How To Create Custom Shape Using Photoshop

Photoshop is a miraculous tool that helps us bring out the artistic traits in us by modifying photographs. The art of editing photographs by using Photoshop is itself a very creative process and as such a large number of effects may be produced using Photoshop. The following are the steps involved in creating a custom shape using Photoshop:

1. The first step involved is to create a new file by pressing Ctrl + N/Cmd + N. Next rename the file to whatever name you want to. The dimension of the image is chosen according to the size of the file. In this case, the dimension has been chosen as 4000 x 3000.
2. Now go to the tool panel and then click on Custom shape tool.
3. The next step is to go to the Options bar and change the pick tool mode to shape. Next, fill with any colour you like and ensure that the stroke is chosen as no fill.
4. The next step in the process is to hold down the shift key and drag the mouse so that the custom shape is drawn as selected.
5. Now a new layer is created by pressing Ctrl + Shift + N/ Cmd + Shift + N. Next; the fill is changed to any colour and shape desired. The shift key is held down to draw the custom shape as desired.

6. In the next step, it is ensured that the ‘Shape 2’ vector layer is selected. Now Ctrl + J/Cmd + J is pressed as many times as much as the duplication is required. Now to select the move tool the ‘V’ key is pressed. Next, the shift key is pressed and held down and then the custom shapes are dragged to the right layer by layer.

7. In the next step, the image is rasterized to merge the different vector layers. To do this, the image is right-clicked and then the rasterize layer option is selected. This is then applied to all other vector layers. Finally, select the uppermost layer panel and press Ctrl + E repeatedly to start the merging of layers.

8. Now right click on the ‘shape 2’ layer and then click on the duplicate layer to duplicate the layer. Next, go to the tool panel and then click on the move tool and then adjust the position as shown in the image below. The same step is repeated until the whole canvas is completely filled up.
9. The next step is to merge the ‘Shape 2’ layer and the layer created in step 8.
10. Moving on to the next step, right-click on the ‘shape 2’ layer and then select create a clipping mask.
11. In the final step, hold down the Ctrl/Cmd button and then click on the layer thumbnail of shape 2 layers to select all the pixels present in the shape 2 layer. Then choose white as the foreground colour and then press Ctrl + Backspace/Cmd + Delete to fill the selected area with the foreground colour. Finally, press Alt + D/Opt + D to delete. And now we are done with the process of creating a custom shape using Photoshop.

Though the number of steps involved in creating custom shapes using Photoshop is a little large yet the entire process turns out to be very easy once it has been practised for a few times. The above article is intended to give a brief idea of how to create custom shapes for beginners who are relatively new to Photoshop and its usage.