Create Beautiful Abstract Female Art in Photoshop

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

Sometimes, all it takes to create a stunning piece of art is a stock photo, a bit of creativity, a great idea, and some time. Today, I will demonstrate how to create a piece of art that I created titled, "Beauty of Gold." Let’s get started!

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Step 1

Let’s start by creating a new document in Photoshop, I used A3 format but it doesn’t really matter what size you use. I always find it easier working in high resolution because it’s easier to add the details. After that, search for a nice piece of stock art. I bought mine on Dreamstime.com but you could also try DeviantArt or any other site. Place the stock on your canvas as shown below.

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Step 2

Now, have a good look at your stock, this technique is always easier when you have a stock with a lot of highlights and shadows. I have circled these areas in red and green below. It’s not necessary to draw the lines yourself. I just wanted you to understand what I meant.

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Step 3

Take out your ‘Ellipse Tool’ and begin to create circles that will form the shading.

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Step 4

Set the opacity of the ‘Ellipse Tool’ to about 20%. Now start filling in the dark and light areas with white and black. Don’t worry about the details yet, just create the basic shading like I did. (I set my stock to 50% opacity so that the circles are visible).

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Step 5

Work from large size to small size! This might seem a bit boring but in the end you will get the best results! As you can see below I’ve already added some very small details on the face just to show what it will look like on a later stage. (The stock is on 10% so that the shading is more visible).

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Step 6

Repeat this same step again, but this time add some circles around you stock to create some flow, this will be used for effects later in this tutorial. If some parts don’t look great, don’t worry, it can be fixed later on. Create a new layer and add more circles. I changed the opacity of the stock to 0% this time so its easy to see what I did and how much detail I added.

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Step 7

Now, we’re going to add some color. I decided to go for a golden/brown color which is about the same as what my stock had. Using the ‘Ellipse Tool’ start adding light colors on the light parts and dark colors on the darker parts.

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Step 8

Reduce the opacity of the color layer to 35% to bring down the colors a bit, after add more black and white shading on a new layer.

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Step 9

Our composition is finally starting to take shape, but its still a bit hard to recognize some parts of the stock. Take out your brush tool and apply these settings.

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Step 10

Now start brushing on the darker and lighter areas that we showed in Step 2. Make sure you don’t go outside the lines of the stock. Set the opacity of your brush to 30%, only use a black or white brush.

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Step 11

Here is what your layer stack should look like.

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Step 12

Duplicate all the layers above the stock, after that, merge them. Now duplicate the layer of your stock and place it at the very top. Now, create a clipping mask on the layer below it (this should be the merge of all the circles).

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Step 14

After this I merged the top 2 layers and set the result to overlay (20% opacity), then I duplicated that layer and set it to soft light (80% opacity).

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Step 15

As you can see there are still some areas that need more details. See the image below to understand which parts I’m referring to.

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Step 16

For this step we have to take out our ‘Ellipse Tool’ again, we’re now going to zoom in on each part we just highlighted and work on the detailing, add black and white where its needed! Keep repeating this step on the same layer until you are satisfied. (Our Ellipse Tool is still on 20% opacity).

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Step 17

After this we want to start working a bit more on the flow. As you can see when looking at my artwork, the main highlights are on the top left of the stock, so we’re going to add a gradient (black to white) where the bottom right is black and the top left is white. After that, set it to soft light and keep the opacity on 100%.

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Step 18

Things are starting to come together now but the background is still really boring. Since we want to keep the focus on the foreground we’re going to add a really soft background. I usually do this by taking a big stock photo and blurring it, then setting it to soft light. This time I used the stock of a desert which I bought on dreamstime.com (you should also be able to find good stocks on sxc.hu). Place it as shown below.

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Step 19

Now go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the radius to 65. Set this layer to soft light (100% opacity), now duplicate that layer and set it to 15% opacity.

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Step 20

Now, we’re going to add more effects, at the moment all we have are flat circles which are a bit boring. I created some special circles with gradients etc. which I’m going to randomly place in the artwork. Its best to experiment with creating circles because it depends on what fits the artwork best.
Note: I put a gray background behind the effects in this screenshot so they are all visible. These are not on the same layer because then I wouldn’t be able to move them around and duplicate them.

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Step 21

Some parts still look a bit flat. We’re now going to add highlights but also darken the dark areas a bit more. A very simple way to do this is by soft brushing on a new layer and setting it to soft light. I did this with a 550px soft brush (black and white), which I set to soft light 50% opacity.

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Step 22

After that, we’re going to add very small details. I did this with a soft brush and hard brush with a small diameter. Set the scatter and spacing to high and brush in random areas. Do this with different colors but also with varied blending modes such as screen, overlay and soft light.

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Step 23

We’re coming to an end here, I took out my pen tool and a very large soft brush to create lines around some places of my main model. Also, I added some subtle effects to it. Check out the screenshot below what I mean. (Make sure you set it on simulate pressure).

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Step 24

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Erase all the areas you don’t want blurred to improve the focal point.

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Step 25

We’re almost done now. I applied my image on a new layer and sharpened it. After that I played a bit with the colors/brightness and contrast/hue and saturation. This is my final result.

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Final Image

I flipped the image horizontally because for me, it looked better. After that I also added my logo.

It’s evident from all the amazing entries that patterns do surround the world around us. From the obvious and obsure to using macro and wide angle, you really did a brilliant job to capture some amazing images in this week’s Creative Challenge: Patterns. We were very impressed with the variety of subjects submitted this week. See the top three winners below! For those who weren’t selected, stay tuned because we have set aside a few for future features across the site! #1. Member antaver59’s use of soft lighting and a tight composition highlighted the subtle hues beautifully of this patterned prickly plant. Congrats to member antaver59 —we’ll feature you’re photo on the homepage tomorrow! #2. Member volvob12 focused on the textured patterns in this architectural detail of a Singapore rooftop. The vibrant contrast between color and texture in the frame makes for an intriguing study. #3. The tonal range in this organic nature study from member denidab beautifully highlights the reticulated patterns formed from dried mud.

Final Image Preview

Create a new document (Ctrl+N) in Adobe Photoshop with the size 1280px by 1024px (RGB color mode) at a resolution of 72 pixels/inch. Use the Paint Bucket Tool (G) to fill with black color the new background layer.

Find a stock photo with a model represented on it, I used this photo from deviantart. I would like to thank the author of this photo.

Remove the background using your favorite tools like Pen Tool (P), Magic Wand Tool (W), Magnetic Lasso (L) or even a simple Filter>Extract and insert it on a new layer in our main document. The Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command may be helpful in changing the girl’s sizes.

Press D to set the default foreground color in black, and the default background color in white. Create a new layer and go to Filter>Render>Clouds to generate a soft cloud pattern using random values of the foreground and the background colors. Place the layer under the girl’s one.

Click on the same layer on the bottom part of the Layers panel on Add layer mask icon. Next select the Soft Round brush of black color (set the Opacity to 30% in Options bar).

Use this brush to hide the clouds around the girl. Place the layer under the girl’s one.

Next we have to copy the made layer and apply on it: Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp mask to increase the contrast along the edges.

We’ve got the next result:

Select the Custom Shape Tool (U) in the Tools bar, in the Options bar click the Shape to open the selection menu. Find Triangle shape at the bottom of the menu, and then double-click a shape thumbnail to select it.

Click and drag to draw the shape. Sizes and placement may be changed if applying the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command. Place this layer under the girl’s layer.

Set Fill to 0% for this layer and click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Inner Glow.

Add Stroke

We’ve got the next effect on the shape.

Using the Custom Shape Tool (U), we can add many shapes around the girl.


Their Layer Styles should be the same with the triangle’s ones. Change their sizes and placement with Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command. Place the layer also lower than the girl’s one.

Create a new layer and select on it the Hard Round brush.

Use this brush to draw a tetrahedron of white color, hold down SHIFT to draw a straight line between the two points. Place the layer under the girl’s one.

Draw another three tetrahedrons around the girl.

On the next new layer we’ll apply the Soft Round brush.

Use this brush to represent many dots with white color, changing its Master Diameter and the Opacity value. Place this layer under the girl’s one.

Next we have to create a new file (File>New) with the size 20px by 20px (RGB color mode) at a resolution of 72 pixels/inch. Select the Custom Shape Tool (U) in the Tools bar, in the Options bar click the Shape to open the selection menu. Find Diamond Card shape at the bottom of the menu, and then double-click a shape thumbnail to select it.

Click and drag to draw the shape of black color.

Choose Edit > Define Pattern. Enter a name for the pattern in the Pattern Name dialog box.
Get back to the girl’s document and use now the Ellipse Tool (U) to represent a ellipse of white color.

Click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Inner Shadow.

We’ve got the next result: