Does Photoshop sometimes make you dizzy? In this fun tutorial you will make a design that may induce actual dizziness — one like mine to the right.
In this tutorial, you will be taking advantage of some of Photoshop’s mathematical algorithms. In other words, you will be making something that is very beautiful because of its mathematical precision, but you don’t have to do the math. PS does it for you! YAY!
As you progress through this tutorial, you will practice some interesting and useful procedures in Photoshop:
- Making straight lines with your paintbrush.
- Using Symmetry.
- Making and duplicating layers.
- Using transformations.
- Using the paint bucket to fill.
- Using a distortion filter.
- Using layer blending modes.
This tutorial was written with Photoshop 2020. For another way to do this without using Photoshop’s relatively new Symmetry, see my Archive Symmetry Tutorial.
- File > New. Make it the size you’re going to want. Square canvases work well for this.
2. Make a new layer by clicking the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. 
3. Choose a color. I’ll use red, so that it’ll show up. Choose a Brush 
. Set your options as you wish. I’m going to use a 2-pixel hard round brush.
Now, in the Options Bar at the top right, click the Symmetry button. It’s a butterfly! (See below)
Choose Mandala and use 10 for Segment Count.
4. Now, Brush in hand, click at the center of this. Release. Then Shift-click at the end of one of the segments. You should see lines radiating from the center like mine. Click the Symmetry button again and click Symmetry Off.
5. Choose the Elliptical Marquee tool 
, which often hides under the Rectangular Marquee.
6. Starting in the very center of your image, slowly begin to drag out an ellipse. As you drag, press Alt and see what it does. Now press Shift too and watch your selection. This will make a circular selection that is centered where you started, in the center! Drag it just far enough that it encompasses the spokes, like a wheel.
7. Edit > Stroke. Choose a stroke width and click OK. Ctrl-D to Deselect.
8. Duplicate this layer, by dragging its thumbnail to the New Layer icon in the Layers Palette.
Now to add some color! The Paint Bucket tool 
acts as a Magic Wand combined with a fill. It often hangs out under the Gradient Tool. 
Choose fetching colors and color your wedges.
9. Ok, I promised you fun! Filter > Distort > Twirl.
10. Duplicate this layer. Now Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal.
Nothing looks very different. Yet. Enter Blending Modes.
11. In the Layers Palette, see where it says “Normal”? Why be Normal? Click your top layer to make sure it’s active. Then click that arrow on the right side of the Normal button and hover over the various Blending Modes till you find something you love.
There are, of course, a myriad ways you can use this. And infinite variations. While Mandala Symmetry allows for only 10 spokes, you can make 6 and then double the number by duplicating the layer and rotating the top one.
You can make irregular lines. And you can just go nuts. Come up with something original and write down what you did.. File -> Save for web. Make your image 400 x 400 and 60K or less. Send it to me in an email.
For more student creations, look at the bottom of my Archive Spiral Tutorial.
