Photoshop: Abstract Fireworks

2012 is here! Well, it’s still a few days away. Unless you’re reading/watching this at some point in the future. For all I know, it could be 2056. My brain hurts. Let’s make fireworks!

Let’s enter the New Year with an explosion! I spent the last few days trying to come up with a fairly simple way to create fireworks. I think I’ve got something that can give you all a starting point to creating your own. Instead of creating realistic looking fireworks, we’re going to create more of an abstract firework, like you see above. Like many of my designs, we’re going to be using a custom brush and Layer Styles.

Video

Let’s begin by creating the brush that we’re going to use for the fireworks.

Create a new document with the dimensions 100px x 500px with a transparent background.

When the document is created, grab your Brush Tool and select a standard hard brush, with the Size set to 8.

We’re going to use this brush in just a few moments, but first we need to define the shape of the brush. Grab your Pen Tool from the left, then at the top on your Options Bar, make sure that Paths is selected.

Now create an upside-down angled L shape. (See the image below if you’re confused).

Once you have the path created, hold down your Alt/Option key, and drag out a curve from the second point. We’re looking for a slight curve at the top of our path. This will help create depth in the sparks.

When your path is all set, right click on it, and choose the Stroke Path option.

Make sure that Brush is the Tool that will be used, and turn Simulate Pressure off, it it isn’t already.

Press OK to create the stroke.

Our brush is complete. To save this brush, head up to Edit > Define Brush Preset, and give it a name. Don’t worry if the preview looks funky.

At this point, if you don’t have an image ready, you’ll want to open one, or create a new document with a black background.

Continue to create the fireworks!

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