Draw a Cute Glossy Star via 3 Easy Steps in Photoshop
Posted on June 15th, 2009 under Drawing, it has 25 Comments and 13,230 Views so far.
Posted on June 15th, 2009 under Drawing, it has 25 Comments and 13,230 Views so far.
In this tutorial, I will show you how to draw this Cute Glossy Star via 3 Easy Steps in Photoshop, which you can use for a wide range of decorative purposes. The aim of this tutorial to introduce you the Polygon Tool and the settings associated to it, plus the method you can use for adding glossy effect to certain element.
Along the way, we will be using the Polygon Tool to draw the star, and use some simple layer blending effect to add the shining, glossy effect to it. I will also use the Pen Tool and dynamic brush settings for the final effect. The effect is easy to achieve and very practical. Have a try!
Here is preview of the final effect for this tutorial: (Click to enlarge)

Alternative coloured version:

OK let’s get started!
Create a new document size 800 * 800 px and use the gradient tool to fill the background layer as shown below:

Select the Polygon Tool by left-click the Shape Tool symbol from the toolbox and hold, as shown below:

You will notice a series of shape tool options appearing across the top, apply the following settings:
Sides: 5
Radius: 10px
Indent Sides By: 50%

Make sure to tick “Smooth Corners” and “Star” option.
Draw a star on top of the background layer as shown below: (You can press Ctrl + T to free-tranform it if you like)

Rename this layer as “Star”.
On the “Star” layer, apply the following layer blending options:
Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Outer Glow

Inner Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

And you will have the followin effect on the star layer:

Now we can add some decoration on the star so it doesn’t look too boring. To do this, we can simply create a new layer below the “Star” layer, use the Pen Tool to draw a working path like this:

Hint: Try holding down “Shift” key while dragging the anchor points.
Then grab a 18px, 0% hardness brush, select the Pen Tool and right-click on the path and choose “storke path”:

Apply the following settings:

And you will see the following effect:

Duplicate this working path layer a few times, rotate, scale and distort the duplicated layer using the Free Transform tool (Ctrl + T). Here is my effect so far:

Once you’re happy with the result, you can merge those duplicated abstract line layers together, then duplicate some more layers based on the merged layers, result as shown below: (rotate, resize if necessary)

And we can add some dots around the star for the final touch-ups. To do this, grab a 9px, soft round brush and press “F5″ or go to Window > Brushes to bring up the brush window, apply the following dynamic settings:
Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Make sure to check “Airbrush” and “Smoothing” options, too.
Once the brush is made, create a new layer under the “star” layer and paint those dots in random areas as below:

OK, that’s it for this tutorial! You can of course add some of your own texture or filter effect and see what the end results are! Remember to always keep your own creativity!
Here is an alternative version I have:

Hope you enjoy this tutorial, drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.
Cheers and have a nice day!
heehee!Nice tut!
keeping it simple in Photoshop is very difficult for a lot of peeps!
Once again,simplicity makes perfect!
Excellent Tutorial, can you post a tutorial on how to make your own character, symbol, or person?
This is a really great tutorial and thank you for creating it. If you feel like creating a video of this tutorial we have a $1000 USD contest running for the best video tutorial. We are a social learning network and we would love to have great work like this displayed for everyone to learn from. Check us out @ http://www.gurushare.com, but regardless, thank you again for a solid tutorial.
Besides, the part where you say:
“Then grab a 18px, 0% hardness brush, select the Pen Tool and right-click on the path and choose “storke path”:”
I do that exactly and instead of getting a nice line, I just have a thick dotted trace, nothing alike what you say.
I think this tutorial is pretty good and gives a lot of tips, but there are things that don’t result in what they should. Maybe steps are missing? Or maybe it needs more detail?
Wonderful, thank you very much. I don’t know why, but the Alternative version does not show up….
Thanks again