How to create abstract colorful rainbow background

In this tutorial, you’ll go through easy steps for creating a nice abstract rainbow background in Photoshop. We’ll use Photoshop’s simple shapes, layer styles and gradients to create a colorful background. Let’s get started!

Final Image Preview

Create a new document (Ctrl+N) in Adobe Photoshop with the size 1920px by 1200px (RGB color mode) at a resolution of 72 pixels/inch. Select then the Paint Bucket Tool (G) to fill the new background layer with black color.

Next we’ll select the Rectangle Tool (U), to represent many colored lines of different size. The colors are indicated bellow:

We’ve got the next lines:

Using the same tool, continue representing the colored lines, keeping the same image as below (leave the same intervals between the lines as it is demonstrated below).

We’ve got the next composition:

Take the same Rectangle Tool (U) to draw several more lines.

For this line click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Gradient Overlay:

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close theGradient Editor dialog box.

We’ve got the next gradient on the line:

Represent another 2 lines:

Apply for these lines the same settings for Layer Style>Gradient Overlay:

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close theGradient Editor dialog box.

We’ve got the next gradient on these lines:

Using the Rectangle Tool (U), try to make two more lines.

For the upper line click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Gradient Overlay:

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close theGradient Editor dialog box.

Add Layer Style > Gradient Overlay for the lower line:

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close theGradient Editor dialog box.

We’ve got the next gradient on the lines:

Using the same mentioned tool above, try to represent two more lines.

Apply the next Layer Style > Gradient Overlay settings for the upper line:

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close theGradient Editor dialog box.

Add Layer Style > Gradient Overlay settings for the lower line:

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close theGradient Editor dialog box.

We’ve got the next effects on the lines:

Next we’ll combine in a group all the layers containing the colored lines (press CTRL button to select the appropriate layers and then hold on the left mouse’s button when dragging the selected layers on Create a new group option). Merge Down the group layers by pressing CTRL+E. Next we need to warp this layer, select Free Transform command by pressing Ctrl+T, click the Switch Between Free Transform And Warp Modes button in the Options bar and use the control points to distort the lines the same way as it is shown below:

We’ve got the next result:

Click the eye icon next to a layer containing the lines to hide its content for a while and choose the Rectangle Tool (U) to represent several more lines. The colors are indicated bellow:

We’ve got the next lines:

Click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Gradient Overlay settings for the lines’ layers (from top to downwards by turn). Start with the red line:

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close theGradient Editor dialog box.

We’ve got the next gradient on the line:

Layer Style > Gradient Overlay for the next line:

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close theGradient Editor dialog box.

We’ve got the next result:

Apply Layer Style > Gradient Overlay for the next line’s layer:

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close theGradient Editor dialog box.

We’ve got the next gradient on the line:

Layer Style > Gradient Overlay for the next line’s layer:

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close theGradient Editor dialog box.

We’ve got the next result:

Apply Layer Style > Gradient Overlay for the next line’s layer:

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close theGradient Editor dialog box.

We’ve got the next gradient on the line:

The rest of the lines must have the same settings for Layer Style > Gradient Overlay demonstrated below:

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close theGradient Editor dialog box.

We’ve got the next results:

Combine in a group all the lines’ layers and Merge Down the group, the same way we did before. Then click the eye icon next to a layer with the earlier made lines to show its content.

Apply now the Free Transform (Ctrl) command, click the Switch Between Free Transform And Warp Modes button in the Options bar and use the control points to distort the made lines the same way as it is shown below:

Add for the lines’ layer the Layer Style > Drop Shadow:

We’ve got the next shadow:

Create a new layer and select Soft Round brush of black color (Opacity 20%) from Brush Tool (B)

Paint here with Soft Round brush to dark out the very first line’s layer on the upper side and downwards. Place this layer between the lines’ layers.

Create a new layer again and choose again here the Soft Round brush mentioned earlier of black color (Opacity 20%) to dark out the lines the same way demonstrated below:

Set the Blending Mode for this layer to Overlay

Create a new layer again and select for it the Soft Round brush of black color (Opacity 20%)

Paint to dark out the lines the same way indicated on the next picture:

Select Create new fill or adjustment layer from bottom part of the Layers panel and click to Curves to adjust the curve shape as shown to add more contrast on image:

We’ve got the next effect:

Create one more new layer and choose for it the Soft Round brush of white color this time (Opacity 30%)

Paint to make lighter the lines, the same way demonstrated next picture:

Set the Blending mode for this layer to Overlay