By Shutterstock contributor Karl Rosencrants

Photoshop is known for its pixel editing capabilities, but that isn’t all it can do. It also has the ability to create and work with vector art. Working with vectors has advantages: It can help you create crisp graphics with great precision. Photoshop’s main vector tool is the Pen Tool.

Some beginners are intimidated by the Pen Tool because they don’t understand how it works. It is an incredibly powerful tool once you understand the basics. The Pen Tool works exactly the same in Illustrator as it does in Photoshop, so once you learn it in one program, you’ll be proficient in the other!

The Pen Tool works by using a series of Anchor Points, Paths and Direction Points to create complex paths in Photoshop. In this tutorial, we will use the Shape Layer option so that we can easily see the shape we are creating.
Continue reading ‘Mastering the Pen tool in Photoshop’ »

By Shutterstock contributor Karl Rosencrants

One of the biggest time-savers in Adobe Photoshop is the Actions Palette. If you invest a few minutes figuring it out, it will pay you back every time you use it to speed up a repetitive task. This basic-level tutorial will help you understand the Actions Palette.

Continue reading ‘Photoshop Tip: The Actions Palette Explained’ »

By Shutterstock Contributor Erica Truex

The beat-up, weather-worn style of “grunge” never seems to go out of style. The most authentic grunge or distressed effects often come from source photos or scanned textures. Though manipulating existing images is a great way to obtain grunge, you may not always have the time or resources to use this method. You also might want to create a grunge pattern that’s easily scaled and distorted without losing quality. Creating texture from scratch in Adobe Illustrator is a great alternative if you find yourself without source photos, or if you’re looking for complete creative control over the finished effect.

This basic tutorial shares a step-by-step method on how to create your own grunge in Illustrator. Please note that throughout this tutorial, I refer to Mac shortcuts. If you’re a PC user, remember to use Ctrl instead of Cmd and Alt instead of Opt.

Let’s get started!
Continue reading ‘Illustrator Tutorial: Create A Grunge Effect From Scratch’ »

By Shutterstock contributor Karl Rosencrants

If you do serious design work, you probably use both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. You also probably know how to move images between the two programs. But do you know the four ways to copy and paste from Illustrator into Photoshop? Which method works best depends on what you plan to do with the artwork. Below, we’ll examine all four methods and explain what each one is best for.

Continue reading ‘Four ways to copy a path from Illustrator to Photoshop’ »

By Shutterstock contributor Karl Rosencrants

There are many ways to create a neon light effect in Photoshop, but let’s look at how to do it using only Layer Styles. Designing this way has two benefits. First, it keeps the text editable, which is a major plus when doing work for a client who may change their mind. Second, since all the work is done using Layer Styles, the elements can be saved to the Style Palette for easy application to another design later.

First, use the text tool to lay down some text on the canvas. Pick something that is close to white but that still has some color. Large, blocky text will look best to start with.

Continue reading ‘Photoshop Tutorial: Create A Neon Type Effect’ »

Even if you use Adobe Illustrator all the time, it can be hard to remember the keyboard shortcuts that make the program so much faster to use.

Well, we’ve created a handy reference that you can print out, pin to your wall, and refer to while you’re working. Download a PDF file of the Mac or Windows version of the chart. You can also click on the previews below to see the whole chart. Enjoy! Continue reading ‘Adobe Illustrator Keyboard Shortcuts’ »

© Steve Byland /Shutterstock

The beauty (and confusion) of ambiguous words is that they can mean different things to different people when they hear such words spoken. We must rely on the context of the conversation to guide us.

Fly is a great example of this.  An angler will probably look to his tackle box, while a baseball fan will probably look upwards, while a pilot may simply smile.

Below, we’ll examine some of the multiple visual interpretations of fly.

Continue reading ‘Search Word Spotlight: Fly’ »

© Kzenon /Shutterstock

We’re not sure just how official this is, but apparently today is National Junk Food Day in the United States. We’re also not clear what this “holiday’s” origins are, but since we did a recent post on fitness-related images, we thought we’d put down our donuts and pizza and commemorate the day with some mouth-watering junk food favorites.

Feel free to indulge below!

Continue reading ‘Search Word Spotlight: Junk Food’ »

© Robyn Mackenzie /Shutterstock

In case you haven’t heard yet, Shutterstock is celebrating its seventh birthday this week. All week long on the Shutterstock blog, we’re featuring birthday-related content. Since we do a Search Word Spotlight post every Wednesday, and birthday happens to be one of the more popular search terms on Shutterstock, today’s post seemed like the perfect combination – going together like cake and ice cream!

Here’s a few of our favorites – but don’t worry, we have plenty more!

Continue reading ‘Search Word Spotlight: Birthday’ »

Here we are: early July, full-on beach season, and as you pack up your beach towels, old paperback and sunscreen, you stop and wonder if maybe you should have taken advantage of that gym membership or aerobics dvd.

Or maybe that’s just us.

Whether you’re a certified gym rat or your idea of working out is walking to the refrigerator, the concept of fitness yields a wide variety of results on Shutterstock. As one of the most searched-for words, it’s clear that fitness is on the minds of Shutterstock buyers and contributors alike. At the risk of overexerting ourselves, here are few our favorite fitness-themed images.

Continue reading ‘Search Word Spotlight: Fitness’ »