Blending Layers in Photoshop

Posted by Jo Murphy Sep 3, 2007

This article shows you how to teach MSPaint to little children. The theme of the unit is Under The Water. You can see the images of divers swimming and floating are very simple.

It is possible to turn this activity into an extended challenge that requires young and old work together to make combinations and collages by overlaying and blending layers of images in Photoshop

1. draw an under water scene
2. draw a sea creature such as a crab.
3. save the MSPaint drawings
4. open both in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements
5. downsize pictures so that they be seen at the same time.
6. use the Move Tool to drag the sea creature across onto the underwater painting.
7. activate Freetransform Tool and the Move Tool until you have positioned it
8. with the Background Eraser to take out blue sea so that one merges to the other.
9. change to the Regular Eraser Tool to rub out anything that is getting in the way of other parts of the painting. (This will be a matter of taste.)
10. you may want to Crop the picture now that it has changed or "morphed as the kids call it"

This is an example of Proximal Learning in the style of Learning Community.