How to create art with the Pen tool in Photoshop

Use Photoshop’s Pen tool to create detailed work that is made up of simple shapes a photo

Download all the files you’ll need for this tutorial

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STEP 01

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Begin by opening a new document in Photoshop, we have used a canvas that is 120mm x 140mm and 300dpi. Next place ‘Headshot.jpg’ on to your page and alter the position accordingly.
STEP 02

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The Pen tool has a number of settings, the two we will use for this tutorial are ‘Shape layers’ and ‘Paths’. To begin with we will need to select the ‘Paths’ option. This will allow us to roughly crop our model away from her background.
STEP 03

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We can now begin cutting out our model. Begin by clicking a point on the background, then you are going to follow around the model, which can be fairly rough at this point. If you should make a mistake, don’t worry, just hit Cmd/Ctrl+Z or Edit>Undo to go back to your last point.
STEP 04

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When cutting out our model’s hair it’s useful to curve the path the Pen tool creates. To do this, click and hold your mouse then drag. You’ll notice that anchor points appear when you move your mouse in any direction. Drag the mouse where you want your line to curve and release to create a new point.
STEP 05

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Cmd/Ctrl+click anywhere inside your Pen tool path to confirm, then hit Make Selection. We have opted for a 0.5 pixel Feather Radius. Hit OK and you will notice a flashing border around your selection. Press Cmd/Ctrl+J. Anything inside that selection will be duplicated and put onto a new layer of its own.
STEP 06

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Open your Swatches palette (Window>Swatches). Click on your foreground colour and select a slightly off-white colour. Hit Add to swatches. It will now appear in your right-hand Swatches palette. Do the same for a mid grey colour and a black (we used a black with the following CMYK values: C – 40, M – 0, Y – 0, K-100).


STEP 07

http://blog.photoshopcreative.co.uk/...B-1024x585.jpgNext we’ll block out the main shape of our model. Select the Pen tool option Shape layers. Select the black colour we created in the previous step. and cut out the model in a similar way, being precise and similar to the model’s shape. Once you close the path you’ll notice a new layer has been created in your Layers palette. Name it ‘model block’.STEP 08

http://blog.photoshopcreative.co.uk/...C-1024x596.jpgNow it’s time to start adding detail back in. Start by looking at the overall picture to decipher the lightest parts. To temporarily hide the model block layer, click the eye icon next to it in the Layers palette. Select your ‘off white’ swatch and use the same technique from the previous step to trace around the face.STEP 09

http://blog.photoshopcreative.co.uk/...B-1024x589.jpgMove onto the midtones. In our image, this will mainly mean the shine from the hair. Repeat what we have performed in the previous steps and block out the midtones. Always remember to name your layers in a way that makes sense to you, in case you need to make alterations later on.STEP 10

http://blog.photoshopcreative.co.uk/...A-1024x588.jpgIt makes sense to group layers together that represent certain sections of the image. Select one layer in the palette then, while holding Cmd/Ctrl, click any other layers you want to group together. Then hit Cmd/Ctrl+G to create a group from the selected layers.STEP 11

http://blog.photoshopcreative.co.uk/...1-1024x593.jpgNow we can look to add detail back in, specifically on the face where we have paid attention to the eyes. Add in colour using a solid white colour to create the whites of the eyes and pupil reflections. Reordering new layers so that they sit in the correct order is important, and it’s why we named our layers.STEP 12

http://blog.photoshopcreative.co.uk/...2-1024x588.jpgNow for the shine on the hair, the earrings and the shirt creases. Drop the transparency of the creases to 20% to create a nice blue/green colour and help separate it from the hair’s shine.STEP 13

http://blog.photoshopcreative.co.uk/...B-1024x595.jpgTo finish, select the background layer and then the Gradient tool (G). Click the colour in the top left-hand corner to open the Gradient Editor. Select a black to white gradient and press OK. Now click and drag from the top of your canvas down to the bottom and release.