I am from Texas and we have a slogan here that goes “Don’t mess with Texas!” That slogan is suppose to tell people to stop littering the streets with trash and to keep our state looking good. I have to add another slogan to my collection and that is “Don’t mess with my shapes and vectors!” Photoshop shapes and vectors are looking much better nowadays. In the case of shapes, they are looking more intricate, and vectors are looking more realistic than ever. They’re definitely moving on up.

I know everybody knows what a shape is, but a few of you may not know where Photoshop shapes are in Photoshop. If you go way down the toolbox, you will see the rectangle tool with an arrow next to it. When you click on that and hover over it, a little menu bar pops out. The object that looks like a blob of goo is the custom shape tool and that’s what you’re going to use to make a shape. After you click on that, you’re going to look at the second menu bar at the top of the page and you’re going to see a palette just like the brush palette where you can choose whatever shape you want to use. When you’re adding new shapes to Photoshop, you have to remember to load them, because they won’t appear in the shape area by themselves. Once you have chosen a shape, you can then click, hold, and drag the shape across the page until it’s the size you want it to be. You can then fill it with a color, pattern, or turn it into a selection and do a different effect with it.

Shapes are a beautiful thing. If you draw horrible stars like I do, then a star shape can definitely safe the day and your sanity. So let’s take a stroll along Shape Lane. You may see some shapes that you can’t live without.

Ladyoak

Free4Photoshop

Graphicxtras

Yazooy

Photoshop Presets by Shelby Kate Schmitz

The shapes we just looked at probably all started out as a vector. For those of you that don’t know what a vector is, a vector is a shape or image that is created using points that connect to each other. This is done in various vector programs such as Illustrator. It can also be done in Photoshop, but Photoshop only puts out raster images that are made up of pixels. When anything is made of pixels, it’s going to have a jagged edge. Illustrator and other vector programs are the programs to use if you want your vector to have nice clean edges. I know you’re wondering what kind of vectors are out there. The sky is the limit when it comes to vectors. You can get anything from paint splats to a traffic signal. I have even seen some vectors of the U.S. presidential nominees, Obama and McCain. lol You’re probably wondering why am I talking about vectors since they’re Illustrator things, well you can import them into Photoshop. I imported a vector into one of my artworks in my portfolio and it turned out great. The good thing about a vector is that you can customize it much easier than a shape. You can add and subtract things, change colors in different sections, and etc. Let’s get out our vector inspector magnifying glasses and see what cool vectors we spot at the websites below.

Stock Graphic Designs

Free-Vectors.com

I Heart Vector

Digital Artist Toolbox

Blog.SpoonGraphics

Free4Illustrator

Well that concludes our search through some of the coolest vector websites, and it also concludes my time here as guest blogger. I had fun telling you all about my favorite Photoshop goody websites. I hope they’ll become your favorites too. May the next guest blogger have tons of fun and may they make us oooh and ahhh with his or her blogging talents. If any of you ever need some kind of brush or vector that you can’t find, then you know who to call or should I say IM or email. lol Thank you again SuChin, Brian, MTV Engine Room, and the MTV Engine Room bloggers for being so nice to me these past few days and for giving me this cool opportunity! Now back to the ole great one, SuChin Pak!

The Photoshop addict is outta here! Peace!

- Denesia