~ passion of art

This tutorial will demonstrate how we can use the Pen tool to create abstract vector shapes that form into a beautiful piece of fake 3D artwork. I was very busy with office works the whole week and finally found some free time to make this tutorial. Hope you will find it useful!

Preview of Final Image

Create a document of size 612×850 pixels with background #FFFFFF. Create a new layer and name it as "Box Base". Draw the square black box like what I have below.

Go to Edit > Transform > Rotate at 45 degrees. Then follow by Edit > Transform > Distort. Adjust the shape similar to mine.

Set the Opacity of "Box Base" to 50%. Create a new layer and name it as "Box Top". Repeat the similar steps you done for "Box Base" for the top. Set the Opacity of "Box Top" to 50% as well.

Create another new layer and name it as "Box Left". Using the Pen tool with Shape Layers Mode, connect the 2 left corners of both "Box Top" and "Box Base". Fill the shape with black when you are done. This will gives you a nice left piece of the box. Set the Opacity of "Box Left: to 50% so you can get a clearer view of how your box looks like.

Create another new layer and name it as "Box Right". Repeat the same steps you did for "Box Left" to "Box Right".

Now set Opacity of "Box Right" back to 100%. Right-click on the layer and choose Blending Options. Choose Gradient Overlay and key in the settings shown below.

Repeat the same for "Box Left".

Repeat the same for "Box Base".

Using the similar techniques, create the inner 2 sides of the box. You can delete "Box Top" when you are done with all the sides of the box.

Using the Pen tool in Shape Layers Mode, draw the lids of the box like what I have done.

Fill them up with gradients using the same techniques applied to sides of the box.

Focus a little bit more on the thin sides of each piece of the box lid.

This is how the box should look like when all the parts are drawn.

On the "Background" layer, create a large radial gradient with the Gradient tool with the colors stated below.

Create a new layer and name it as "Box Shadow". Using the Brush tool with Soft Round type and size 25px, paint in some mild shadows at the 2 lower sides of the box.

And you are done with the box! Now let’s draw in some abstract shapes. Select the Pen tool in Shape Layers Mode, and draw a shape similar to what I did. Right-click on the shape layer and choose Blending Options. Select Gradient Overlay and include the settings.

There is no hard rules on how you want your shapes to look like as long as you give a side view to it. Let’s use the same technique on the sides of the abstract shape you drawn earlier. You will realize the gradient is filled in automatically since you have set it as such in the earlier step.

To adjust the individual shape, you can use the Convert Point tool. Once you are done, group all these shape layers in one folder. Name the folder as "Object1".

Draw another object using the same techniques below "Object1". Group these shape layers into a new folder and name it as "Object2".

Create a new layer between "Object1" and "Object2". Using the Brush tool with Soft Round type and size 30px, paint in some shadows where the 2 objects overlay. Use the Eraser tool to remove those unwanted areas.

That is all to focus on creating the objects. Using the same methods, I create many other new objects.

Let us add in some round objects since swhat we have created so far are angular. Create a circle shape using the Ellipse tool and fill it with white. Right-click on this circle shape and choose Blending Options. Key in the following settings.

You can even duplicate all these objects and transform them to make the whole artwork looks more busy.

Create a new layer above all these objects and name it as "Inner Shadow". Using the Brush tool with black color, Soft Round type and size 65px, paint a shadow at the lowest end of the objects where touching the top of the box.