Balloons in Photoshop

Use your type tool to make the diaologe you want. Add a new layer. Use the elipse markee tool to make the shape you want. Go to edit, then scroll down to the stroke function. From there you will need to set the amount of pixel space you want the stroke to be. Use the paint bucket to fill the color you want the balloon to be. Once that's done you should see a solid color balloon. You then need to move the type layer up to shift it to the front. Then go under the layer tool bar and merge the type down to merge with the balloon you just made. Doing it that way you can move the balloon around to where you need it.

That's how I do it in VU. You can add the balloon tails pretty easily after that. The whole thing just takes practice. Let me know if you need help.

BZ Tickler

Ahh! Many thanks for this post BZ.

Not a problem Fairfeather. By the way, I've got a project in the works I wouldn't mind talking to you about if you are interested. I like your work.

BZ Tickler

Thank you very much BZ,

this helps me a lot.

Just another idea - new layer for each bubble so you can move them about anywhere then airbrush with a large diameter - say 100 pixels - in black. Finally go over the same area in white leaving a small border.

The large size of the brush means you can make a smooth outline quite easily. Add the spike using a much smaller diameter brush.

Just tried this out in PSP 5 and works OK so I'd guess the others would work as well.

Smade.

I've found it easiest to use the elliptical, add the tail with shift+lasso, paint-bucket it black, Select>modify>contract about 6 pixels, and fill white. You get a one-piece bubble in its own layer which is perfectly sharp and takes all of 20 seconds to make. It looks like this: http://reallyreallybigbang.deviantart.com/art/The-Witch-66507534