Photoshop Projects for Teens 1

Here are a few assignments to get teenagers/middle schoolers into Photoshop. More are coming soon. It is assumed that the reader knows the terminology related to Photoshop. I didn't feel the need to explain in more detail how the assignments are completed.

Some paintings are brilliant, some are a bit lackluster. I give extra credit for the brilliant ones.

1. The Paintbrush
Students create a Default Photoshop Size document and use a variety of paintbrushes (shortcut is B) to paint whatever they want. They should know how to quickly change the size of the brush ( [ and ] ), as well as know how to adjust the hardness and change the brush style.

I used a picture of Cuenca, Spain, because it's one of my favorite places in the world.

2. Crop & Color
Students first use the Crop Tool (C) and then the Image>Adjustments>Levels, followed by the Image>Adjustments>Color Balance in order to take a decent picture and make it more dynamic.

Let's face it: jets motivate.

3. Motivation
This is a relatively simple assignment that demonstrates another use for the Crop Tool, which is to expand the canvas, and a tiny bit of the Type Tool (T). In particular, they use the Tool Options Bar to adjust the font, size, justification, and color of the text they put on their motivational poster.

If that flower were a student, he'd get in trouble for that.

4. Simple Mask
I lament the fact that I didn't learn how to use masks until I was student-teaching and my mentor teacher bought one of those Photoshop Creative magazines. Anyway, for this assignment they open up a picture (of flowers, in this case), duplicate the layer, desaturate it, add a mask, and mask out only the one flower so it's in color while the rest aren't.

Gymkhana 5 in San Francisco.

5. Filters
First, choose a picture to play with. Then, triple the canvas size either horizontally or vertically (Image>Canvas Size), and duplicate the picture twice. On each layer, search through the filters and find one that adds some artistic flair. That's all.

Next up:
Stamp Brush (Edit>Define Brush Preset)
Filter Blend (filters, layer blending)
Postcard (layers, type, gradients)
Footprints (clone stamp, bandaid)
Platypus (compositing, transparency)
Scatter Brush (brushes palette)