How to Illustrate a Delicious Ice Cream Bar

Dec 20th in Drawing by Eren Goksel

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to draw an ice cream bar. Throughout this tutorial we'll have a look at various drawing techniques. We'll be creating everything within Photoshop from start to finish, except the font used. Let's jump into this tutorial.

Author: Eren Goksel

I'm a lecturer in Anadolu University. Photoshop, Max, and CorelDraw are my favorite tools.

Final Image Preview

First, let's take 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

Lets start by creating a new document 1000 pixels wide and 1000 pixels high, with Resolution set to 300 pixels/inch.

Step 2

Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool, set the Style to Fixed Size, set the Width to 530 pixels, and set the Height to 260 pixels. Make a selection as in the below image. Lastly, drag and snap horizontal and vertical Guides around the selection.

Step 3

Create a new layer and name it "Bar." Get the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Set it to Shape Layers and set the Radius to 125 pixels in the Tool Options. Set your Foreground Color to #774411 and draw a rectangle as in the image below.

Step 4

Now we need to give this bar a perspective look. Press Command + T to enter Free Transform mode, then set the Angle to -55 degrees, Horizontal Skew to -25 degrees, and apply by hitting Enter twice. Now go to Layer > Rasterize > Layer to rasterize the shape layer. Please note in the image below how the result of transforming a shape layers differs.

Step 5

We'll add some thickness to the bar now. Before you move on, make sure you're viewing the canvas at 100% size. If not, go to View > Actual Pixels (Command + Alt + 0). Grab the Move Tool and while holding down the Alt key press the Right Arrow key 89 times, until you reach "Bar copy 89" in the layers palette.

Now select all the layers from "Bar copy 88" to "Bar copy" and merge them by going to Layer > Merge Layers or hitting Command + E. Name the merged layer "Thickness." Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command + U) and set Lightness to -35. Rename the "Bar copy 89" layer as "Back." Now swap the order of "Back" and "Bar" layers as in the below image.

Step 6

Now we're going to taste the ice cream. Get the Elliptical Marquee Tool, set the Style to a Fixed Size, then set Width and Height to 230 pixels, and make a selection as in the below image. Next, go to Select > Transform Selection, then set the Angle to -55 degrees and Horizontal Skew to -25 degrees, and apply to achieve the same perspective with the ice cream bar. Place the selection where the bite should be. Command + Alt + Shift-click the "Bar" layer thumbnail to intersect the selection with the pixels of the layer.

Step 7

Now create a new layer at the top and name it "Bite." Fill the selection with a distinctive color, then Deselect. Before you move on, make sure you're viewing the canvas at 100% size. If not, go to View > Actual Pixels (Command + Alt + 0). Also, make sure that the Move Tool is selected, then while holding down the Alt key press the Right Arrow key 90 times, until you reach "Bite copy 90" in the layers palette.

Select all bite layers except for the "Bite copy 90" and merge them by pressing Command + E. OK, now let's take a bite out of it, Command-click the "Bite copy 89" layer to load it's pixels and clear the selected area from "Bar" and "Thickness" layers.

Now Command-click the "Bite copy 90" layer thumbnail and clear the selection while the "Back" layer is selected in the layers palette. Now make sure a marquee tool is selected in the toolbox and hit the Left Arrow to move the selection 1 pixels left and hit Delete again to clear. Deselect, and then you can hide the "Bite copy 89" and "Bite copy 90" layers.

Step 8

Select the "Back" layer in the layers palette and then go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command + U). Set the Lightness to -25. Command-click the "Bite copy 89" layer to load the selection and Command + Alt + Shift-click the "Back" layer to intersect.

Go to Layer > New > Layer via Copy. This will create a new layer from the selection. Name this new layer "Chocolate." Go to Layer > Duplicate Layer and name it "White." Hit Command + U to bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog and set the Lightness to 75.

Step 9

Command-click the "White" layer to load the selection. Go to Select > Inverse. Make sure any Marquee Tool is Selected in the Toolbox and hit the Right Arrow five times to move the selection five pixels right. Hit delete to clear.

Now hit Shift + Left Arrow once to move it 10 pixels left and then hit Delete to clear the right side of the "White" layer. Hit the Down Arrow five times and then hit Delete. Finally, hit the Shift + Up Arrow once and then clear the selection again.

Step 10

Go to the "Bar" layer in the layers palette and apply a Gradient Overlay using these settings: Blend Mode set to Screen, Opacity at 50%, Gradient set at Black to White, Reverse checked, Style set to Radial, and Scale set at 130%. Drag the center of the gradient as in the image below while the Gradient Overlay dialog is still open.

Step 11

Now go to "Thickness" layer and apply a Gradient Overlay layer style and use these settings: Blend Mode set to Color Dodge, Opacity at 55%, Gradient set to Black to White, Style set to Linear, and Scale set at 150%.

Step 12

Go to the "Chocolate" layer in the layers palette and apply a Gradient Overlay to this layer as well with these settings: Blend Mode set to Soft Light, Opacity at 70%, Gradient set at Black to White with a Style of Linear, Angle set to -90 degrees, and Scale at 150%.

Step 13

Now we're going to apply another Gradient Overlay, this time to the "White" layer with these settings: Blend Mode set to Hard Light, Opacity set at 50%, Gradient set to Black to White, Style set to Linear, Angle set to -90 degrees, and Scale set at 150%.

Step 14

Create a new layer above the "Bar" layer and name it "Highlight." Command-click the "Bar" layer to load it's pixels, go to Edit > Stroke. Set the width to 2 pixels and Color to white, then set the Location to Center and hit OK. Press Command + D to deselect.

We'll erase some portions of this and make a highlight out of it. Now make your background a little bit darker in order to see the white outline clearly by going to Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation (Command + U). Do this while the "Background" layer is selected, then in the Layers Palette set the Lightness to - 40.

Step 15

Go to "Highlight" layer in the Layers Palette. Grab the Erase Tool, then in the tool options set the Master Diameter to 240 pixels, set Hardness to 0%, and set the Mode to Brush. Erase the left, bottom, and the bitten areas, as in the image below. Set the Layer Opacity at 50%.

Step 16

Create a new layer above the "Bar" layer and name it "Texture." Hit D to set to default colors which are black and white. Go to Filter > Render > Clouds. Now go to Filter > Render > Difference Clouds. Go to Filter > Distort > Glass. Set the Distortion to 20, Smoothness to 10, set the Texture to Frosted, and Scaling at 100%.

Step 17

Set the Blending Mode of the "Texture" layer to Soft Light. Next, hit Command + T, set the Angle to -55 degrees, set Horizontal Skew to -25, and then apply.

Step 18

Command-click the "Back" layer to load the selection. Command + Shift-click the "Thickness" layer and Command + Shift-click the "Bar" layer to add their pixels to the selection. Go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete to clear. Hit Command + D to deselect. Set the Layer Opacity at 20%.

Step 19

Create a new layer above the "White" layer and name it "Red." Command-click the "Chocolate" layer thumbnail to load the selection. Make sure a Marquee Tool is selected in the Toolbox. While holding down the Shift key, press the Right Arrow key three times to move the selection 30 pixels left and fill the selection with red.

Hit Shift + Right Arrow three more times and hit delete. Now grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool and select the top part of the red area and hit Delete to clear. Do the same thing for the bottom part as well and Deselect.

Step 20

Command-click the "Red" layer to load the selection. Go to the Channels Palette and create a new Channel. Fill the selection with white and then Deselect. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 5 pixels. Go to Image + Adjustments > Levels (Command + L) and set the Input Levels to 125, 1 and 150. Command-click the "Alpha 1" channel to make a selection out of the white pixels.

Step 21

Go back to the "Red" layer in the Layers Palette. Go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete to clear the sharp edges. Set the layer's Blending Mode to Multiply. Deselect by pressing Command + D.

Step 22

Create a new layer above the "Red" layer and name it "Red Highlight." Command-click the "Red" layer thumbnail to load the selection. Make sure any Marquee Tool is selected and hit the Right Arrow key once to move the selection one pixel right. Fill the selection with white and move the selection two more pixels right and hit Delete.

Now we have a thin line which needs to be blurred. Command-click the "Red" layer thumbnail again, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 2 pixels. Also, be sure to Deselect.

Step 23

Now it's time to make the stick. But before we move on, lets tidy up the layers. Go to the layers palette and delete "Bite copy 90" and "Bite copy 89" layers. Then select all the layers except for the "Background" layer and go to Layer > New > Group from layers, name the group "Ice cream."

Step 24

Now we need to draw the stick. First, let's create a new document that is 90 pixels wide and 340 pixels high at a Resolution of 300 pixels/inch.

Step 25

Hit Command + A to select all. Drag guides all around the canvas and one more guide to vertical center of the canvas. Hit Command + D to deselect. Create a new layer named "Stick." Set the Foreground Color to #ffcc77. Grab the Rounded Rectangle Tool, set the Radius to 40 pixels, set to Shape Layers, and draw a rectangle as in the below image.

Step 26

Get the Add Anchor Point Tool and add anchor points as in the below image. Now grab the Direct Selection Tool, select and move the left anchor point to add 10 pixels right using the Arrow Keys. Move the right one 5 pixels left. Go to Layer > Rasterize > Layer.

Step 27

Create a new layer and name it "Fibers." Hit D to set to default colors. Hit Alt + Backspace to fill the layer with Black. Go to Filter > Render > Fibers. Set Variance to 10 and Strength to 50. Go to Layer > Duplicate Layer and hit OK. Go to Edit > Transform > Rotate 180 degrees. Set the layer Blending Mode to Linear Dodge. Hit Command + E to merge the top two layers.

Step 28

Alt-click the line between the "Fibers" and "Stick" layers in the layers palette. This will define the "Stick" layer as a Clipping Mask for "Fibers." Go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Set the Amount at 60%, Radius to 8 pixels, and Threshold to 4 levels.

Step 29

Go to Image > Rotate Canvas > 90 degrees CW. Set the Blending Mode for the "Fibers" layer to Softlight and layer Opacity at 40%. Hit Command + E to merge the "Fibers" and "Stick" layers. Get the Horizontal Type Tool and type the text as in the below image. I used this free font from dafont.com. Set the text layer's opacity at 50%. Now hit Command + E again to merge the "Stick" layer and the text.

Step 30

Now we're going to place the stick in our main "Ice cream" document. Grab the Move Tool, drag and drop the "Stick" layer in to the "Ice cream" document.

Step 31

Hit Command + T and set the Horizontal Skew to -25 degrees and apply. Hit Command + T again and this time set Rotation to -55 degrees. We're applying these two transformations in two different steps to get a cleaner result.

Step 32

Go to the layers palette and drag the "Stick" layer below the "Ice cream" group.

Step 33

Grab the Move tool, and make sure you're viewing the canvas 100% size. While holding down the Alt key, press the Left Arrow key five times. Select from the "Stick copy 4" to "Stick" layer in the layers palette and merge them by hitting Command + E. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command + U) and set the Lightness to -30.

Step 34

Go to the "Stick copy 5" layer in the layers palette and hit Command + E to merge both stick layers and name this layer "Stick." Now we'll apply a Gradient Overlay to the "Stick" layer to give the shadow effect, using these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 100%, Gradient set to Black to White, Style set to Linear, Angle set to -130 degrees, and Scale at 55%.

Step 35

Now we're going to create the shadow. Make the "Background" layer invisible. Create a new layer on top and name it "Shadow." Go to Image > Apply Image. This will merge all visible layers to the active layer. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Shadow and set the Lightness to -100.

Step 36

Turn the "Background" layer back to visible. Drag the "Shadow" layer above the "Background" layer in the layers palette. Hit Command + T to enter Free Transform mode. Set the Reference Point Location to bottom-left and set the Horizontal Skew to -20 degrees and apply.

Hit Command + T again, set the Reference Point Location to bottom-center and set the Vertical Scale to 35%. Scale the shadow horizontally by dragging the middle-right handle of the bounding box to the right edge of the canvas.

Step 37

Go to View > Clear Guides to clear the existing guides. Drag a vertical guide and place it on the left edge of the "Shadow" layer. Now go to the Channels Palette and create a new channel. Grab the Gradient Tool, open the Gradient Picker and pick black to white, and then fill the channel with the gradient starting from the guide line and dragging till the right end of the canvas. Now Command-click "Alpha 2" in the Channels palette to make a selection out of the white pixels and go back to the "Shadow" layer in the Layers Palette.

Step 38

Now we selected the far end of the shadow and we're going to apply some blur to this area. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 3 pixels. Hit Command + F nine times to apply the last filter using the same settings multiple times. Now in order to make the shadow vanish hit Delete.

Step 39

In Step 16 we filled the whole "Texture" layer and then rotated it, so some pixels went outside of the canvas. Now we'll move the ice cream and the shadow, and these pixels will come inside the canvas. In order to get rid of them hit Command + A to select all and go to Image > Crop.

Conclusion

Now you can merge all layers except the "Background" layer and place the ice cream in the center of the canvas, then apply a gradient to the background. Yes that's it. Hope you learned something new and enjoyed this tutorial.

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