Draw a Light Bulb Image Using Photoshop

In this tutorial, we will be using the pen tool, stroke and layer styles to create a light bulb graphic.

Step 1:

Ctrl+N to open a new document. I made the width and height both 400. If we want a smaller graphic we can resize it at the end. Make sure the background is set to transparent. For web use the resolution only needs to be 72 pixels per inch.

Step 2:

The first thing we do is find our light bulb shape. Press Shift+U on the keyboard until the 'Custom Shape Tool' is selected. Then we go to the top menu bar and choose our shape from the long drop down list:

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Step 3:

Drag on our canvas to make the shape. (Use Shift when you drag to keep the aspect ratio:

Step 4:

Go Window->Paths to open the Paths panel, and from the little black triangle choose 'Stroke Path' from the drop down menu. HINT: When using Stroke Path and the brush tool, changing brushes and brush sizes really makes a difference to the result of the stroke:

Step 5:

Delete the path as we don't need it now. Open the layer Styles box and use these settings:

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Step 6:

Now we need to fill that hole left in the middle. Press 'I' to activate the Eyedropper Tool and click the yellow color. You can see that the yellow is now the Foreground color. Using a small soft brush, carefully paint over the hole using 20% Opacity:

Step 7:

The reflection. Make a new layer and change the Foreground color to white. Paint a little arch like this:

Step 8:

Make another new layer and select the eyedropper tool again and click the yellow. Use a small soft brush to draw some lines around the outside of the bulb:

Step 9:

Shift+Ctrl+E to merge all the visible layers, then Ctrl+T to rotate the light bulb a little:

Step 10:

All we need to do now is reduce the size. Ctrl+Alt+I to open the image size screen. Enter the value you want, but make sure you check the 'Constrain Proportions' box:

Step 11:

Finished. All we need do now is Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S to open the 'Save for web' screen. Always use this if you're going to put your images on the net. Because we have a transparent background, we need to save in either GIF or PNG format, as the others don't have transparency.

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