Pink Pearl

In this tutorial, we'll learn how to make some great looking pearls by combining layer styles and simple brushwork.

1. Start with a blank canvas, of course. For now, let's keep the background color white, so we can easily see what's going on. Create a new layer.

2. On that layer, make a circular selection the size you want your pearl to be. I recommend that you keep it fairly small. Fill the selection with a medium grey. I'm using #B4B4B4.

3. Now take the burn tool and, using a soft, feathered brush, burn in a little area on the bottom right of the circle like I have below.

4. Now double-click on the layer in the layers palette to bring up the layer styles (blending options) dialog. Use the following settings.

Now, as you can see, our pearl's starting to get a little depth to it.

Now it's time for a little brushing and blurring and feathering - On my!

5. Create a new layer and grab your paintbrush. Select the 5px feathered brush, and set the foreground color to black. Now brush a thick, black blob that roughly follows the curve of the pearl, just inside of the perimeter of our object.

6. Now go to Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur and enter an amount of 3.

7. Ctrl+Click on this layer to select it. Fill this selection with black 3 times.

8. Duplicate the layer and hit Ctrl+I to invert the colors. Hit Ctrl+E to merge it to the previous layer.

9. Ctrl+Click on the main pearl layer to load the selection and hit Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection. Keeping the shadow/highlight layer active, hit delete to get rid of the excess fuzziness outside of the pearl.

10. For me, that main dark spot's a little strong, so let's go to Image - Adjust - Hue/Saturation and set the Lightness to +25.

11. Finally let's add a little hint of color, in this case, pink. Create a new layer above the other two and fill it with a dark pink tone. I'm using #9E005D. Set the layer mode to Color and the opacity to 40%. Now, if you want to change the color of your pearl, all you have to do is change this one layer. Darker hues will work better than lighter ones.

There you have it, one pearl! More? Carry on, duplicate it.