Patterns: Retro Lines

You can create cool retro outlines with a little imagination and blur. Start with a square document, and add a blank layer on top. Choose the Gradient tool, and from the options bar, select the Spectrum gradient from the defaults. Finally, choose the Radial setting. Be sure the Gradient tool’s blend mode is set to Normal.

Use horizontal and vertical guides along the edges and center for reference.

Using the Gradient tool, hold down Shift (to keep the movement perfectly horizontal) and drag from the center left to the center right edge. From the tool options bar, choose Hard Mix from the pop-up blend modes menu. On the same layer, drag a new gradient from center right to center left.

Duplicate the gradient layer and invert the colors by pressing Ctrl+I (Windows) or Command+I (Mac). Set this duplicate’s blend mode to Vivid Light. Give the layer a small Gaussian blur—just enough to remove the hard edges—and then apply a tiny bit more. Voila! You should now have thick outlines around the major shapes. But they’re still jagged, so let’s fix that.