How to Create Graphic Art in Photoshop

Solid color adjustment layers paired with layer masks turn out to be all that’s needed to build a clean, colorful piece of graphic art, no photograph required. This tutorial uses that combination to build a target-and-arrows graphic from scratch, covering the basics of color fill layers and swatches, concentric rings built with transformed selections, arrows defined by pre-made selections, and a shadow that ties the whole graphic together.

Understanding Solid Color Adjustment Layers and Layer Masks

A solid color adjustment layer fills the entire document with one chosen color, and its attached layer mask is what controls where that color actually shows.

1. Start With a Blank Square Document

   Create a new blank document, such as 2000 by 2000 pixels, to work on.

2. Add a Solid Color Adjustment Layer

   Go to the Adjustment Layers menu and choose Solid Color, then pick any color in the Color Picker to fill the entire document.

3. Paint Black on the Mask to Hide the Color

   With the layer mask selected, paint black over an area to make the color layer invisible there while the color itself stays intact underneath.

4. Fill the Mask With White to Restore Visibility

   Press Shift+Delete, choose White, and fill the layer mask to make the color layer fully visible again across the whole document.

Saving Custom Colors as Swatches

Adding a frequently used color, such as a logo color, to the Swatches panel keeps it permanently accessible without needing to re-pick it every time.

5. Open the Swatches Panel

   With the desired color set as the foreground color, go to Window > Swatches to open the panel.

6. Save the Color as a New Swatch

   Click the New Swatch icon, name the color something identifiable such as “logo,” and press Enter to save it for future use.

7. Change an Existing Layer’s Color From the Color Picker

   Double-click a solid color adjustment layer’s thumbnail to reopen the Color Picker and choose a saved or new color for that layer.

Building the Target’s Center Circle

A perfect circle selection, inverted and filled with black on the layer mask, isolates the red color to just the target’s own shape.

8. Add a New Solid Color Layer for the Target

   Create another solid color adjustment layer and choose red as its color.

9. Draw a Perfect Circle Selection

   Select the Elliptical Marquee tool, hold Shift, and click and drag to draw a perfectly round selection in the center of the document.

10. Invert the Selection and Fill the Mask With Black

    Go to Select > Inverse, then fill the layer mask with black so only the circle’s interior remains visible in red.

Creating Concentric Rings by Transforming the Selection

Repeatedly right-clicking a selection and choosing Transform Selection, scaling it inward each time, builds up the target’s rings one step smaller than the last.

11. Restore the Circle Selection

    Invert the selection again so the original circle area is active once more, ready to be resized.

12. Scale the Selection Inward

    Right-click the selection, choose Transform Selection, hold Shift and Option/Alt, and scale the selection inward slightly, then confirm.

13. Fill the Mask to Alternate Visibility

    Fill the layer mask with black or white as needed, alternating with each new ring to build up a striped, concentric pattern.

14. Repeat the Scale-and-Fill Process for Each Ring

    Continue transforming the selection inward and filling the mask, repeating the process until enough rings have been created to form the full target pattern.

Why Filling the Layer Mask With White First Matters

Any black left on the mask from earlier painting, like the test strokes at the start of the video, would keep hiding parts of the color layer. Deliberately filling the mask with white first establishes a known, fully visible starting point, so every later black selection subtracts cleanly from a state that’s already understood.

Filling In the Target’s White Background

A plain white solid color layer placed beneath the ringed target, masked to a slightly larger circle, completes the target with a clean white backdrop.

15. Add a White Solid Color Layer Beneath the Target

    Create a new solid color adjustment layer, choose white, and move it below the target’s ring layers.

16. Select an Area Slightly Larger Than the Rings

    Use the Marquee tool to select a circular area around the target rings.

17. Invert and Fill the Mask With Black

    Invert the selection and fill the layer mask with black so the white shows only directly behind the target’s rings.

Defining Arrow Shapes With Selections Before the Adjustment Layer

Making a selection before adding a solid color adjustment layer automatically loads that selection as the new layer’s mask, building the arrow’s shaft and feathers directly.

18. Select the Arrow’s Shaft Shape

    Use the Marquee tool to draw a long, thin selection for the arrow’s shaft, ending where it strikes the target.

19. Add a Solid Color Layer for the Shaft

    With the selection active, add a new solid color adjustment layer and choose a brown color, which automatically fills only the selected shaft shape.

20. Select and Fill the Arrow’s Feathers

    Click out the feather shape at the arrow’s end point by point with the Polygonal Lasso, holding Shift for perfectly straight horizontal edges, then add another solid color layer in white.

Why Making a Selection First Saves a Step

Adding a solid color adjustment layer without an active selection fills the entire document, requiring a separate pass to mask it down to the right shape afterward. Making the selection first, before adding the layer, automatically loads that exact selection as the layer’s mask, building the correct shape in a single step instead of two.

Grouping and Duplicating the Arrow

Grouping the shaft and feather layers together turns the whole arrow into one movable, duplicable unit.

21. Group the Arrow’s Layers Together

    Shift-click the shaft and feather layers and group them together, naming the group “Arrow.”

22. Duplicate the Arrow Group

    Click and drag the arrow group onto the New Group icon to create a duplicate second arrow.

Rotating the Duplicate Arrow Around a Custom Pivot Point

Moving Free Transform’s rotation point away from the shape’s default center changes where the duplicate arrow actually pivots, making it possible to have both arrows appear to strike the same spot on the target.

23. Open Free Transform on the Duplicate

    Select the duplicated arrow group and press Cmd/Ctrl+T to bring up Free Transform.

24. Move the Rotation Point

    Click and drag the small rotation point icon in the center of the transform box out to the tip of the arrow.

25. Rotate the Arrow Into Its New Position

    Rotate the arrow around that new pivot point so it appears to strike the target at the same point as the first arrow.

Why Moving the Rotation Point Changes Everything

By default, Free Transform rotates a shape around its own center, which would swing a duplicated arrow around its middle rather than around its tip. Dragging the rotation point out to the arrow’s tip first changes the pivot entirely, making it possible for both arrows to appear to strike the exact same point on the target despite being angled differently.

Adding a Shadow With the Polygonal Lasso Tool

A simple angular selection made with the Polygonal Lasso tool, filled with a darker shade of the background color, gives the flat graphic a sense of depth without needing a realistic shadow.

26. Select a Shadow Shape With the Polygonal Lasso

    Choose the Polygonal Lasso tool, nested under the regular Lasso tool, and click to build a simple angular selection extending from the target.

27. Fill the Selection With a Darker Green

    Add a new solid color adjustment layer above the background layer, choosing a darker shade of the background’s green, which fills only the selected shadow shape.

28. Crop the Canvas to Refocus the Composition

    Use the Crop tool to trim the canvas down slightly, centering the finished target-and-arrows graphic more tightly in the frame.

Why This Approach Works

Building every part of the graphic with solid color adjustment layers and layer masks, rather than painting shapes directly, keeps each element fully editable, since a color or shape can be changed at any point just by adjusting the layer or its mask. Making selections before adding each new adjustment layer, instead of masking afterward, is what makes constructing shapes like the arrows so quick. Moving the rotation point before duplicating the arrow is the small detail that makes two identical shapes look like they struck the same target from different angles.

Final Thoughts

None of the individual pieces of this graphic, a circle, a few selections, an arrow shape, are complicated on their own, but combining solid color layers with careful selections is what turns them into a finished, polished piece of art. The same target-and-arrows approach works with any color scheme or shape, so it’s worth trying with a completely different graphic concept once this basic layer mask workflow feels comfortable.

Quick Reference: Keys, Menus and Settings

• Fill with a colorAdjustment layer icon > Solid Color; double-click the thumbnail to change it
• Fill the maskShift + Delete (Edit > Fill), White to show, Black to hide
• Save a swatchWindow > Swatches, New Swatch icon, name it
• Perfect circleElliptical Marquee, Shift-drag; Select > Inverse
• Target ringsRight-click > Transform Selection, Shift + Alt/Option to scale in from the center
• Rotate the copyCmd/Ctrl + T, drag the rotation point to the arrow’s tip
• Flat shadowPolygonal Lasso, then a darker Solid Color layer above the background; Crop to finish

No AI, no generative credits.