Select the circle ( the one that is in the center ) - and apply a small gradient tweak - for more colors.



Next step: Complex lighting.

I have discovered a very good way to lightened up the 2d surfaces. It was quite easy - I've just used lighter ( white this time ) gradients on a top layer.



More to that I'm going to decorate my lightened surface with this: I'm using basic round rough brush.

Those who are lucky to have a tablet will get better result I think. Just erase.























I recommend you to save this brush as a New Brush Preset - it will be saved with settings too. We will also need this brush to paint with.

Create a new layer chose this brush - (your saved brush) - choose white color - lower that opacity to about 80% and paint some of these dots.







Some black maybe too (on a new layer).



Opacity to the layer that has back spots is very low - represents shadows.



Next step: lighting technique.

This is the basic principal of 2d soft lighting: it is based on soft edged gradients or brushes- you can even change the color of the lights. So just create one.







Lightened:







See how many of these lights I have- just copied them.



One good at the top:



Some text adjustments:



Oh yeah almost forgot about the whole in the center. Make a new layer and tap just once with black color brush.



And I sake of realism - just apply inner shadow. I've also applied noise filter to the color circle in the center so it might feel real- like paper.







See how lights came out well.







All the purple layers are the foreground (2d) lights.



And this is basically it: oh yeah here is my text part done in illustrator - if you watch it carefully you can make it. Basically type is involved here.



So tnx for watching this tutorial and see you next time with more designs or illustrations.