Photoshop Creative Issue

Elements

Every big project has humble beginnings,

and creating a clock face is no different.

Before we dive into the creative bit, we’ve got to

organise the template, and this relies on maths as

much as it does design skills.

All we need is a circle for the clock face, and some markers to

show where the 12 hours should be. From there, we can create

whatever kind of design we like: just remember to hide the template

markers when you’re done.

Create a new document

01

Start by opening Elements and going to File>New. Choose a

square document, as the clock face is going to be round;

3000 x 3000px should be enough, and choose a resolution of 300ppi

so that the design is more detailed.

Set up the template

02

Create a #808080 circle that ills the entire document, and on

a new layer, add a dot to the centre using the Brush Tool (B).

Hit Cmd/Ctrl+’ to bring up the grid, because this can help with scale

and precision.

Finish the template

03

Make a thin, black line with the Marquee Tool (M) at the top of

the clock on a new layer, duplicate (Cmd/Ctrl+J), Select All

(Cmd/Ctrl+A) and Transform (Cmd/Ctrl+T). Look to the bottom panel of

Elements; rotate by 30 degrees, and then repeat this until the clock

has 12 points in place.

StaGE 1

Creating the

template

Build your template before

you add images to it

Hit alt/Opt+Cmd/

Ctrl+E to copy one

layer onto the

one below

Shortcut

USE NEW LAYERS

Insert your centre spot and 12

points onto new layers so that

you can hide these layers later on

when you finish your clock.

TWELVE POINTS

Rotate a point 30 degrees

to create 12 points, but

rotate 6 degrees to create

60 points for each minute.

What

does it mean?

ROTATING – While we usually drag

the corner handles of a selection to

rotate it, you can also use the

bottom bar of Elements to choose a

degree to rotate by. If you’d like 12

equally-spaced points, simply

divide 360 – the number of

degrees in a circle – by 12

to work out how much

to rotate by.

USING TEMPLATES

Keep this template and use

it in future for creating more

clocks if you wish to.

NEUTRAL GREY

By using neutral grey, anything

you add to the clock face can

be set to Overlay to blend in.