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Inspiring
March 18, 2019
Answered

Gradient Tool and Ellipse Tool

  • March 18, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 984 views

I'm overlooking something small, and I need some help.  When I draw an oval with the Ellipse tool, I want to draw a B/W Gradient inside the oval, but the gradient is drawn on the whole canvas/image.  What am I doing wrong?  Frustrated.

Thank you in advance!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer MrCameraMan

I found the answer.  I forgot to hit Command and click directly on the thumbnail of the layer with my shape to put a selection around the shape **before** using the gradient tool.  Thank you anyway, Chuck!

1 reply

Chuck Uebele
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 18, 2019

One method is to use a shape layer:

Another would be to make a layer with an solid oval then apply a clipping mask above it with the gradient, which you can then transform to the shape of the oval.

There are more ways.

Inspiring
March 18, 2019

But is there a setting that I have in place that is causing my whole image to be a gradient instead of just the inside of the oval I drew with the ellipse tool?  In other words, what should I check to see what the default settings should be for ellipse or gradient tools?

Bojan Živković11378569
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 18, 2019

You must click on Gradient fill in fly-out menu in the Options bar as shown in the first screenshot. Can you post screenshot with Layers panel and Options bar visible?