Glowy Shapes

This will make hollow shapes that have a glowing border. In this tutorial, I will be making a flower, but you can apply this to any shape.

Prerequisites

Please know how to do the following before using this tutorial.

  • Exercise: Pen Tool - Be sure you know how to use the Pen tool, Add Anchor tool, and Direct Selection tool. You should also know where Load path as selection is.

Objective

Final Result

Tutorial

  1. Open a new canvas, and fill it with the color of your choice using the Paint Bucket Paint Bucket.

  2. Make a New Layer New Layer. I will name mine middle petal since I'm making a flower.

  3. Move over to your Paths window, and create a New Path New Path. I will name mine middle path.

  4. Using the Pen tool Pen tool, create your base points for the shape.

  5. Use the Add Anchor tool Add Anchor and Direct Selection tool Direct Selection to fine tune the shape.

  6. In your Paths window, hit Load path as selection Load path as selection.

  7. Now move back over to your Layers window. Using the Paint Bucket tool Paint Bucket, fill layer middle petal with white.

  8. With the selection still on, go to Select >> Feather. Set it to about 7px. If this were a larger selection, I would probably go up to 10-15px. Then hit Delete on your keyboard.

  9. I'm going to make a New Layer and New Path New Layer/Path. They're named right petal and right path.

  10. Following the same steps as before, make another shape on the new layer and path we just created.

  11. You'll notice that the shapes overlap, so let's clean that up! Go to your Paths window and select the path middle path. Hit Load path as selection Load path as selection on that.

  12. Go back to your Layers window, and select layer right petal. Hit Delete on your keyboard.

  13. Repeat this with as many shapes as you want.

  14. You can be done at the step above, or we can take it a little father to give some extra glow. Start by hiding the Background layer.

  15. Now select your lowest layer, which is middle petal in my case. Do a Merge Visible (Ctrl + Shift + E or Layer >> Merge Visible). This puts everything on one layer.

  16. Duplicate layer middle petal (Ctrl + J or right click and hit "Duplicate"). This will make the lines brighter and glow more. You can adjust this with the Opacity of the duplicated layer, which I have named copy. You can also show the Background again now.

    Add anything else you want, and here is what I did with mine!

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