Expert: Glen Demers - 8/20/2010

Question
Hi Glen,

This time now I am having a bit of a problem, with for an example making a red circle and blue circle and putting then together so I have a circle half red and the other half blue. I have actually done this before and trying this again I am getting the hang of it I thought though I think I may have lost how I did this from in the past from what I remember I used the layer copy for this starting out with a red circle using the layer copy and using the rectangle marquee and making another half of the, well placing the rectangle marquee to make the blue on the red circle, but notice another brush size the one I got to make the red circle.

I make a circle using the paint brush by placing the brush in the middle of a document the brush size 917 px and the document 1000 x 1000 px and I am just clicking and clicking on the mouse to get the red circle and I would have to do this again to make the blue for the circle.

For example: what I am trying to do is very much like the Pepsi emblem logo. A circle half red and half blue and maybe a white strip of white in the middle. Could you help me with something that I have had in the past and want it back. Remember how to do this as I have said I have done this in the past and successful. What I have mentioned above of how I did this is from what I remember I think of how I did this. Could I be right or wrong?

The real reason the I am using the paint brush is because it is a shape of a circle and I know there are shapes that I can use, but I have used the rectangle marquee at one time too make a square and I know that there is a shape for this too. So again Glen if you can help me with this I would certainly appreciate it thanks. And since you have been very helpful in the past, I hope you do not mind I will contact you again on problems that I am having with Photoshop 7 as I do my work from and I am kind of new to things in Photoshop, I mean we are all human being and I do not think we know it all or we could be GODS. But there is only one and he will not allow us to know it all. What I am saying is that even if anyone has been working on a program for years there is still a lot to learn from that program, is that right, Glen? Thanks again, Glen and I will certainly contact you again for any further assistance.

Sincerely yours.

Martin C. Meyer

Answer
Hi Martin,

If you click and hold on the Marquee tool, a flyout menu will let you select the Elliptical Marquee tool. As you drag out an ellipsis, hold the shift key to constrain it to a circle. While still dragging, pressing the space bar allows you to move your selection.

Once you've drawn the circle, make your background and foreground colors the red and blue you want and go to Edit>Fill... and fill it with the color you want.

With the circle still selected, go to Layer>New Layer... Click okay to accept the defaults and go to Edit>Fill... and fill this with the other color. You should now have two identical circles, in two colors, positioned one on top of the other.

Returning to the rectangular marquee tool, select half of the circle on layer 1 and go to Layer>Add Layer Mask>Hide Selection. This can also be accomplished by clicking on the layer mask icon in the layers palette. You should now have a circle that is half red and half blue and is completely editable.

Go to Layer>New Layer to create Layer 2. This can also be done by clicking on the add new layer icon on the layers palette. On this layer you will put your white line, either by filling a selection with white of using a brush.

Save this as a Photoshop document (.psd) or a layered tiff to retain editability and on a copy go to Layer>Flatten Image to flatten everything onto a background layer.

Using the layer mask adds more complexity to the file and you may wish to just delete half of the circle on layer 1, but by clicking on the layer mask icon in the layers palette, you can edit the shape of the mask and this is a very powerful feature to know.

Hope this help,
Glen Demers
Adobe Certified Expert, Photoshop 7
Prepress Technician, Best Printing Online
www.bestprintingonline.com

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