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In this tutorial I’m gonna show you how to make an abstract background like this:

You can use it in many cases and you can change colors also if you don’t like pink.

Step 1

Create a new document, whatever size (I used 500×400) and fill it with pink (#f06ea9).
Step 2

Take the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) and select a shape like I did and fill it with a lighter pink (I used #f49ac1).

Step 3

Make sure the filled area is still selected, otherwise select it again. Go to Select -> Modify -> Contract. And contract it by 5 pixels. Now press CTRL + L (or go to Image -> Adjustments -> Levels) and put 0.80 in the middle box. Press CTRL + D to deselect. You’ll get this:

Step 4

Select the layer again and this time go to Select -> Modify -> Contract. Contract with 20 pixels. Press CTRL + L again and put 0.90 in the middle box. Deselect again and this is the result:

Step 5

Select the same layer again, and while it’s selected, click the background layer. Go to Select -> Modify -> Expand and expand with 20 pixels. Adjust levels again by pressing CTRL + L and put 1.25 in the middle box. Now you should have this:

Step 6

Create a new layer above the background layer and fill it with a white to black Reflected Gradient, here are the settings:

Now click in the middle of the picture and drag it upwards, just a little bit out of the image. Set the blending mode to Screen and you should get this:

Step 7 *Optional*

Now, to create the stars like I did, get out the brush tool and use these settings:

Now click and hold the Mouse button and go over the image a bit like this:

You can blend the stars a bit by duplicating the the layer and going to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian blur with a radius of 2. Go to Edit -> Fade Gaussian blur and set the blending mode to Lighten. Now, you should get something like this:

And you’re done! You can vary the colors and use it on many images. Here’s what I got after adding a character):

Stumble it!