Adobe Photoshop Basics

Exercise 2 - Straight Lines

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 7. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

With the painting tools you can constrain your strokes to straight lines.

To make connected straight lines lines click once, then move the cursor, hold the shift key down, and click again. If you keep the shift key held down after the second click, you can continue clicking to make connected straight lines.

To make perfectly horizontal or vertical lines, click the mouse cursor, then before moving the cursor, hold the shift key down while keeping the mouse button pressed. While the shift key is down, you can drag the mouse either left or right, up or down, and it will stick in a straight line until you let up on the shift key.

This takes some practice.

Try to duplicate the image shown here by practicing these key combinations. Don't forget you can use the grids and guides to aid with alignment. This file is named lesson7e2.gif in your zip file.

Next > Exercise 3 - Painted Flower