Polyscapes

We are going to create this awesomeness!

Student Examples

Setting up your document

Click on this photo so it opens in another window
Drag the full size image into Photoshop
Make a layer copy (command j)
Make the bottom layer invisible
We are going to add guides in the next steps (if you do not want your design to be symmetrical, you do not have to do this process)
Go to View—>New Guide
Set it to 50% Vertical
Press OK
Go to View—>New Guide
Your document should look like the image below
Go to View–>Snap To and make sure ‘guides’ have a check next to it (this way the shape we are going to make is perfectly aligned and snaps to place)

Creating your first shape

Add a new layer- this is not a layer copy! Press command shift n for the new layer
Select the marquee tool (M) and hover the mouse at the intersection of the guides
Click and hold the mouse at the cross section
While pressing BOTH the ‘option’ and ‘shift’ keys, move the curser to make a large square shape
Once it is the size you want, let go of the mouse, as well as the command and shift keys
Go to Select—>Transform Selection and rotate it to a diamond shape
Press G on your keyboard to get to the Paint Bucket Tool (if the Gradient Tool pops up, click and hold on the Gradient Tool and then select the Paint Bucket Tool)
Hold your option key down and sample a color from your photo
Fill the diamond with a color by clicking the Paint Bucket Tool inside of the shape
Go to your Layers Panel (the layer panel has all your layers on it)
Change your layer blending mode from normal to one of your choosing (I chose soft light because I like the way it looks with the photo…overlay, multiply, and a lot of the others work well to. Experiment with the different modes and find one that you like)
Press ‘command d’ to deselect (or go to Select—>Deselect)
If you want to add a border around you shape, click on the ‘fx’ icon at the bottom of the layers panel and select ‘stroke’
Make sure that the preview box has a check next to it so you can see what you’re changing
Adding a stroke and changing the blending mode will help separate your image from the background photo. Changing the color of the stroke also helps (I changed mine to white). I also increased the stroke size. This step is not mandatory.

Adding more shapes

Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool (also M on your keyboard…you’ll have to click and hold on the Marquee Tool to get to the Elliptical Marquee Tool)…this is the one that looks like a circle
Hover the mouse at the intersection of the guides
While pressing BOTH the ‘option’ and ‘shift’ keys, click on the mouse to create a circle shape that is around the size of the diamond shape
Click on Layer 1 (or the copy of the original photo)
Press command j to make a layer copy of the photo
At first glance, it’ll look like nothing happened. Go to your layers panel and move that layer to the top
Go to Edit—>Transform—>Flip Vertical
Hold the command key on your keyboard while clicking the layer thumbnail of the circle layer on the layers panel to load the selection
Go to Select—>Transform Selection
Press shift and option to decrease the circle in proportion.
When you are satisfied with your selection, press delete on your keyboard to take away the middle part of the photo
Press ‘command d’ to deselect
You can adjust the opacity and/or blending mode (I ended up making my circle thinner and altering the opacity

Adding a third shape and photo

Press U on the keyboard to select the Polygon Tool (you might need to click and hold to get to the polygon
Look at the top bar and change the ‘sides’ to 3 (it’s on the top left)
Hover the mouse at the intersection of the guides
Click and hold the mouse
While pressing BOTH the ‘option’ and ‘shift’ keys, drag the mouse to create a triangle shape that is smaller than the circle shape
Add this photo to your polyscape document (you can copy and paste it in)
Make sure it is the top layer (if it is not, drag it to the top)
We are going to create a clipping mask. Hold your option key while hovering the mouse over the line between the new layer and the polygon layer. When you notice it change from a hand to a square with an arrow, click the mouse
I ended up cropping the image because it wasn’t centered