tool in the block, but we won’t need them). Let's put it first reference point in the place where the beginning of the line should be. Then we put another point - the end of the line.

The Pen tool does not create a work object, but only a path. In order for the user to turn the path into a real object, he needs to stroke the path. The Paths panel is located by default in the lower right corner, where layers are usually located. In this window, select the "Contour" tab, where you can see our work contour. Right-click on the outline and select "Stroke Outline". In the Photoshop window that appears, the brush is in the box by default - you don’t need to change anything, just confirm the action.

In black and white graphics there is a minimum of means of image transmission - a dot, a spot and a line. Today we will try to learn about the properties and expressive features of a simple line - the mark that a pencil leaves when we touch it to the paper.

A line drawn along a ruler is called a “drawing line”; most often it is straight and thin. Artists do not use it because of its monotony. The line in the artists’ drawings is unusual, it is “living”, that is, dynamic, changing, elusive. Drawings made with a simple line are usually called linear; they convey the silhouette and contour of the depicted object.

(A. Matisse “Girl with Flowing Hair”)

Lines have their own characteristics; they can be thin, thick, wavy, swift, broken, light and airy. The line carries information about the image: the artist cannot do without it in his work. It is used by sculptures, architects, painters and designers.

Look at the works famous artist Van Gogh. How he, with the help of various lines (short and long, thin and thick, rough and graceful), conveys space and mood in the landscape.

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To better master the capabilities of a line, let's do an exercise on types of lines.

You will need:

• 2 sheets of thick paper for graphics, A-4 or A-3 format;
• simple pencils of different softness (HB, B, B2, B4);
• eraser;
• planer or breadboard knife for sharpening pencils.

Stages of work:

1. Draw several straight lines on the sheet, using pencils of different softness so that the lines are not the same. In the picture horizontal lines create the impression of peace, balance, silence.

1. Draw straight vertical lines and diagonal ones nearby. Vertical lines create a feeling of height, strength, energy, harmony. Diagonal – ascending, active lines. They give the drawings aspiration and dynamism. Parallel – rigor, harmony, coherence.

Using diagonal lines you can perfectly depict rain and gloomy skies.

1. Now draw broken lines. Curved, broken lines are used to convey certain emotions, objects with sharp and prickly shapes.

1. Draw several types of wavy lines side by side, and try to press the pencil differently to make the lines vary in thickness. With the help of such calm and soft lines you can depict clouds, water, snowstorms, flowers and leaves.

1. On the second sheet, draw your fairy world plants, flowers and insects using only a line. But your lines should not be simple, but straight and wavy, thin and thick, light and airy, in a word - “ LIVE».

Lesson from teacher Anna Malysheva

Lines, as well as other geometric elements, are an integral part of the work of a Photoshop master. Lines are used to create grids, contours, and segments. various shapes, skeletons of complex objects are built.

Today's article will be entirely devoted to how you can create lines in Photoshop.

As we know from the school geometry course, lines can be straight, broken and curved.

Straight

To create a straight line in Photoshop, there are several options using various tools. All the main construction methods are given in one of the existing lessons.

Therefore, we will not linger in this section, but will immediately move on to the next one.

Broken

A polyline consists of several straight segments, and can be closed, forming a polygon. Based on this, there are a couple of ways to build it.

1. Unclosed polyline

As we said earlier, such a line is a polygon. There are two ways to construct polygons - using the appropriate tool from the group "Figure", or by creating a selection free form followed by a stroke.

• Figure.

  When using this method we get a geometric figure with equal angles and the parties.

  

  To obtain a line (contour) directly, you need to adjust the stroke, called "Stroke". In our case, it will be a solid stroke of a given size and color.

  

  After disabling the fill

  

  we will get the required result.

  

  Such a figure can be deformed and rotated using the same "Free Transformation".

• Straight line lasso.

  

  Using this tool you can build polygons of any configuration. After placing several points, a selected area is created.

  

  This selection needs to be circled, for which there is a corresponding function that is called by pressing RMB on the canvas.

  

  In the settings you can choose the color, size and position of the stroke.

  

  

Curve

Curves have the same parameters as broken lines, that is, they can be closed or open. You can draw a curved line in several ways: with tools "Feather" And "Lasso" using shapes or selections.

1. Unclosed

Such a line can only be drawn "Per"(with a contour outline), or “by hand”. In the first case, the lesson, the link to which is above, will help us, and in the second, only a steady hand.

2. Closed

• Lasso.

  

  This tool allows you to draw closed curves of any shape (segments). Lasso creates a selection, which, to obtain a line, must be outlined in a known way.

  

• Oval area.

  

  IN in this case the result of our actions will be a circle of regular or elliptical shape.

  

  To deform it, it is enough to call "Free Transform" (CTRL+T) and, after pressing RMB, select the appropriate additional function.

  

  On the grid that appears, we will see markers, by pulling which you can achieve the desired result.

  

  It is worth noting that in this case the effect also extends to the line thickness.

  

• Figure.

  Let's use the tool "Ellipse" and, using the settings described above (as for a polygon), create a circle.

  

  After deformation we get the following result:

  

  As you can see, the line thickness remained unchanged.

This concludes the lesson on creating lines in Photoshop. We learned how to create straight, broken and curved lines different ways using various program tools.

These skills should not be neglected, since they are the ones that help build geometric figures, contours, various meshes and frames in Photoshop.

You will learn how to draw doodling when you understand its components - the basic elements that make up any drawing. The first lesson consists of exercises with straight lines that make up geometric patterns. The most important thing when working with repeating lines is the distance between the lines and their thickening. In the second lesson we will look at curved, wavy lines.

Most doodles and zentangles are based on curved lines. In this course we study doodling for beginners, the patterns of these lessons are simple, but they are important because these are the basic building blocks that create the foundation for further knowledge of increasingly complex patterns. And the basis of complex patterns will be our same lines and dots :)

For this activity you will need paper, preferably unlined. Regular printing paper is suitable for practice. And for the final drawings, you can keep a separate notebook with thick paper or a folder with drawing paper. Thick paper will be especially important at those stages when we include watercolor painting in the lessons.

Also, for drawing you will need one liner (0.2 - 0.3) (or a thin marker, or gel pen). If you don’t have any of this at hand, and you want to practice right now, then start drawing with any pencil or regular ballpoint pen.

Exercise 1.

In this exercise we will work on drawing wavy lines at specific intervals. Here the ability to control the distance between lines is developed, and to make certain places changes that will ultimately create an interesting optical effect.

1. Let's draw curved line, add parallel lines, gradually increasing the step between them.

2-5. Draw a wave with deep bends, add lines on each side at an equal distance. The lines are equally spaced, so the design remains flat. We will use this technique in the coming lessons when we draw different variants ribbons

exercise 1

1. This step of the exercise is similar to the previous ones, but here we create not a flat one, but three-dimensional drawing. We start with an arcuate line with a slight curvature. We draw the next line in parallel, but in the area of ​​curvature (this area is marked in red), we draw the line closer to the first. An optical recess is formed. In the next steps, we slightly increase the distance between the lines on the “wave”, leaving a small distance at the “deepening”. This results in a curved plane.

Exercise 2.

In this exercise we will learn how to doodling with an optical effect. Here is one of the options for drawing volumetric “tubes”. As you can see, even without special effects - shadows and highlights - the grooves look voluminous, which is achieved simply by curved lines.

1-3. The base is defined by a wavy line. Then you can go in two ways: draw several base lines at once, and then fill in the resulting paths (as in my example), or draw 2 lines, fill the space between them, and then add 1 line and, accordingly, 1 tube each.

4-6. After the base lines outlining the boundaries of the “tubes” have been created, we begin to draw parallel lines in the shape of a semicircle. Drawn transversely, they give the tube a roundness.

Here is an example of such linear drawings. The interesting optical effect created by curved lines is popular not only in zenart, but is also very characteristic of the op art style, the main concept of which is optical illusions.

Exercise 3.

In this block we make different thickenings, approximately the same as on straight lines in.

1. Here we show how you can create a ribbon effect by thickening the line one by one, then the other.
2. -3. Draw some wavy lines. First, work on widening the lines on one side. Then, based on the same parallel lines, make a pattern with different thickenings.

Next, we will work with the same base of several parallel wavy lines and make a mesh pattern. One of the lessons is entirely devoted to “grids”, which must be present in any doodling course for beginners. Schemes of such patterns are basic. The mesh pattern is one of the main patterns for constructing an ornament.

1. Draw several curved parallel lines. Between them we place diagonal straight lines in a checkerboard pattern.
2. We soften the corners with lines, as if cutting them off.
3. We paint over the voids formed in the corners. The result was a grid of straight and curved lines. This pattern is good for zentangle balls and can be transformed and detailed in different ways.

Exercise 4. This exercise is more experimental, since you should not repeat the pattern, but create your own fragments of patterns. The diagrams here are for sample purposes only, as an illustration of the task.

1-3. Draw straight and curved lines from one point

4-5. Draw straight and curved lines from different points. We connect the lines to get the effect of bulges and indentations. Experiment to understand what effects you get and how they can be used in your compositions.

1. We divide the area of ​​the drawing into sectors. In each sector we place a point anywhere from which we draw straight and curved lines.

We have done several exercises that will help you understand how to draw doodling. Now it remains to consolidate everything you have learned in the final drawing. If you still have some strength left, you can do it right now, or put it off for another time to make a beautiful drawing with new strength and neatly. I advise you to always do the final compositions before moving on to the next lesson. At the end, you will have 25 drawings, which you will use to track the process and see the result!

Final composition “Doodling with wavy lines”

We create a composition using several used elements.

For convenience, we limit the space to the outer boundary. You can draw it by hand in a free style, draw it using a ruler, or just take some object and outline it. In my case, I had my phone at hand.

Then you can divide the area into sectors and place elements in the sectors. Or you can start from a certain place and move forward, filling the entire area with patterns. Proceed as you like and try to include different worked out versions of the 1st and 2nd lessons into the composition.

That's all for today. I hope you found this lesson interesting and useful. You can send your final compositions to the proposed news on the wall of our club on VKontakte http://vk.com/zenarts, of which I am also a member.

Good day, dear readers of my blog. It would seem, what does it cost to draw a straight line in Photoshop? Hold down Shift and there you go. Nevertheless, this can be done in as many as three ways. Everyone's result will be different.

In this article you will learn three ways to draw a straight line in Photoshop. Which filter to use to create a wave. How to do this with the help of another interesting instrument. I'll show you how to achieve a dotted line and draw under certain angle.

A lot of information awaits you. Shall we get started?

Line Tool

First, I'll show you how to use a tool that's designed to create straight lines. In this place you can have a rectangle, oval, ellipse or polygon. Just hold down the left mouse button for a few seconds to open a menu with additional tools.

First things first. One of the most important parameters– thickness. Thanks to the line, you can even draw rectangles. You just need to make it fatter.

Next comes “Fill” and “Stroke”. Click on the color block to the left of the inscriptions and select a shade. If you want to make a stroke, enter its width. Now, my screenshot shows the option without it. The no color icon looks like this. Gray line crossed out in red.

You can see the settings and the result in this screenshot. It's not very visible, but the thickness here is 30 pixels. On big picture 30 pixels may look like a modest stripe. Everything needs to be adjusted to your own dimensions.

This is what the line will look like if you select red for the stroke color.

The next button will allow you to create a dotted stroke.

If you reduce the thickness and remove the fill, you will just get a dotted line.

Here you can align the stroke to the inner edge, outer edge, or center of your outline.

And round the corners. True, it will not be so noticeable.

If you press Shift while you're drawing a line, Photoshop will automatically create a straight line. Horizontal or vertical. Depending on where you are taking her.

If you need a line at a certain angle, then the easiest way is to look at what the information window shows and adjust it manually, pointing it in a certain direction.

Well, now I’ll show you another one.

Brush Tool

I drew these rectangles using lines drawn with a brush.

Choose the type and size that suits your brush line.

Place a dot at the expected beginning of the line, hold down Shift and left-click where the strip should end.

There are two lines in front of you. The yellow one was painted using the Line tool, and the purple one was painted with a brush.

How to make a wave

No matter what tool you used, do wavy line The easiest way is to use a filter. Go to this category, find “Distortion” and select “Wave”.

Based on the preview picture, you will quickly understand what's what and how to set it up. The amplitude should be approximately the same. If it doesn’t work, you can just click on “Randomize” until a suitable one appears.

The last applied filter is always quickly accessible. I apply it to the layer with yellow stripe, drawn by the tool.

This is the result I got. As you can see, it is different.

Pen Tool

To be honest, I still can’t use a pen professionally. I know that you can draw anything with it: smoothly, quickly, fun and cool, but it takes me a lot of time and the result is not always at the level I expected. And yet I can even draw straight lines with a pen. It's worse with curves, but I'll try. I select “Feather”.

I put a dot, then a second one. While I haven't released the mouse button, I adjust the smoothness.

I do the same thing with each new point.

After all the manipulations are completed, right-click and select “Stroke outline” from the menu that appears.

You can choose several tools: pencil, brush, stamp, pattern, and so on. Now let this one be a brush.

I press the right mouse button again and select “Delete outline”.

This is the result I got.

Well, don’t forget that you can always use your collage making skills. Read the article about how to take a line from any picture and insert it into your image.

If you want to learn how to professionally use the pen and other tools found in Photoshop. I can offer you a course " Photoshop for beginners in video format ».

Lessons created by professionals will teach you everything you need to know about this program. You will save a lot of time searching for answers to this or that question. Ideas on how to complete the task will spontaneously appear in your head.

By the way, do you know how to make sure that you always have interesting needs related to Photoshop? This could take your relationship with this program to the next level. All you need is to be passionate about web design. People of this profession never sit idle. There are always clients, projects and new tasks.

There is a job for everyone, and you can do what you really like and bring good money. Read the article about or. Stop inventing tasks for yourself, let someone else pay money for your time.

Don't know where to start? Take the course Commercial Web Design Basics " Try a few free lessons, this will help you understand yourself and understand whether you are ready to explore new horizons.

OK it's all over Now. It's up to you. Decide when you are ready and start conquering new heights. If you liked this article, subscribe to the newsletter and take one step closer to your cherished goal every day.

Learn as much as you can about the Internet, write your success story, stop sitting around waiting. Take action. Your dream is realized by others every day. Today they are doing what you have been wanting for so long. Do they think about preparedness? The right moment is right now. Don't miss it. You have the strength to do this.

I wish you good luck. Until next time.