Draw a Cute Glossy Star via 3 Easy Steps in Photoshop

OK let's get started!

Step 1

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".

Step 2

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:

Step 3

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 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. Cheers and have a nice day!