In this tutorial, I'll be showing you how to draw a shiny green apple. We'll have a look at various painting techniques throughout this tutorial. It will be fun and you'll learn something new - let's started!
Final Image Preview
First, have a look at the image we'll be creating. Want access to full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join PSDTUTS PLUS for just $9/month.
Step 1
Create a new document using the settings shown below.
Step 2
Create a new layer and name it "Apple." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool, make a selection as in the below image. Next, grab the Gradient Tool, then pick Foreground to Background and set Style to Radial. Make your Foreground Color #88cc33 and Background Color #005522. Fill the selection as shown.
Step 3
Apply the Inner Shadow layer style using these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 75%, Angle set to -90 degrees, Distance set to 45 pixels, and Size set to 80 pixels.
Step 4
Create a new layer and name it "Texture." Command-click the "Apple" layer to load the selection, if the selection is not still active. Use the colors from step one and go to Filter > Render > Clouds. Next go to Filter > Distort > Spherize, and set the Amount to 100% and Mode to Normal. This will give our simple texture a spheric look. Set the layer Blending Mode to Soft Light. Now we have some texture on the apple.
Step 5
Create a new layer on top and name it "Dots." Get the Brush Tool and set the Foreground Color to #ccdd99. Also, set the Master Diameter to 5 and Hardness to 100, then create several dots by placing single clicks all around the apple.
Set the Master Diameter to 3 pixels and paint some more. Command-click the "Apple" layer to load the selection, if the selection is not still active. Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur, and set the Angle to 90 degrees and Distance to 3 pixels. Now go to Filter > Distort > Spherize, set the Amount to 100, set the Mode to Normal, and apply it. Set the layer Blending Mode to Overlay and Opacity at 50%. Hit Command + D to deselect.
Step 6
Create a new layer on top and name it "Dent." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection, as shown in the below image, then fill it with white and Deselect. Create another layer and name this one "Dent Shadow." Make an elliptical selection, as in the image below, and fill it with black.
Alt-click on the line between the "Dent Shadow" and "Dent" layers in the Layers Palette. Deselect by hitting Command + D. This will define the "Dent" layer as a Clipping Mask for the "Dent Shadow" layer. Now go to the "Dent" layer in the Layers Palette and set the Blending Mode to Multiply.
Go back to the "Dent Shadow" layer and apply a Gaussian Blur filter with a radius of 17 pixels. Set the Layer Opacity at 75%. The size of the dent ellipse may vary in your document, so you can adjust the Radius of Gaussian Blur filter to avoid the visible top edge of the ellipse.
Step 7
Now we'll make some highlights. Create a new layer on top of the layer stack and name it "Highlight 1." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection, as in the below image, and fill it with white. Now make a bigger elliptical selection as shown, then hit Delete to clear the selection. Deselect and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and apply with a Radius of 10 pixels.
Step 8
Create a new layer on top of the layer stack and name it "Highlight 2." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection as shown, then fill it with white. Now make another elliptical selection as shown, then hit Delete to clear the selection. Also, don't forget the select and clear the white piece below. Deselect and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, then apply with a Radius of 8 pixels.
Step 9
Now create a new layer below "Highlight 1" layer and name it "Black." As you can tell from the name, we are going to fill it with black. Now select "Black," "Highlight 1," and "Highlight 2" layers in the Layers Palette and merge them by hitting Command + E. Go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Spatter. Set Spray Radius to 6 and Smoothness to 14. Command-click the "Apple" layer to load the selection, go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete to clear. Set layer Blending Mode to Screen. Deselect.
Step 10
Create a new layer above the "Dots" layer, and name it "Red." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection as shown, then fill it with the color #ffbe00. Command-click the "Apple" layer to load the selection. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 50 pixels. Next, set the layer Blending Mode to Hue. Now, deselect by hitting Command + D.
Step 11
Create a new layer below the "Red" layer, name it "Yellow." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection as shown, then fill it with the color #fff444. Command-click the "Apple" layer to load the selection. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 50 pixels. Next, set the layer Blending Mode to Hard Light and Opacity at 75%. Deselect by hitting Command + D.
Step 12
Create a new layer on top and name it "Reflection." Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool and make a selection as shown, then fill it with white. We'll make a window reflection out of this rectangle. So select two rectangular areas as shown, then clear them.
Step 13
Go to the Layers Palette and add a Layer Mask to the "Reflection" layer by clicking the Add Layer Mask button. Grab the Gradient Tool, set it to Linear Gradient. Fill the layer Mask with the gradient, as you can see in the below image.
The Layer Mask is selected at the moment, click the "Reflection" layer thumbnail to go back to the layer. Now, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 8 pixels. Go to Edit > Transform > Warp, and select Arc from the presets list, then set the Bend to -20%.
Step 14
Create a new layer on top and name it "Backlight." Command-click the "Apple" layer thumbnail and fill the selection with white. Make sure the Marquee Tool is selected, then move the selection about 10 pixels left using the Left Arrow key. Now, hit Delete to clear.
Command-click the "Apple" layer again to load the selection, then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and apply with a Radius of 7 pixels. Hit Command + D to deselect. Grab the Eraser Tool, then set the Master Diameter to 270 pixels and Hardness at 0%. Erase the lower part of the backlight, as you can see in the below image.
Step 15
Create a new layer and name it "Stalk." Grab the Pen Tool, set to Paths in the tools options. Draw a curve for the stalk of the apple. Now, grab the Brush Tool and open the Brushes Palette. Under Shape Dynamics, set the Dynamic Control for Size to Fade. Set the Steps for Size Fade to 70 and set Minimum Brush Diameter to 20%. Under Brush Tip Shape, set the Diameter to 14 pixels and Hardness to 100%. Now, set the Foreground Color to #884411.
Go to Paths Palette, open the Paths Palette pop-up menu (click the triangle in the upper right to open) and choose Stroke Path, set the Tool to Brush and hit OK. Click somewhere outside the path in the Paths Palette. Command-click the "Dent" layer thumbnail in the Layers Palette to load its selection.
Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool, then while holding the Shift key, make a selection that covers the upper part of the stalk. Go to Select > Inverse, then hit Delete to clear the lower exceeding part of the stalk, and deselect.
The path you have drawn is stored in the Paths Palette as a "Work Path." It stays there until you draw another path, then the new path you draw will be your "Work Path." If you want to keep the existing path before you draw a new one, you can give it a name by double-clicking on the path. Thus you won't loose it when you draw a new one. If you want the path to disappear in your document, then go to Paths Palette and click somewhere outside the path in the Paths Palette.
Step 16
Create a new layer and name it "Stalk Highlight." Grab the Brush Tool and set the Master Diameter to 5 pixels. Set the Foreground Color to white. Now go to the Paths Palette, make sure Work Path is selected, open the Paths Palette pop-up menu, then choose Stroke Path, set Tool to Brush, and hit OK.
Command-click the "Stalk" layer thumbnail in the Layers Palette to load its selection. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 1 pixel. Set the layer Opacity at 40%. Select the "Stalk" layer in the Layers Palette, then go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Set the Amount at 3%, set Distribution to Uniform, make sure Monochromatic is checked. Now, deselect by hitting Command + D.
Grab the Burn Tool, and using a soft brush (I set Master Diameter to 65 pixels and Hardness to 0%), make the bottom part of the stalk darker.
Step 17
Create a new layer below the "Stalk" layer and name it "Stalk Shadow." Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool and make a selection, as in the image below. Fill it with black and Deselect. Go to Edit > Transform > Perspective and tweak the perspective of the layer as shown.
Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, set the Radius to 7 pixels, and apply. Grab the Eraser Tool, and using a soft brush, clear the top part of the shadow. Next, Command-click the "Dent" layer to load the selection. Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool, then while holding the Shift key, make a selection that will cover the top part of the shadow. Now go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete to clear. Deselect and set the Layer Opacity to 60%.
Step 18
Now we can make the finishing touches before we merge the layers. First, I'll fill the background with the color #004400. Next, I made some minor changes. I set the Opacity of the "Highlight" layer at 85%, "Yellow" at 35%, "Red" at 85%, "Dent Shadow" at 95%, "Backlight" at 60%, "Reflection" at 55%.
I applied an Inner Glow Layer Style to the "Apple" layer to make the edges a little bit darker using these settings: Blend Mode of Multiply, Opacity set at 30%, Size set to 20 pixels, and Color set to #003300. I also changed the "Apple" layer Inner Shadow Opacity to 45%.
Finally, I applied an Outer Glow layer style to the "Dots" layer with these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 60%, Color set to #2b2b2b, and Size set to 8 pixels. Now select all the layers except the "Background" layer in the Layers Palette, then go to Layer > New > Group From Layers, and name the group "Apple."
Step 19
Create a new layer below the "Apple" group and name it "Shadow." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection as shown, then fill it with black. Deselect and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and apply with a Radius of 40 pixels.
Step 20
Create a new layer above the "Background" layer and name it "Light." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection as shown, then fill it with the color #338833. Deselect, then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and apply with a Radius of 75 pixels.
Step 21
Now we have our apple ready but it looks too much like a sphere, but you can give it an apple shape using the Warp transform. Right-click the "Apple" group and merge it. Go to Edit > Transform > Warp and distort it to give it an apple shape.
Conclusion
You'll see some distortion on the edges which are caused by the Warp transform. To get rid of them Command-click the "Apple" layer, go to Select > Modify > Feather, and set the Radius to 1 pixel. Next, go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete three or four times to clear the distorted area from the edges. And you finished!
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Brian October 4th
Nice Job
2MB October 4th
Huk! Super Great! 0,.0
Shaw October 4th
Dude this tut is amazing! The stalk could look a bit better tho, but good job
Mark October 4th
Looks like it’s been done on a mesh in Illustrator. Excellent tutorial
Lee October 4th
Really nice tutorial. Nice exercise to get my brain moving before 9am on a Friday, thanks!
Good-Walls October 4th
WOW amazing, really! And very well done no cheap tricks! Very clean!
Clemson Donnatucci October 4th
Very nice!!
Px October 4th
Tasty…
Alvaro October 4th
one word “Delicious” … beautiful work Eren!
w1sh October 4th
Noice.
leandra October 4th
I like this! Nice touch with the orange blush on the left side. One change is that I would make the outer shape a little less symmetrical.
Alex Beltechi October 4th
Yeah, that really does look delicious
diesel October 4th
Yeh the shape is a little tiny bit off but overall this is an impressive end result. Thank you!
dTrapper October 4th
That’s an impressive tutorial and a departure from a lot of the current ‘design trend knockoff’ ones.
kidlizard October 4th
It almost looks to clean. Great techniques, thanks fer the share.
Grant Friedman October 4th
Nice tutorial!
RUGRLN October 4th
Dude you rock!!!!!
RUGRLN October 4th
I can literally smell the apple….mmmmm…yum yum! lol
B October 4th
great outcome, but would prefer this to be in vector.
mr. goatee October 4th
this is amazing dude!!
nice job ;););)
regards
Ryan October 4th
now this is awesome.
Rommel October 4th
bellisimo
amaziong
Lawrence77 October 4th
Great thinking…Mastermind…
Really looking so nice and within days i’m going to try…
daniel October 4th
very nice job Eren ! great outcome! thanks for sharing.
HeDzZ October 4th
awesome………………………….
Jonathan October 4th
Intense! This looks really cool.
That Namelezz Guy October 4th
Great work right there! Absolutely wonderful effects all around.
Roshan October 4th
Very cool effect. Great tutorial, thanks for share.
I am starting to spend more time on my adobe.
lol
Hans Vargas October 4th
Great job! That is a great tutorial
Jacorre October 4th
Awesome tutorial with amazing result! I think the last touch would be to add water droplets to really finish it off and make you wanna take a bite!
Aosi October 4th
WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW great man thats awsome
macias October 4th
too perfect but goddamn tasty !:)
Paul October 4th
this is just a test, thanks!
david October 4th
looking good
Abu October 4th
Greettings from Finland!
And I want firts just say; This is something f*cking amazing! So easy to do and final result is wonderful. Thank you so much!
Manuel October 4th
looks great!
Mohammad October 4th
Here what I tried. I have done a lot of mistakes but it’s fine.
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/4397/applefc3.jpg
Neil Martin October 4th
I’m not usually a fan of these “How to create x object”, simply because they’re usually too specifc on what you’re creating. But there’s something about this tutorial that I like. It’s different. I don’t know if there would be any real world uses for a digital apple more than once, but yeah, I like it!
GtaSpider October 4th
Wow, simple, fast and wonderfull result! Great work man
Oğuz Çelikdemir October 4th
Harikasın Eren, ellerine sağlık.
Ders verdiğin bir mekan varmı acaba? Severek katılmak isterim.
hiperkarma October 4th
Uhm, I stuck at some parts but I won’t give up! Thanks hehe
Christian October 4th
Ur site is the best i’m get impress always!
Craigsnedeker October 4th
Makes me want to take a big bite out of it!
CSSKey October 4th
WOW. Simply wow. Final result looks awesome, feels like it needs some texture though.
Qbrushes October 4th
looks too good!, nice work.
Dainis Graveris October 4th
Damn, that’s really hot apple :)) Nice tut, btw!
pemgar October 4th
So delicious!
Eric Thayne October 4th
Brilliant! Wow!
Vali October 4th
It’s e really good job. I like it
Nders October 4th
you sir, is a PRO!! superb tut
Mr Kuzio October 4th
WOW! It’s great! WOW!
O.o
BroOf October 4th
Lovely effect dude!
henna October 4th
its really nice
Lawrence77 October 4th
47th
Lawrence77 October 4th
i love to comment on 48th…
Eren you rocking…
shall i join tuition with you
gNcWebmaster October 4th
Eren çok manyak paylaşım eline sağlık hocam. Çılgınsın sen
Macke October 5th
Excellent guide mate!
very good instructions and an awesome end-result.
Ariful Alam Khan October 5th
That’s nice
Conrad Gorny October 5th
That looks delicious… whose shouting me an apple!??????—
Conrad Gorny
Freelance Graphic Designer
http://www.conradgorny.com
Howie Severson October 5th
This was the most fun I had all week. Thanks!
NaldzGraphics October 5th
looks sweet.nice tuts
Ronald
asim October 5th
one of classics
Ravi Vora October 5th
Really nice.
Adrian Quevedo October 5th
Really Nice! Thanks for Sharing!
Neriah October 5th
Very nice, thankx
Matthew Heidenreich October 5th
Great tutorial, very detailed with a great outcome!
luca October 5th
great work, thk for sharing I learn allot in your website….
Steve October 5th
an Apple with Windows on it ?
Grafiko October 5th
great outcome but, must likely would do it in vector instead.
aMs October 5th
huh, tutorial is nice indeed, but what gives… Eren creates all his works with the same technic and psdtuts buys whatever he makes. sorry im bored with this, seen pen drive, pencil, compas, joystick.. and now apple.
if it was vector, i’d just be quiet, but this is NOTHING NEW
Mark Sta October 5th
This is really great. Thank you so much for your hard work, it is really appreciated. My girlfriend loves apples!
bepi October 5th
Del.icio.us apple! Thanks
Drew Douglass October 5th
Thats a very sexy apple, awesome tutorial, thanks for sharing
Laura October 5th
Amazing! It seems to be real!!
Lawrence77 October 5th
hi laura….
My half name is also laura
nelde October 5th
hwy, cool tutorial!
here’s what i’ve done with it: http://nelde.deviantart.com/art/Snow-White-s-Apple-99864935
Annie October 6th
Nice job! It looks very realistic. There are a lot of tutorials out there that don’t and they end up looking quite cheesy.
dlv October 6th
no way, this is a very reallitic image !
congrats! !
Dave October 6th
awesome!
angeloff October 6th
WOW. Incredible!
Aron October 6th
This tut is perfect, thx very much to share it with us!
Max | Design Shard October 6th
Thats a great tut thanks, with awesome results
adapter October 6th
Looks delicious apple…
Tasty tutorial man.:)
insic October 6th
wow! awesome result. thanks for the tutorial. by the way why new.psdtuts?
Kenneth Bryhl October 6th
That looks so awesome . nice one!
Ruth Lopez October 6th
Wow good job……………………:-)
love Malhotra October 6th
I Like it so much. This type of tuts are giving knowlege to how to make different things in simple way.
Ali October 6th
nice one
yexy October 6th
i love it.! super!
Darius D.Showjoy October 6th
You can do this a lot easier by highlighting the Apple pic, right clicking on it and selecting COPY. Then select where you want to place the Apple pic right click on your mouse and press PASTE.
You’re all very welcome. This ingenius methhod you can virtually draw anything online.
Eren October 6th
thanks for all comments. glad you liked.
JimboXiii October 7th
Fantastic tut, first one i’ve finished in ages. Great result as well.
You could do something similar, but making a tennis ball instead. Similar method, different texture.
Jennifer October 7th
I am trying to use basic digital photography with my 5th graders to teach about framing and photography as an artform. What suggestions might you have for me at this level?
sneadj@duvalschools.org
Ezequiel Alvaro October 7th
Good job.
Isis October 7th
Just Amazing!
Great result with simple tecniques! =D
Francisco S. October 7th
This is amazing, awesome tutorial!
Artem October 7th
Wow! Nice!
kostia October 7th
I enjoyed this! Using render clouds + spherize to add random texture to a surface is a technique I’ll definitely come back to.
My only quibble is the instruction to merge all the carefully created layers before drawing the shadow. I duplicated the group and turned its visibility off, so I still have layers I can manipulate if I want to make a change at the very end. A quick warning about that merge might be helpful.
Here’s my result!
http://www.kostia.net/pics/psdtuts_apple.jpg
mrGTB October 7th
One word, auwsum!
endgrafix October 7th
Hi
Thanks.
nice Tutorial…
This is my job:
http://www.sharez.biz/images/j6ho1gliqne25esg706n.jpg
Lawrence77 October 7th
100th comment…
all fans are request to join our community in ORKUT…
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=50524116
Thanks…
Owz October 7th
Great job,
Will be having a go at this today…
Thanks for taking the time to do this
Owain
http://www.icomcreative.co.uk
Lawrence77 October 7th
kostia yours is also so realistic…
~Kelly~ October 8th
That was the most fun I’ve had with a tutorial so far, thanks
Igor October 8th
This is truly amazing! I’m a programmer and never was a fan of designing any stuff but after this tutorial I’m gonna install Photoshop and try to make this apple on my own. Well done!
Skunkie October 8th
Premier League, dude!
Nando_666 October 8th
It seems to be real!!!!! Very nice!!!
traveler October 8th
please don’t use that “window reflect”!!!! is old fashion!!!!…if you want some realistic use other effect
thanks for teach me some….how make the dots!!! amazing
Gil October 8th
Hi,
Can someone explain me what is “Command-Click” ?
Does it mean to hold down the ctrl key one the keyboard and click?
What should happen when i command-click something?
Eren October 9th
@Gil,
Command-clicking the layer thumbnail (not the layer) in the LAYERS PALETTE loads the pixels of this layer as a selection.
Mixyska October 9th
Really good tut. Thanks !
Vraiment bien réussis, merci ! ^^
Marco Osores October 10th
Thanks very much for this amazing tutorial
you can see my result on my webpage
salutes from Argentina
Hawkar October 10th
Nice and great tut. Thanks
Howard Pinsky October 10th
Great post! Used some nice techniques and the outcome is beautiful!
mr.domino October 10th
Great tutorial! Very good directions and I love the outcome! Thank you!
Frank October 10th
Thanks is great. I love this tutorial.
Joby October 10th
Fantastic.
Hikerbrain October 10th
i’m crazy computer design so please you may learn me.