Custom shapes has always been a popular trend in graphic design, especially when it comes to using them in Photoshop. I’m going to show you today how to make some abstract custom shapes and save them so that you can use in your future designs.
Here’s what you will be making at the end of this tutorial (maybe not exactly, but the shape in there will be made):
You’ve probably seen these shapes quite often, whether it be my portfolio or in general designs out there. They are pretty trendy and add a lot of decoration to a design. When used right, the colors can be a great addition to a design and add that sense of abstractness.
Let’s set up our canvas. You should be able to do this with Photoshop CS and up. (maybe even Photoshop 7, it’s been a long time since I used that so I forgot whether it had custom shapes or not)
I always like to make a new canvas that’s 500px by 500px for all of my testings and experimentation when making shapes or brushes. It’s enough space to mess around with, and it’s not too small.
The next step is to set up the custom shape tools so that you’ll be able to make your new custom shape. The settings I have are pictured above.
I turned Shape Layers on so that I can see the shape with color. And since this is our first shape it’s automatically defaulted to Creating a New Shape Layer. So pick the circle shape and let’s make our first circle.
Don’t make too big of a circle since you’ll need the space to add additional shapes.
While your circle is still selected (you’ll see a little ring around it), change the option of the custom shape tool to Add to Shape Area (+). From here, you can just have a free for all in making circles just like the picture below.
HINT: You don’t have to necessarily switch to that custom shape option. Rather you can hold shift, and your cursor will have a little plus sign similar to the cursor when you choose that option.
Sometimes you may have added too many shapes, or you want to give your shape some interesting cuts in it. By choosing the Subtract Area (-) option, you can make shapes that will cut/erase your current shape like below.
It may look a bit busy, but if you wanted to see how your shape looks like without the pen lines, you can just hide them by pressing Crtl/Cmd+H.
After you finishing make your shape, select the pen tool from your tool bar or press the Photoshop shortcut key “P” and right click on the shape. You will see the option to “Define Custom Shape…”
After you click on that, name your custom shape and press “Ok“. You now have a custom shape. To access this custom shape, go to your custom shapes menu and look for it. Usually, newly created ones will show up last on the list.
And now you can use your shape as many times as you want, and even resize it without losing any pixels because it’s not rasterized yet.
Here’s my result after messing around with the same shape. I flipped it, I duplicated it, I rotated and changed it’s colors.
You can do a lot by making your own shapes. You’re not even limited to circles. Use other shapes, or even use custom shapes you’ve already made. The sky’s your limit on this one.
Thanks for looking at my tutorial about creating abstract custom shapes for Photoshop. If you have any questions or confusion, comment below and I’ll get to them. Show off your results as well here, or share a link.
If you want to contribute a tutorial, resource, or some inspirational links, just send them through, and we'll get them featured!
very creative you damn impressed me
meep man
Thanks for posting this. I am always playing with shapes and brushes. Great resource. Thanks!
Oh cool, I thought Illustrator was the only program with “Pathfinder”!
Thanks for the comments everyone.
@ahmed – I’m glad you liked it.
@kyle – Yeah, to be honest, I dread my days with Illustrator (I don’t like the interface and set up….it’s really weird), so I had to find ways to make some shapes and vector paths with just using Photoshop.
where is the shape layer. i’m new to photoshop and i cannnot find it
[...] an und natürlich können auch eigne Formen erstellt werden, wie im Workshop Creating Custom Photoshop Shapes beschrieben. Dabei entsteht eine sehr abstrakte Form mit [...]
I have a hard time understanding what you mean. The shape layer should be in your Layers Palette in photoshop (normally to the right).
But the Shape Layers option, is located at the top as noted in Step 2 when setting up your tools.
I hope that helps.
Dan,
Great tutorial! I made some shapes and posted them up on my blog and linked this tut! Thanks for sharing!
@Deb – Thanks for the appreciation. I checked out your site. Nice quick set that you made. I love seeing people use my tutorials and resources for other things.
Thanks for sharing your result.
[...] vector shapes, but of course you can create your own shapes, such as described in the workshop Creating Custom Photoshop Shapes. A very abstract form with holes in it is created [...]
nice work that photoshop cs3 groups are doing good
tnx!
Wow, I’ve always wanted to learn how to make abstract stuff by myself :d! This tutorial was really helpful! Thanks a billion ^w^
COOL!!! THANKS HEAPS. HELPED ME IN MY VISUAL DESIGN ASSIGNMENT SO MUCH!!!
definitely stumbles across this tutorial by accident… very VERY useful. I enthusiastically appreciate this. Thank you!
[...] How to create abstract Photoshop shapes Tutorial In this tutorial, you will learn how to make some abstract custom shapes and save them so that you can use in your future designs. [...]
[...] How to create abstract Photoshop shapes Tutorial In this tutorial, you will learn how to make some abstract custom shapes and save them so that you can use in your future designs. [...]
[...] How to create abstract Photoshop shapes Tutorial [...]
[...] http://creative-le.com/tutorials/creating-custom-photoshop-shapes/ Like this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Published in: [...]
this is easy and cool. thank you.
[...] How to make abstract Photoshop shapes Tutorial In this tutorial, you will learn how to make some abstract custom shapes and save them so that you can use in your future designs. [...]
[...] Making Custom Photoshop Shapes Custom shapes has always been a well loved trend in graphic design, especially when it comes to by them in Photoshop. The artist will trade show you how to make some abstract custom shapes and keep them so including the intention of you can use in your prospect designs. [...]
[...] Creating Custom Photoshop Shapes [...]
nice effects
Very nice tutorial. This is the start for all noobs to start and put their imagination to create something really good and impressive