Tricking the eyes into thinking they are seeing something they're not is sometimes an easy task. This is how it is for creating a magnifying glass, or at least the appearance of one. We can create 2d images that have depth by simply making some of the elements of the image smaller than other and placing them higher on the image we're creating as shown in the layers tutorial.

For the magnifying glass we need to make text look closer and farther away at the same time and we need it to appear to be seen through something else - glass.

As usual I started with a 300x300 image and added a layer. I then used the line tool to create my piece of paper. I added a little gray down the center of my curl and used the smudge tool to give it a highlight type effect. (Not a great rendering and not the point of this tutorial.) I used the magic wand tool and selected my canvas, then inverted the selection. I added a new layer and placed it under my paper layer. I then added a drop shadow.

Next item is to create a new layer and using the shapes tool (make sure the vector shapes box is not checked) with a stoked circle and a line width of 5, create the round part of our magnifying glass. Add a new layer and create a filled rounded rectangle to make the handle for the glass. When you make the handle you will have to rotate the layer to get it where mine is. I rotated it 45 degrees. I then used the move tool to place it so that it appeared attached to the circle part.  

I then turned off all the layers but the layer with the handle and the layer with the circle. From the Layers menu I clicked on Merge and then "Merge Visible". Be sure not to "Merge all". Now my handle and my circle are on the same layer. I then turned all my layers on again.

I'll need to have some "glass" so I used the magic wand on the layer with the handle and circle and selected the area inside the circle. I then created a new layer and used the flood fill/paint bucket tool set to a sunburst gradient with the metallic gradient.

I then used a plugin I have that created the highlight on another new layer.

Now, using the transparency slider on the layer palette I reduced the opacity until I could see my paper through it.

I then added a new layer and placed text on the new layer. I moved that layer beneath the glass layer. I looked to see where the text fit "under" the glass and redid the text on another layer. This time however, I started my text lines at size 14. I then highlighted the areas that would fall under the glass and increased the size of that part of the text to size 20. I deleted the first text layer I created. Below are the layers I ended up with.

Below is the image I ended up with. This was a pretty simplified tutorial and you could get into a lot more detail with the glass. For instance you could do a lot more work with shading on the glass part to give it a more rounded effect.

There are a lot of things you can do that at first seem like un-surmountable tasks which really turn out to be fairly simple.

Copyright Vikki Olds, All Rights Reserved