How to Make a Folding Chair in Photoshop CS5

Make a folding chair in Photoshop CS5 by arranging two squares shaped with the "Free transform" tool with straight line segments to form a 3-D image of the chair. The heart of this illustration is the square reshaped to look like a diamond. The diamond represents a foreshortened view of the folding chair's seat. Foreshortening is the optical phenomenon that makes real world objects appear shorter than they are when seen from an indirect angle. Increase the realism of your folding chair by painting highlights on it with Photoshop's "Paintbrush" tool.

Instructions

1. Click the rectangular icon from the "Tools" panel to run the "Rectangle" tool, and then drag on the canvas to draw a square. This shape will form the face of a cube. The cube represents the seat of the folding chair.

2. Press "Control" and "T" simultaneously to run the "Free transform" tool, then right-click the square and click "Skew" to enter the mode for skewing shapes. Drag a corner of the bounding box surrounding the square to skew it into the shape of a diamond.

3. Right-click the square again, but this time click "Scale." Drag the top, center bounding box handle of the square downward to shrink this shape. The square now appears foreshortened, which makes it a appear to be in 3-D space.

4. Right-click the highlighted layer in the "Layers" panel, which is the layer your square is on. Click the "Duplicate" item to make a copy of the square.

5. Drag the mouse directly upward from the original square until the distance between the duplicate and the original square is slightly less than the longest side of the duplicate. This action creates the chair's seat. The original square now represents a shadow cast by that seat.

6. Click the "Tools" panel icon shaped like a straight line to run the tool for drawing these shapes. Click the leftmost corner of the lower square to specify the line's starting point. Drag the mouse to form a line measuring about twice the distance between the upper and lower squares, and passing through the second leftmost point of the upper square. This line represents a steel tube that fastens the seat to the chair's legs, and that also forms the rails to which the back panel will fasten.

7. Draw the corresponding rail for the chair's right side, using the previous step's instructions. Ensure that the line's bottom point is the second rightmost point on the lower square, and that the line passes through the rightmost point of the upper square. Doing so will make the left and right back rails parallel.

8. Click a point roughly midway up the left back rail, and then drag directly right until the mouse cursor reaches the right rail. Release the mouse to form the bottom edge of the back panel.

9. Drag a line connecting the upper extremes of the back panel rails to complete the outline of the back panel. Click the "Tools" panel icon shaped like a paint bucket to run the "Paint bucket" tool. Click inside the outline of the back panel to fill the panel and complete the folding chair.

References

• Photoshop CS5 Bible; Lisa Dayley
• How to Draw What You See; Rudy De Reyna