Complex Shapes

We have already seen how the marquee tool can be used to create basic ellipses and rectangles but the Lasso tool can also be used to create more complex shapes.

1) Find the lassoo tool and use it to create a selection, then fill or stroke it.

The lasso tool has 3 modes that are shown when the right mouse button is clicked over the tool bar button. For the moment stick with the Polygonal Lasso Tool.

2) Now use this tool to draw a custom selection shape that can either be filled or stroked.

Polygonal Tool used to create a custom selection.

This selection can either be stroked or filled to produce interesting shapes.

3) It is also possible to use selection tools (the marquee or lasso tool) to delete sections from a shape. For example:

Using the normal marquee tool to draw a circle on our original shape.

Simply press delete to cut out this shape from the original.

Using the 2 selections tools, Fill or Stroke and being able to add or delete sections gives us a powerful set of tools to design complex shapes.

These can also be combined with layer styles such as bevelling or drop shadow for additional effect.