- 1). Open Photoshop CS4, click "File" and click "New." Type "Balloons" into the "Name" field and set your preferred drawing space, such as 5 inches by 5 inches. Pull down the "Color Mode" menu and select "RGB Color." Pull down the "Background Contents" menu and select "Transparent." Click the "OK" button to open the drawing space. Click the "View" menu at the top of the screen and select "Fit on Screen" to give yourself more room to draw.
- 2). Double click the top-left square of the "Color Picker," the two overlapping colored boxes at the bottom of the "Tools" palette. Choose a paint color for the first balloon.
- 3). Right click the shape tool, a few icons above the "Color Picker," which may look like a hollow rectangle, hollow circle, line or solid star. Select "Ellipse Tool."
- 4). Position your cursor on the "Balloons" box, press and hold down the left mouse button, then click and drag the cursor to form the balloon shape. Drag from the left, top corner of the box to the right, bottom corner of the box for a long and thin balloon or left side to right side for a more squat, fat balloon. The balloon automatically fills in with color.
- 5). Draw more balloons as desired using the same color, or select a new color from the "Color Picker" and keep drawing the balloons.
- 6). Click the "Window" menu and click "Layers" to open the "Layers" palette; it may already be open on the screen. Note there are shape layers for every balloon on the page. Click the small lined icon in the top-right corner of the palette and select "Flatten Image." There is now one layer for all the balloons.
- 7). Select a new paint color such as black for the balloon strings. Click the "Brush" tool, which looks like a paintbrush, on the "Tools" palette. Pull down the brush menu, which is unlabeled but is the second button from the left on the toolbar found at the top of the screen. Slide the head numbering brush down to "1" for the finest brush point. Draw the balloon strings, with variations such as straight lines, squiggles and curls.
- 8). Increase the head size to "5" on the brush menu, select a new paint color from the "Color Picker" and draw designs on the balloons, such as a smiley face in black paint on a yellow balloon, stripes or polka dots.
- 9). Click the "File" tab, click "Save As," select "GIF" from the "Format" menu and save the file to the computer.
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