Draw a Blueprint Ship Birthday Card in Lopsy

1. Choose File → New, set Width 1500, Height 2100, Pixels, and click Create.
2. Click the top ruler at x 750 to drop a vertical centre guide.
3. Click the left ruler at y 300 (the line the ship's sails stay below), y 1095 (the ship's waterline) and y 1325 (the deck plan's centreline). Zoom in if you need a click to land exactly.

Cyanotypes are never evenly exposed. A radial gradient gives the sheet a lighter middle and darker edges.

1. Click Background in the Layers panel and pick the Gradient tool. Set Type to Radial.
2. Click Advanced… to open the Gradient Editor. Set the left stop to #2453A0 and the right stop to #0F2752 in the Hex color field. Click the bar halfway along to add a middle stop and make it #173A73. Click Done.
3. Drag from just above the centre of the sheet out past the bottom-right corner.

Three thin layers of texture make it read as paper rather than a flat fill.

1. Double-click Layer 1 and rename it Paper. Run Filter → Clouds… with Scale 8, then Filter → Add Noise… with Amount 18 and Mono.
2. Open the layer's effects drawer (the ✦ button on its row), set the blend mode to Soft Light and close the drawer. Click the opacity on the row and set it to 12%.
3. Click Add Layer, name it Fibers and run Filter → Fibers… with the default settings. Set it to Soft Light at 8%. Any stronger and the fibres show as streaks.
4. Add a layer called Grain. Fill it with mid grey #808080 (Edit → Fill) and run Add Noise… at 40, Mono. Set it to Overlay at 14%. Grey disappears in Overlay, so only the speckle shows.

The grid comes from two pattern tiles. Pattern fills start at the top-left corner of the document, so you draw the tiles right there.

1. Add a layer called Grid Tile and set the foreground colour to #9ED8F5.
2. Pick the Rectangular Marquee and, with nothing selected, click once on the canvas without dragging. The Rectangular Selection dialog opens. Enter From 0, 0 and To 30, 30 and click Select. If a selection is already active, that click only deselects it, so press Cmd+D first. The same goes for every exact-corners dialog in this tutorial.
3. Pick the Pencil at Size 2. Click just left of the canvas on the top edge, then Shift-click just past the tile on the same edge. Do the same down the left edge. The selection keeps the lines inside the tile, so you get one line along the top and one down the side.
4. Choose Edit → Define Pattern. That's the 30 px fine grid.
5. Press Cmd+D, select 0, 0 to 150, 150 the same way and press Delete. Draw the top and left edges again with a Size 3 Pencil and choose Define Pattern again. Press Delete and Cmd+D.
6. Rename the layer Grid Fine. Select 58, 58 to 1442, 2042 (the inside of the border you'll draw next), choose Edit → Fill with Pattern…, pick the first (30 px) pattern and click Apply. Set it to Screen at 15%.
7. Add a layer called Grid Major, make the same selection, fill it with the second (150 px) pattern, deselect, and set it to Screen at 21%.

1. Add a layer called Frame and set the colour to #EAF3FF.
2. Select 40, 40 to 1460, 2060 and fill it.
3. Choose Select → Shrink… with 5 and press Delete. That leaves a 5 px outer border.
4. Press Cmd+D, select 58, 58 to 1442, 2042, fill it, Shrink by 2 and press Delete. That's the thin inner border. Deselect.

Drawing sheets mark zones along the border so people can say "the stamp in zone D4".

1. With the Pencil at Size 2, click on the outer border and Shift-click straight across to the inner one. Do this at x 300, 600, 900 and 1200 along the top and bottom.
2. Do the same at y 350, 700, 1050, 1400 and 1750 on the left and right.
3. If a tick lands crooked, Cmd+Z it and try again.

Naval architects slice a hull at evenly spaced stations. Those slices show up as light construction lines through every view.

1. With Frame selected, click New Group and rename it Ship. With the group selected, click Add Layer. The layer goes inside the group. Name it Stations.
2. Set the colour to #9ED8F5 and pick the Brush. Click the brush tip in the options bar to open the Brushes panel. On the Shape tab set Size 3, Hardness 100 and Spacing 200. At 200 % spacing the dabs separate into dots. Close the panel.
3. Click at x 300, y 905 and Shift-click straight down at y 1430. Repeat every 85 px across to x 1150, for eleven dotted lines.
4. Set the layer's opacity to 55%.

Lopsy has no dashed stroke, but a custom brush tip spaced apart draws one.

1. Add a layer called Datum Lines. Set the colour to black and select 0, 0 to 16, 3. Fill it.
2. Choose Edit → Define Brush… and name it Dash. Dark pixels become the painting part of the tip, so this is a 16 × 3 bar. It becomes the active brush. Press Delete and Cmd+D.
3. In the Brushes panel set Spacing 170. The bars now land with a gap between them.
4. Set the colour back to #9ED8F5. Click on the waterline guide near the left border and Shift-click near the right border. Draw a second dashed line along the plan centreline guide.

The hull is one closed Pen path: around the deck edge from the stern to the bow, out along the beak, then back along the keel. To make a smooth anchor, drag in the direction you're travelling. To make a sharp corner, just click.

1. Add a layer called Hull and set the colour to #EAF3FF. Pick the Pen and set Stroke to 4 in the options bar.
2. Click the top of the stern, about 225, 965, a little below the left end of the deck line you're about to draw.
3. Halfway along, just above the waterline guide (about 730, 1020), drag to the right about 230 px. The deck line sags gently between stern and bow.
4. Click the stem head, about 1230, 970, level with the stern. Click the tip of the beak about 130 px further forward and 30 px lower, then click back on the stem about 20 px below the stem head. That gives a straight, low spur pointing forward.
5. Drag at the forefoot, about 60 px forward of the stem's foot and halfway down to the keel line, down and back. Then, at the bottom of the keel under the main mast (about 720, 1160), drag to the left about 160 px.
6. Drag about 340 px further aft, roughly 30 px higher, so the keel rises towards the stern. Then drag at the stern post, just above the waterline, up towards the transom.
7. Click the first anchor to close the path, then press Enter. Enter strokes the path in the foreground colour at the options-bar width.

1. Add a layer called Planking. Set the Pen's Stroke to 2.
2. Draw the rail as a two-anchor curve about 25 px above the deck line. Drag from the stern end down and to the right, about a quarter of the way along. Then drag at the bow end up and to the right, away from the hull, so the curve sags like the deck. Press Enter.
3. Draw two wales below the deck the same way, one about 30 px and one about 60 px under the deck line. Each new path starts well away from the last one's anchors. If you start right on top of an anchor, the Pen edits that path instead. In that case, click the path in the Paths panel to deselect it first.
4. Pick the Pencil at Size 2. Every 60 px from x 280 to x 1180, click just above the deck line and Shift-click about 22 px higher. Those are the rail stanchions.

A faint white wash makes the hull read as solid, the way pencil shading does on a real plan.

1. Click the Hull layer and pick the Magic Wand. Click in the empty middle of the hull. Choose Select → Grow… with 2 so the wash tucks under the outline.
2. Click Datum Lines and click Add Layer. The new layer sits under the hull. Name it Hull Wash.
3. Fill with #EAF3FF, deselect, and set the opacity to 13%.

1. Click Planking and add a layer called Ports.
2. Pick the Brush and, in the Brushes panel, click Hard Round on the Presets tab to replace the dash tip. Set Size 15.
3. Click a dot every 50 px from x 430 to x 1030, midway between the two wales. Those are the oar ports.
4. With the Rectangular Marquee, drag a small 22 × 16 px box just under the rail at x 470. Hold Shift and drag three more at x 600, 860 and 990. Fill them. Those are the gun ports.
5. Cmd-click the Ports thumbnail to select everything on the layer. Choose Shrink… with 3 and press Delete. Every dot and square becomes an outline. Deselect.

1. Add a layer called Cabin. Select 258, 926 to 350, 975 (a deckhouse on the stern), fill it, Shrink by 3 and press Delete.
2. Add a layer called Spars. Zoom in, pick the Lasso and draw a long thin wedge for each mast, about 10 px wide at the deck and 5 px at the top. Press at one corner and move in quick, straight strokes to each of the other corners before you let go, so the sides stay straight. A little wobble is fine at this size. Hold Shift as you start each one to add it to the selection.

• The fore mast runs from 1080, 1000 to 1112, 470, raked forward.
• The main mast runs from 730, 1022 to 742, 405.
• The mizzen mast runs from 385, 1000 to 385, 560.

1. Still holding Shift, add a long spindle for each yard, the spar the sail hangs from. Make each about 5 px thick in the middle and 2 px at the ends. The yards cross the masts on a steep diagonal, high at the back and low at the front. The mizzen yard runs from about 285, 480 to 570, 920, the main from 580, 310 to 1025, 905, and the fore from 965, 380 to 1350, 925. Fill.
2. With the Pen at Stroke 5, click the stem head and then 1415, 918, and press Enter for the bowsprit. At Stroke 4, draw the short boomkin from 140, 990 to the top of the stern.
3. With a Size 12 Brush, click a round cap (a truck) on top of each mast.

1. Add a layer called Sails. Set the Pen's Stroke to 3.
2. For each sail, click its three corners: the head at the top of the yard, the tack at its low front end, and the clew at the back near the deck. Then click the first corner again and press Enter.

• Mizzen: 300, 500, 560, 905, 160, 935
• Main: 600, 335, 1010, 885, 470, 960
• Fore: 985, 405, 1335, 905, 905, 950

The sails overlap. That's correct for a profile drawing, where every sail is drawn as if you could see through it.

1. Click Hull Wash and add a layer called Sail Wash. Lasso all three triangles, holding Shift for the second and third. Fill with #EAF3FF, deselect, and set the opacity to 12%.
2. Click Sails and add a layer called Sail Seams. Set the colour to #9ED8F5.
3. Lasso one sail. With a Size 1 Pencil, draw six lines parallel to the sail's back edge (the leech), evenly spaced from front to back. Start and end each line outside the sail. The selection trims them to the cloth.
4. Repeat for the other two sails, deselect, and set the layer to 75%.

1. Add a layer called Rigging, set the colour to #EAF3FF and keep the Pencil at Size 1.
2. Draw the shrouds. From about 30 px below each masthead, click and Shift-click down to the rail. Use three on the fore mast, four on the main and two on the mizzen, fanned out either side of the mast.
3. Draw the stays. One runs from the fore masthead to the tip of the bowsprit. One runs from the main masthead down to the fore mast at y 640, and one from the mizzen masthead to the main mast at the same height. End each stay right on the mast, not in mid-air.
4. Draw a short sheet line from each clew down to the rail a little forward of it.

1. Add a layer called Dress Flags. With the Pencil at Size 1, draw four sagging lines of short Shift-click segments:

• from the bowsprit tip to the fore masthead
• from the fore masthead to the main masthead, dipping about 70 px in the middle
• from the main masthead to the mizzen masthead
• from the mizzen masthead to the end of the boomkin

1. Pick the Lasso. About every 30 px along the lines, draw a flag hanging from the line. Mix the shapes: narrow pennants about 18 px wide and 20 px long, square flags about 16 px, and swallowtails with a notch cut in the bottom. Do one colour at a time. Draw every flag of that colour with Shift held and fill them together: white #EAF3FF, red #E2553F, yellow #FFD15C, then blue #4FA3E0. Avoid putting two flags of the same colour side by side.
2. Give about half the square flags a second colour. Lasso their right half or a band across the middle and fill it in a different flag colour. Real code flags are split, banded and crossed, not plain.

The deck plan is the hull seen from above, lined up with the profile so every mast and station matches.

1. Collapse Ship with its arrow and keep it selected, then click New Group. A new group made with a collapsed group selected lands beside it, not inside it. Name it Plan and add a layer called Plan Hull. Set the colour back to #EAF3FF.
2. With the Pen at Stroke 3, draw the top half. Drag at the stern end of the centreline (about x 230) straight up about 60 px. At the widest point, about 85 px above the centreline under the main mast, drag to the right about 300 px. Click the bow on the centreline at x 1230 and press Enter. Click the path in the Paths panel to deselect it, then draw the bottom half as a mirror image.
3. Draw the beak as a thin wedge: click 12 px above the centreline just behind the bow, click the point on the centreline level with the beak tip in the profile, and click 12 px below. Press Enter. Draw the bowsprit beyond it to the same length as in the profile at Stroke 4.
4. At Stroke 2, draw the bulwark (the inside of the rail) as two more curves about 12 px inside the hull edge.
5. Marquee two hatches on the centreline, about 70 × 44 px starting at x 520 and 60 × 36 px starting at x 880, holding Shift for the second. Fill, Shrink by 2 and press Delete.
6. Pick the Shape tool, choose Ellipse and Pixels, and click the Fill swatch and Remove fill. Click Stroke, type EAF3FF in its hex field and set Width to 2. Click on the centreline under each mast without dragging. The Shape Size dialog opens. Enter 22 × 22 and click Create. The shape is centred on the point you clicked. Those are the mast steps.

The plan has lines inside it, so the wand can't select the deck in one click. Select the outside instead.

1. On Plan Hull, click the empty sheet outside the hull with the Magic Wand. Choose Select → Inverse, which selects the whole deck.
2. Add a layer called Plan Wash, fill with #EAF3FF, deselect, and set it to 12%.

1. Add a layer called Dimensions, colour #9ED8F5, Pencil Size 1.
2. Drop extension lines straight down from the end of the boomkin (x 140) and the tip of the bowsprit (x 1415) to about y 1494. Draw the dimension line between them at y 1478.
3. For the height, draw an extension line left from the top of the main yard (y 322) to near the border. Extend the waterline to the same spot. Join them with a vertical line at x 116.
4. Lasso a small arrowhead, about 16 px long and 10 px wide, at each end of both dimension lines, holding Shift after the first. Fill.

1. Add a layer called Scale Bar and set the colour to #EAF3FF.
2. With the Rectangular Marquee, drag a block about 61 px wide and 12 px tall, starting at 640, 1545. Hold Shift to add the third and fifth blocks along the same row. Fill.
3. With the Pencil at Size 2, outline the whole 307 px bar. Click one corner and Shift-click the other three, then back to the first.

The numbers should agree with the bar. If 25 ft is 307 px, the 1275 px between the extension lines is about 103′ 10″ and the 773 px air draft is about 62′ 11″. You'll write these numbers in the labels. (The 1:70 printed next to the bar is part of the birthday joke, not the real ratio.)

1. Collapse Plan, click New Group and name it Lettering. Add a layer called Rules.
2. Pick the Text tool. Set the font to Krona One, size 60, colour #EAF3FF. Click near the top of the sheet and type HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY. Click the ✓ button to commit. In the Text panel set Letter spacing to 2.
3. With the Move tool, centre it on the vertical guide, about 45 px below the inner border.
4. From here on, click a non-text layer (here Rules) before every new piece of text. Text options change the active text layer, so if a text layer is still active, the next font or size you pick restyles it.
5. Set Share Tech Mono, size 30, colour #9ED8F5, and type FAIR WINDS & FOLLOWING SEAS, CAPTAIN. Set its letter spacing to 5 and centre it about 30 px under the headline.
6. On Rules, with a Size 2 Pencil, draw a line level with the middle of the subtitle. Run it from near the left border to 30 px short of the text, and do the same on the right.

Use Share Tech Mono for all the drawing labels, with letter spacing 2. Click Rules before each one.

1. LENGTH OVER SPARS 103'-10" at size 24 in cyan, centred just above the length dimension line.
2. SAIL & PROFILE PLAN at size 22 in white, starting at x 150, just below the keel. Put DECK PLAN at the same x, just below the plan.
3. LWL and CL at size 20 in cyan. Right-align them with the ends of the dashed waterline and centreline, just above each line.
4. SCALE 1:70 at size 20 to the left of the scale bar. Put 0 and 25 FT at size 16 above its two ends.
5. On Rules, draw a small box with the 1 px cyan Pencil in the empty sky at the top left, about 180 × 105 px, just below the air-draft extension line. Draw a line across it near the top for a header row. Inside, type a header SAIL AREA SQ FT in white at size 14, then three rows in cyan at size 14: FORE 1,180, MAIN 1,640 and MIZZEN 760. A monospaced font keeps the spaced-out numbers lined up in a column.

1. Type AIR DRAFT 62'-11" in cyan at size 24, anywhere in open space.
2. With the Move tool, hover just outside the label's top-right corner until the cursor changes to the rotate cursor. Hold Cmd (it snaps the angle to 15° steps) and drag until the label reads bottom to top, at −90°.
3. Move it just left of the vertical dimension line, centred between the waterline and the yard.

To nudge the whole ship later, click the Ship group row and drag with the Move tool. Everything in the group moves together.

A detail redraws a small part of a plan at a larger scale inside a circle.

1. Collapse Lettering, click New Group and name it Detail A. Add a layer called Lens.
2. Pick the Elliptical Marquee and click once without dragging to open its exact dialog. Enter From 160, 1567 and To 570, 1977.
3. Fill with #1F4A8C and deselect. Add an Inner Glow effect in #0B1E44 with Size 40 and Opacity 35, so the lens looks slightly domed.

1. Add a layer called Lens Rings.
2. Set up the Shape tool as before: Ellipse, no fill, stroke EAF3FF at Width 4. Click the centre of the lens (365, 1772) without dragging and create a 410 × 410 circle.
3. Change the stroke to 9ED8F5 at Width 1 and make a 428 × 428 circle on the same centre.

1. Add a layer called Cake. Keep the Shape tool on Ellipse with a white stroke at Width 3. Click at 365, 1915 and make a 284 × 26 plate.
2. Switch Shape to Rectangle. Click at 365, 1868 for a 260 × 85 bottom tier, then at 365, 1789 for a 174 × 73 top tier. The top tier sits right on the bottom one.

1. With the Pen at Stroke 2, draw scallops along the top of the bottom tier. Click the left corner. Then, at the middle of the first scallop, 16 px below the edge, drag a little to the right. Click the edge again one scallop along. Repeat for seven scallops, then press Enter.
2. Do the same on the top tier with five scallops, 13 px deep.
3. Pick the Brush, choose Hard Round on the Presets tab and set Size 7. Click a dot every 20 px along the base of the bottom tier and every 18 px along the base of the top tier.

1. Click Cake. With the Text tool, set Michroma, size 84, white, and type 70. Set letter spacing to 6.
2. Move it so its bottom sits on the top tier, centred on the cake.
3. In the effects drawer, turn on Color Overlay in #1F4A8C (the lens colour) and Stroke in #EAF3FF at Width 3, leaving its other settings at their defaults. The numbers become outlines, the way a draughtsman would draw them, and they stay editable text.

1. Click Cake. With a Size 2 white Pencil, draw a 13 px wick straight up from the top of each numeral, about a quarter of the way into the 7 and three-quarters into the 0.
2. Click the 70 text layer and add a layer called Flames. Set the colour to #FFD15C.
3. Lasso a teardrop flame about 34 px tall and 18 px wide above each wick, holding Shift for the second. Fill.
4. Add an Outer Glow in #FFB347 with Size 26 and Opacity 70. These are the only warm colours inside the lens.

1. Click Flames and add a layer called Leaders. With a cyan 1 px Pencil, draw a line from the right side of each tier out past the lens rings, then a short level tick.
2. Click Leaders before each label. Type TIER 2 · VANILLA and TIER 1 · RUM & RAISIN in Share Tech Mono, size 18, cyan, letter spacing 1. Set each one just after its tick, centred on the line.
3. Type DETAIL A — CAKE STOWAGE, SCALE 4:1 in white at the same size and centre it under the lens, about 16 px below the ring.

1. Collapse Detail A, click New Group and name it Title Block. Add a layer called TB Panel.
2. Choose View → Show Grid. In the options bar, set the Grid slider to 8px and make sure Snap is ticked.
3. With the Rectangular Marquee, drag from about 864, 1760 to the bottom-right corner of the inner border. The corners snap onto grid lines, ending at 1440, 2040 right on the border.
4. Fill with #132F66.

1. Add a layer called TB Lines and deselect. Turn Show Grid off.
2. With a white Size 2 Pencil, draw the block's left and top edges. The right and bottom edges are the sheet border itself, as on a real drawing.
3. Draw cell lines across the block at y 1832, 1904 and 1972. Split the third row at x 1152, and the last row at x 1056 and 1248.
4. Click TB Lines (do this before each piece of text in the block). Type XEBEC MODEL in Krona One, size 34, white, letter spacing 4, centred in the top row.
5. Fill in each cell with a small cyan caption and a larger white entry, both in Share Tech Mono. Put the caption at size 13 with letter spacing 2, 14 px in from the cell's top-left corner. Put the entry at size 24, 34 px down from the top.

• PREPARED FOR: CAPT. ELENA MARCH
• OCCASION: 70TH BIRTHDAY
• LAUNCHED: 17 OCT 1956
• SCALE: 1:70
• SHEET: 70 OF 70
• DRAWN BY: THE CREW

1. Click TB Lines and add a layer called Stamp.
2. Set the Shape tool's stroke to E2553F at Width 6 and click at 1240, 1588 for a 236 × 236 circle. At Width 2, make a 210 × 210 circle on the same centre.
3. With the Pen, draw an arc over the top, about 25 px inside the inner ring, from the upper left round to the upper right. Drag at each of four or five points along it, in the direction you're travelling. Click the ✓ Commit path button instead of pressing Enter, so it stays a path and isn't stroked.
4. Draw a second arc under the bottom, about 10 px inside the inner ring, also from left to right, and commit it with ✓. Click it in the Paths panel to deselect it.

1. Click Stamp. Type APPROVED in Black Ops One, size 24, #E2553F, letter spacing 4.
2. With the Text tool still active, set Align to Center and choose the top arc in the options bar's Path menu. The word wraps over the arc, reading upright.
3. Click Stamp, type 70 YEARS at size 20 with letter spacing 4, and bind it to the bottom arc the same way. Because that arc runs left to right under the circle, the text stays upright instead of upside down.
4. Click Stamp again and type SEAWORTHY at size 26, letter spacing 1. Centre it straight across the middle, clear of the inner ring.

1. Click the SEAWORTHY text layer and choose Layer → Merge Down, which merges it into Stamp. Do the same for 70 YEARS and APPROVED. The text becomes pixels, so the stamp is now one piece.
2. Draw a marquee around the stamp. Pick the Move tool and drag the rotation handle at the top-right corner about 14° anticlockwise. Nobody stamps a form straight. Press Cmd+D.

1. With Stamp selected, click Add Mask at the bottom of the Layers panel. A mask row appears under Stamp. Click it to edit the mask.
2. Set the colour to black and pick the Spray tool. Set Size 70, Density 16, Opacity 100 and Softness 0.
3. Make one short pass along the lower-left rim and one along the upper right. Rubber stamps print unevenly at the edges. While you edit the mask, the hidden speckle shows as blue. Keep the spray off the middle of the words so they still read.
4. Click the layer name to stop editing the mask, and set the opacity to 88%.

Checkers mark up blueprints in red pencil. Here the note gives the joke away.

1. Add a layer called Redline. Type 70 candles — not to scale! in Architects Daughter, size 30, #E2553F.
2. Put it to the right of the lens, under the scale bar, and rotate it about 5° anticlockwise with the Move tool's rotation handle.
3. Click Redline. With the Pen at Stroke 3 in the same red, drag from the start of the note and finish just right of the right-hand flame. Press Enter.
4. With a Size 3 Pencil, click and Shift-click two short strokes at the tip to make the arrowhead.

1. Add a layer called Callout A. With the Shape tool (Ellipse, white stroke, Width 2), click the middle of the stern cabin and make a 124 × 84 ellipse.
2. With a 1 px white Pencil, draw a short leader from the ellipse down and left into the open space under the stern.
3. Click Callout A and type A in Share Tech Mono, size 26, white, at the end of the leader.

1. Collapse Title Block, then click Frame and add a layer called Edge Burn. It sits under all the drawing.
2. Set the colour to #06142F. Pick the Brush and choose Soft Round on the Presets tab, with Size 360 and Opacity 60.
3. Drag down the left edge of the sheet with the brush half off the canvas, wandering in and out a little. Then drag along the bottom.
4. Drop to Size 240 and Opacity 40 and make lighter passes down the right edge and across the top. An uneven burn, heavier on two sides, looks like a real exposure. A perfect radial vignette doesn't.
5. Set the layer to Multiply at 70%.

1. Add a layer called Exposure, colour white. Use the Soft Round brush at Size 520 and Opacity 25.
2. Make one short stroke beside the main sail and one over the stern end of the deck plan.
3. Set it to Soft Light at 30%.
4. Choose File → Save Project to keep the layered file, and File → Quick Export PNG for the card.