Pens, Paths, and Anchors aweigh!
-by OGT

The first time I used Photoshop I tried to make a rectangle with the autoshape thing and was utterly confused with it, because it wouldn't show up. The key to all these are Paths.

See the image about for the references to the Paths Window:

White Fill Path with foreground color - If your path is a closed shape, this fills it (the white area in thumbnail) with your current foreground color.
Black Stroke Path - Strokes the path with current brush settings; change your brushes and experiment with them
Red Load path as selection - simply, loads your work path as a new selection
Blue Make work path from selection - the opposite of Load path, this takes a selection and converts it to a path

Now, how to make paths? Well, as I said earlier, you can use the Polygon tools (just make sure that the tool is set to make path: ) Or you can use the Pen tool. The best way to get used to the pen is just to use it, and practice. I myself don't even know how to use it at it's full potential.

All I can give you for this is tips:

If you mess up a path with the Pen tool, use the Convert Anchor tool to fix it. (Anchors are the little squares that are along your path)

 

**I will probably update this tutorial as I gain more knowledge on the subject

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