Hi Sam,
Thank you so much for your reply. This is absolutely perfect! Can I ask how you did it?
Well, the image in post #2 was a conglomeration of several techniques I was experimenting with.
The colorization of the swoosh is the hard part to explain. I used the Brush Tool and created several different colored spots in a horizontal row.
I then used the Rectangular Marquee Tool to create a thin selection across the dots.
With the selection active, I entered Free Transform and then stretched the dots towards the top and bottom.
Hit the check mark or click enter to accept the state change.
Command + D to deselect.
I then turned it into a smart object and applied a smart Gaussian Blur Filter.
The actual shaping of the swoosh was done with the warp tool in the transform function. I then clipped it to a shape layer that I had made using the Pen Tool.
Of course I had to use layer masks for the blending.
As I stated, I'm not happy with the result. I'm still working on a better way.
What version of Photoshop are you using?