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Project 14 clipping mask 1

Project 14 Clipping Mask

Graphic Design Projects

Clipping Mask

Take what you learned in the Clipping Masks tutorial and make your own Photoshop art!



  1. Open any largish photo in Photoshop. Photos of people work really well for this, but are not necessary.
  2. Save the file as lastnamefirstinitial_clipping-mask-art.psd.
    (Remember to change the Format to
    Photoshop (*.PSD,*.PDD)
  3. Add either a custom shape or a text which is large enough to cover the most interesting parts of the photo.
  4. Move the shape or text layer below the photo layer and create a clipping mask (Alt-click on the border between the two layers.)
  5. Add a new layer at the bottom of the stack and fill it with a pattern of your choice.
  6. Apply a filter to the photo layer and another one to the pattern layer.
  7. Apply a layer style to the shape layer.
  8. Move the text/shape layer and the photo layer together so that they are positioned off-center in any interesting place.
  9. Add any other artistic touches you like. Experiment!


Here's a photo of a bee on purple flowers. I clipped it to a Puzzle 4 shape to which I applied a Drop Shadow layer effect. The photo has a Poster Edges filter applied. The background layer is filled with a Brush Pen on Canvas pattern and then had a Texturizer filter applied.

Project 14 clipping mask 1


Here's a photo of a sea lion. I clipped it to text that says "sea lion" (font: Franklin Gothic ITC Heavy, 310pt). The text layer has an Outer Glow layer style and a Stroke layer style. I created a background layer and filled it with a Stones pattern, then applied a Glass filter to it. I applied a Film Grain filter to the sea lion photo.

Project 14 Clipping Mask


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