1. Make a new picture (CTRL+N) i used the format 477x250 pixels.
2. Press 'D' to reset the colors, then make the primary color red. Now your primary color is red and your secondary color is white.
3. Click on Ellipse Tool (look at the image below).
4. Draw a ball inside your image, hold shift down to make it the same height as width.
The ball should look something like this:
5. Duplicate the layer, press 'M' (to deselect the Ellipse Tool). Press CTRL+T and change the width and height of the image to 96%. (look at the image below)
6. Doubleclick inside the 'box' in the image to accept. Click on Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options.
7. Click on 'Inner Glow' click in the colorbox and set the color to white, set Size to 25.
8. Click on 'Color Overlay' click on the colorbox and select a color you like (I use pink in this example).
9. Press OK, and your image should now look something like this:
10. We are now going to do the face of the smilie. This is up to you how you make it, but you can look at my final image for inspiration.
11. We are now going to make some light effects to make the smilie look like its 3D. Create a new layer, select the brush tool and make a white spot down in the middle of the image. (look at the image below)
12. Click on Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, set Radius to 20, OK.
13. Press CTRL and click on the second 'ball layer' the name of it should be 'Shape 1 copy'. Now you have the inner ball selected. Click on Select > Modify > Contract, set Contract By to 3, OK.
14. Select the 'Lasso Tool', hold down ALT, click on the image hold the mousebutton down and draw like I have done (look at the image below). It often takes a couple of times ontil you have got it perfect, if i didnt got like you wanted it, press CTRL+Z to undo, and try again.
15. Make a new layer, select white as your first color (press 'D', then 'X'). Select the 'Gradient Tool' and set mode to 'Foreground to Transperant'. (look at the image below)
16. Click in the top if the image and drag the pointer down. Test this a couple of times untill you think it looks nice.
You are now done with your smilie. Here is my final result:
