How to Create a Paper Cutout Effect in Photoshop

Final product image — What You'll Be Creating

Create this stunning layered paper cutout illustration using Adobe Photoshop! This unique style is fun and can be used in a variety of ways.

This tutorial will teach you how to do paper cutout Photoshop illustrations in Adobe Photoshop from scratch. However, if you're short on time or need something right now, check out this Paper Cutout Photoshop Action from Envato Elements!

Fan of video tutorials instead? The Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel will become your favourite channel! Here's a new video tutorial on how to do a paper cutout in Photoshop:

What You'll Learn in This Paper Cutout Effect Tutorial

In this tutorial, I'll teach you how to make this decorative and intricate construction paper texture Photoshop image from scratch and what things you need to consider when creating it. Topics we cover will include:

How to create a paper cutout illustration from scratch using Adobe Photoshop
How to do paper cutout Photoshop effects and digitally cut out the shapes that you'll be using for your image
How to create a paper cut Photoshop action to apply the cutout paper effect
How to add a construction paper texture in Photoshop using blend modes

What You'll Need

To follow along with this tutorial, you'll need your own version of Adobe Photoshop. We'll also be using stock images from Envato Elements to help us create the tropical island shapes. Click on the links below to download them.

1. How to Create a Composition for the Paper Cutout Illustration

Step 1

Let's start by creating a new document. In this tutorial, we will be using the dimensions below. Once you're happy with the size of your document, click the create button.

Width: 1920 pixels
Height: 1080 pixels
Resolution: 72 dpi

Step 2

Create a new layer in the Layers panel and rename it "window 01".

Step 3

Now let's create our composition by first determining the shape of our top layer. This layer is the most important as it will affect the shapes and sizes of all the layers below. At this stage, we will work in greyscale for simplicity.

Begin by creating the initial window shape using the Pen Tool (P). Click and drag using the mouse to create a curved outline.

Step 4

Once you are happy with your shape, right-click on the outline you've created and choose Fill Path. Use the Contents dropdown menu and choose Color.

Step 5

Using the Color Picker, choose black #000000 and then click OK to continue. This will fill the outside area of the shape you have created, leaving a window in the middle.

Step 6

Next, just grab the tropical vector shapes from your stock images and place them on top of the window layer to create an interesting composition. You can also create your own tropical shapes using the brush tool if you want.

Fill the shape layers with the same colour as the window layer so that they match.

Step 7

Once you are happy with the composition, go to the Layers panel and select all the layers. Once they are selected, right-click and select Merge Layers. This will create your first window layer.

Step 8

Create a new layer in the Layers panel and rename it "window 02". Make sure that this layer is below the window 01 layer.

Step 9

From there, just repeat the steps above, using the Pen Tool (P) and then choosing Fill Path to create the initial window. Use the tropical shapes for each layer to make your image look more interesting.

You can also try using other shapes as well, such as a beach chair, clouds, or boats sailing in the background.

Step 10

Make sure to use a lighter shade of grey when choosing the colours for each window layer (going from darker colours at the top to lighter colours towards the bottom). This will allow you to see the composition of your construction paper background more clearly.