Use selections to create a landscape

Use live brushes and selections as a team for new ways to draw on your iPhone.

Published August 10, 2023

00:01

Introduction

Adobe Fresco on iPhone lets you illustrate wherever you are.

You can keep your work as is or finish up on your tablet or desktop.

I'll show you how I use selections with Fresco's gorgeous brushes to create an organic landscape.

I've already created a new document

00:15

Setting up document and creating initial selections

and filled in the background with a little texture.

To start, add a new layer, then tap the selected layer preview to hide the Layers panel, and give yourself more room to work.

Grab the Lasso and drag to create a selection.

I like to make selections, then draw inside them, especially when I'm working with my phone when there’s not that much real estate.

I love to use Fresco's live watercolor brushes to create subtle variations in here.

Notice that the color is confined to the selection area.

I'll add some extra details with the rough pencil brush in a slightly darker shade.

Okay.

Let's de-select so we can make a new selection and add a new layer.

01:00

Using advanced selection tools and layering techniques

Long press on the Lasso to access other tools like the Brush Selection Tool, which lets you paint to select, rather than drawing the perimeter of the selection like you do with the Lasso.

Repeat the process of selecting and painting on new layers to build up your illustration.

01:19

Creating geometric shapes and enabling touch shortcuts

Next, I want to create a more geometric shape.

Back in the Selection Tools, choose the Ellipse marquee.

If you've tried Fresco on a tablet, you may be familiar with the Touch shortcut, which lets you easily modify how tools behave.

In Fresco on iPhone, the Touch shortcut is turned off by default.

So, I'll go into my Settings to turn it on.

Now I can use the Touch shortcut to constrain my selection to a perfect circle.

Let's add a crescent to this moon.

Tap Transform selection in the bottom bar to reposition the marquee.

01:59

Refining layers, transformations, and composition

With an active selection, we can access layer actions if we tap the layer thumbnail.

Tap More to lock Transparency so we only paint over pixels that already have color.

Now that I have several layers, I can adjust their size and composition to get the balance just right.

With the layer selected, tap the Transform Tool to select it and drag and pinch to put the layer where you want it.

You can also drag a handle to transform a layer disproportionately.

I think this looks pretty good.

My illustration will be waiting for me in my Cloud Documents if I want to continue working in Fresco on my iPad, or in Photoshop on the desktop.

I like to use the Timelapse feature

02:43

Exporting, sharing, and finalizing the illustration

to create a video I can share on Instagram.

Of course, I can also save the image right to my phone.

I'm using my illustration as a fresh wallpaper.

I hope you're inspired to make something new in Fresco on iPhone.

What you learned: Create a variety of selections, draw inside them, and then resize layers for the perfect composition.

Make free-form selections

I like to make selections, then draw inside them. This technique is especially handy when I’m working on my phone, where there’s not as much real estate.

The Lasso lets you drag to define the perimeter of a selection.
Long-press the Lasso to access additional tools, like the Brush selection tool, which allows you to scrub to paint a selection area.
Choose a drawing tool, like a Live or Pixel brush, and scrub over the selection to draw inside it.
When a selection is active, anything you draw will be confined to that area until you tap Deselect or Exit.

Make geometric selections

Choose the Ellipse marquee to draw round selections.
In Fresco on the iPhone, in the top bar, go to More (…) > Settings and toggle on the Touch shortcut. Back on your canvas, holding the Touch shortcut while making a selection with the Ellipse marquee will constrain it to a perfect circle.

Build on shapes

You can use selections and Lock transparency to create complex shapes quickly, like I’ve done with the crescent moon.

With an active selection, tap Transform selection in the bottom bar. Drag and pinch to reposition and scale it.
Tap a layer thumbnail > More (…) > Lock transparency. This will let you constrain your drawing to the pixels inside the selection that already have color.

Adjust the composition

Easily scale, transform, and reposition layers to get your illustration just right.

Select a layer, then select Transform from the Toolbar.
Drag to reposition the layer and pinch to scale it proportionally.
Transform disproportionately by dragging one of the side handles.

Share your work

Fresco on iPhone makes it easy to publish your illustration.

In the top bar, tap Share.
From here, you can choose Timelapse to create a cool video of your process.
Alternatively, tap Export as to save an image to your phone or another destination.

Illustrator And Presenter: Erica Larson

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Cookies are small text files stored by your web browser when you use websites. There are also other technologies that can be used for similar purposes like HTML5 Local Storage, web beacons, and embedded scripts. These technologies help us do things like remembering you and your preferences when you return to our sites, measure how you use the website, conduct market research, and gather information about the ads you see and interact with.

If enabled:

We can improve your experience by tailoring the site and the content to things we think might be of interest
We can better keep track of your preferences — like what language you prefer to use
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