PSD file available for download

Less than 2 month left till 2010 year. This is a good time to begin making something that will remind us about this great holiday season. We will be creating Christmas decorations and namely Christmas balls, the ones you use to hang on the Christmas trees.



So let's start by making a new document:



Here we go. So make a round selection by holding shift with you rectangular selection tool. Create a new layer and fill the selection with some color, now we have a new found layer. We'll shade the forms later.

.. So our basic shape is ready let's dropping some details.











... keeping every detail on a new layer.







Now it is time to shade. I'll use a standard Photoshop brush with a little option set on.

Here are the settings of the brush (Brush Download at the of tutorial).







So the center shape is ready shaded. I wanted to give a little bit of aquarelic feel so I didn't use soft edged brushes.



I've also applied the Paint dubs filter which can be found in Filter gallery if you are using the CS2 or higher version of Photoshop. Do the upper part of the ball using the same method: Use the filter as well.







... and the cap using the same method with different colors.







I really like to create an outline for my objects. I'll use stroke patch method to do it. Select the objects first.



Right mouse click within the selection > make work path with 1px tolerance.



Then choose a brush you want to stroke with. I've chosen this brush. Settings:















Go to patch submenu, select the whole patch by clicking on it and tap Stroke path icon - stroke the path.