Using Gradients to Make Light and Shadow - and a Coffee Cup!Step 1:
We begin with a nice pastelly-blue gradient. Note that with the
gradient, I've put the lighter part in the top right. This is important
because we are giving the impression that light is coming from the top
right and this is will decide what direction other gradients need to
go. On top of that draw a circle and fill it with white.
Step 2:
Next hold Ctrl and click on the layer to select its pixels, then go
to Select > Modify > Contract and use a value of around 12px.
Step 3:
Then in a new layer draw a subtle light grey to white Linear Gradient from top right to bottom left.
Note that we go this direction because its the opposite to where the
background light is from. This is because the dark grey instantly gives
us some shadow which makes for a 3D effect.
Step 4:
Next hold down Ctrl and select the back circle, then hold down Alt
and Ctrl to select the front circle. This should give you a selection
that is just the ring as shown.
Now in this ring, draw a Linear Gradient from bottom left to top
right. Again this will make for a 3D look. In case you hadn't guessed,
this is our saucer.
Step 5:
Next create a layer at the bottom and Ctrl-click the original circle
layer to select it, then press the down and left arrows a few times and
fill the selection with a darker blue to make a shadow for our saucer.
As you can see, the shadow is being cast by the saucer down and
left, which makes sense again because the light is in the top and
right.
Step 6:
Now in a new layer at the very top, Ctrl-click the ring layer and in
our new layer fill it with white. Then without letting go of the
selection, press down and left two times and hit Delete. This will
leave a little white highlight.
Step 7:
Now that we have the saucer finished, we can start on the cup!
So we create a new layer at the top, draw a smaller circle in and fill it with a very light grey.
If you haven't managed to line up your circle, its OK, just select
all the layers together and then switch to the arrow tool (actually its
called the Move (V) tool in Photoshop, but you probably just know it as
the plain-old arrow), and you'll see at the top of your screen, there
appear some alignment buttons. You can use these to align your circles
together.
Step 8:
Now with the original selection still on, create a new layer and go
to Select > Modify > Contract and put in a value of about 6
pixels. Then fill that layer with a dark grey to light grey Linear
Gradient from top right to bottom left. As with the saucer, we are
again making shadows that are consistent with where the light source is
in our picture.
Step 9:
Now in a new layer, draw another circle and fill it with a linear
gradient from top right to bottom left going from dark brown to light
brown. As mentioned before, you can align these up using the layer
align tools.
Note that its better to draw a new circle, because if you contract
circle selections too much they start getting a bit weird. This is
because of the way that Photoshop uses pixels rather than a path of the
circle.
Step 10:
Next use the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) to draw in a shape as shown
in a new layer. Note that I left paths on so that I could screenshot it
properly, but actually you just need the shape.
Step 11:
Next choose the Burn Tool (O) and with a soft medium brush, just
brush the edge closest to the coffee cup to give it some shadow as
shown. You can also give it a bit (less) shadow on the other side of
the shape too, but make sure that it's light in the middle.
Step 12:
Now go to Edit > Transform > Perspective and transform the shape as shown. This is going to be the handle to our cup.
Step 13:
Now Ctrl-click the handle layer to select its pixels, go to Select
> Modify > Expand and use a value of 1px. Then in a layer below
the handle layer fill your selection with white. Then press Ctrl+D to
deselect and then press the right arrow twice to move it to the right.
This is just to give our handle a bit of a thin white highlight.
Step 14:
Now Ctrl-click the handle layer and in a new layer fill the
selection with dark grey. Then press CTRL+T to transform the new layer
as shown so that its at an angle. Then place that layer below the
handle layer.
Step 15:
Now press Ctrl and Shift together and click all the cup layers to
select the pixels for all of them together. Fill that layer with a
light grey as shown (note that I've moved it to the left and down so
that its visible). Make sure this layer is at the bottom of all the cup
layers, but before the saucer layers. It is the cup shadow.
Step 16:
Set your latest layer to Multiply and 30%, then hit Ctrl+T to transform the layer and rotate it a little as shown.
Step 17:
Finally we'll add a little steam. Create a new layer at the very
top and with a big soft brush, paint a little white in some random
shapes as shown.
Step 18:
Now go to Filter > Distort > Wave to distort the white into a
smoky shape. I don't really understand this filter and usually just
play around with the settings until I get the effect I'm looking for.
This usually involves a bit of trial and error and hitting the
Randomize button lots! Sorry I don't have a better explanation of that
step. Luckily the wave tool is so useful that its probably good for you
to play around with it a little and learn how it works.
Step 19:
Finally set our new smoke layer to Overlay to make it a little more subtle and you're done!
As I mentioned at the beginning, the result of this tutorial isn't
particularly useful, but it's an interesting experiment in light and
shadow, which are useful things to learn for your general compositions.
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