Previously I showed you how to illustrate a construction helmet icon. Today we'll be drawing a traffic cone, another handy icon for "under construction" elements. Our cone icon is inspired by one I saw on the VLC Player site recently.
Editor's Note: This tutorial was originally published in the Czech language at Grafika Online. Grafika have kindly given permission for Vaclav to republish here on PSDTUTS for those of us who haven't quite mastered Czech.
Step 1
Start Photoshop, open a new document, and fill the background with light orange/sand color (#EABE94). Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool and draw the base of the icon—color #CC622E (for now).
Step 2
Rotate this shape (Ctrl + T) 45 degrees...
Step 3
...and make its height smaller approximately by half, again with the transform tool (Ctrl + T ).
Step 4
Copy this layer (Ctrl + J), change the color to a darker shade (#8A3300), and move it under the last layer. This will be the base of the cone. Unfortunately, on the left and also on the right (as the arrows show) there is a free space.
Step 5
That is why we have to fill in these places. One way to do this is to add two rectangles to the shape (see the outlines below).
Step 6
And we can get down to the main part. First, we click out a triangle-like shape similar to this one with the Pen Tool (P).
Step 7
After that, add points with the same tool in the middle of both the top and bottom axis.
Step 8
Using the Direct Selection Tool (A), move the upper point up and the bottom point down. Note that when drawing the points, I dragged out the ends as indicated in the image below.
Step 9
Now for the white reflective stripes, we will create extra shapes. First, we draw an ellipse over the whole width of the previous shape, place a rectangle over it (drawn with Shift key down), and then one more elllipse, which we substract from the shape (drawn with Alt key). For now, use colors like #E6E6E6. You should wind up with the result shown.
Step 10
Copy this shape once more (Ctrl + J), move down and resize it to make it bigger to match the cone shape (Ctrl + T). Create a Clipping Mask from the last layer to both layers, with the Ctrl + Alt + G shortcut. After this, the layers will be displayed only on the previous layer (orange).
Step 11
To keep our icon coloured properly, we can draw colors sideways into a new layer, which we are going to use for shading. It is a dark orange for shades (#6B3719), orange shades for the base (#D25200, #F07E00), and the light one for reflections (#E6E6E6). It will be OK if you use white color with lowered opacity for reflections.
So let's begin shading. Hide all layers except the first one (lower layer of the base), create a new layer, and then create a Clipping Mask on the previous layer (Ctrl + Alt + G).
Select a dark color and on the left-middle scribble with a big brush, then select the right part of the shape with the Polygonal Lasso Tool , and scribble with the big brush again. As you can see on the picture, you should have two darkened patches.
Step 12
Unhide the next layer, recolor it to orange (#D45809), and create shades using coloring from the back. Light the shape as if the lighting is coming from the front.
Step 13
We also create shades above the main part of the cone, and from the left and from the right as well. We use again the same color (#6C3819), only this time experiment with opacity and interaction (try setting the shading layer to Multiply for a good effect).
Step 14
Now we want to light up the white stripes. If you look at reflecting glass or a reflex vest closely, you can see a clear structure, which we are going to try to immitate. Since the icon is very small, the structure also must be small and simple.
We draw this pattern into a new layer with the Pencil Tool, then select the section and define it as a new pattern—Edit > Define pattern.
Step 15
Now load the selection of both white layers (Ctrl-Shift-click on the layer), create a new layer (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + N) and set this selection as a Layer Mask.
Step 16
Switch to the Mask (Alt + click on the Mask) and fill the white spaces with our prepared pattern. We will use the fact that the black color does not change by setting the Multiply interaction. Open the Fill dialog from the Edit menu, set our pattern, interaction, and confirm.
Step 17
What has happened? Now the layer content will be seen only on the point of white layers, but only as a pattern. You can try it out immediately, by drawing with any tool on the layer as in the picture.
Step 18
But we want to have a nice light, so we set a big, white, soft brush and draw in the middle of the cone. Our pattern starts to project nicely.
Step 19
That is why we can have big reflections over the whole cone. First we load a selection of the main part of the cone and Contract this selection by 2px.
Step 20
With the Polygonal Lasso Tool, we subtract the right half (holding down the Alt key) and after it with the Elliptical Marquee Tool, we subtract the upper part (which would not be lit as well—but only for now).
Step 21
With the selection still set, draw a gradient from white to transparent into a new layer with the Gradient Tool.
Step 22
Create a reflection on the base in the same way making sure to show it angling off to match the object.
Step 23
Make sure you also add the highlight to the side of the base. Here you can use Rectangular Marquee Tool.
Step 24
But the cone without the reflection on the top looks a little bit strange, so we need to add it here as well. Because we wish to edit this reflection eventually, we can use a Shape Layer, created with Pen Tool.
Step 25
Highlight the edges of reflections more. We use the Pen Tool to do this, and you can see detailed shots below.
Step 26
Because we're creating an extra glossy cone, the base should have a slight reflection as well.
When the cone is glossy enough, the cone part should reflect on the base. That is we we copy this layer (orange one) and put it above the base. Flip the layer, move it down, we can also add a mask for a layer to vanish down. You can see on the picture below that the reflection is mostly seen on the right part of the icon (where the arrow shows).
Step 27
The last step will be adding a background light. It's nice if the icon is not all the same color, so instead we can choose another shade for the light. I selected a violet color. Load the selection of all layers and make it one pixel smaller by choosing Select > Modify > Contract...
Step 28
Then draw with a big, soft, violet (#D2B8F6) brush and brush the light into the new layer,
Step 29
And that's it! Good luck in your work!
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )frky March 18th
interesitng and great
( )Eliot Jacobs March 18th
Thanks! Gonna check it out now!
( )Jesús RodrÃguez March 18th
Excellent! thanks for this one!
( )grEvenX March 18th
Very well done cone! A good introduction to some lightning techniques.
( )Kim Dolleris March 18th
simple and beautiful. I really like the reflex details – gives it the last grain.
( )chandan March 18th
really nice work.
( )tom March 18th
who the fuck cares about these shits!?
it sucksss
we want some tutarial on picture,picture effects and shits
( )thank you
Andrei Constantin March 18th
we need more and more tuts like this
( )Jeii March 18th
VLC icon
( )Coooooool
Joefrey Mahusay March 18th
Nice tut. Thanks for sharing.
( )Jesús RodrÃguez March 18th
tom if you don’t like this tutorial then just don’t come back mate! but don’t come here to say useless words!
( )Cheers!
Manuel Merz March 18th
@tom: I think you got even stuck with that detailed instructions. I don’t see any point to act like you do. Say thanks for the guy who took the time to write this down or simply don’t visit this site again – thank you.
I’am really interested in other guys techniques and that neat icon looks simply great. Could really be a vista like vlc icon
Keep the tutorials coming.
( )Markus March 18th
Not to be Mr. Raincloud, but we have already learned this ..
(It looks great!
)
( )arnaud March 18th
Really cool !
( )luk March 18th
if i pay 9 dollars for membership can i get the psd of this file?
( )spasquini March 18th
I really appreciate the efforts to do everything by vector shapes, so as to set this cone icon fully resizable.
Thank you.
( )chris March 18th
nice tutorial! keep up the good work.
( )GeminiArt March 18th
wow great tut … good job man
( )Shane March 18th
Very nice tutorial – thanks.
( )Eva March 18th
awesome !!!
( )giackop March 18th
i love icons thanks!!!
( )Lamin Barrow March 18th
WOW… Amazing trick.
( )Naveed March 18th
once a again a gud tut
( )anyways why dnt you guys come up with some Illustrator and Fireworks tutorials ?
bweb March 18th
Oh! so simple, so cool. Really nice job!
( )Erik March 18th
Really nice! Great!
( )Naveed – This is _PSDtuts_, go find a site named FIREWORKStuts or something =P
Sacha March 18th
Nice tutorial, but why not do this in illustrator ? I have to admit the end result is beautiful, but illustrator seems much more appropriate at least for the beginning stages.
( )Plus, it would be much easier to scale the icon at a later point.
Steve Forbes March 18th
Awesome tutorials dude! Keep it up
( )Mr Kuzio March 18th
Cite:
“Nice tutorial, but why not do this in illustrator ? I have to admit the end result is beautiful, but illustrator seems much more appropriate at least for the beginning stages.
Plus, it would be much easier to scale the icon at a later point.”
This guy have my same idea.
The cone can be make better with Illustrator. Maybe i will make my own tutorial for the cone but using Illustrator.
See you soon.
( )Liam March 18th
Just a bit of information for everyone asking for Illustrator tutorials etc, the name of this site is PSDTuts, hence why all of the tutorials are for Photoshop
This is an amazing tutorial, it is so crisp. Keep these sort of tutorials coming!
( )Constantin Potorac March 18th
Another great tutorial from you. Thank you.
( )SnakeJake March 18th
BRILLIANT! I don’t know if I’ll ever use it, but the techniques are great.
( )jerry March 18th
Dobrá práce, upÃre
( )Flaunt March 18th
Agree with Liam, come here for Psd tuts, hence the name of the site. If you want Illustrator and Fireworks; Check out AiTuts and FwTuts.
( )Nice effects! THANKS
Supra622 March 18th
I’m with the naysayers on this one. Glossy reflectiveness is very overdone already… and one this tutorial, the light reflection isn’t even *remotely* realistic.
( )Peve March 18th
Hmm, the shades seem to be bad positioned. If the light comes from the top right why do we have a reflection and a highlight on the leftside?
( )b00m March 19th
Václav(e hezký) nice
( )fire-pixel.com March 19th
It can really be applied to anything. Great job with the step by step.
I’ll reciprocate with another good article because that’s all I have.
Top 10 Awesome Websites That Sell Cool Products You Probably Have Never Visited But Need To.
http://www.comember.net/blogs/firepixel/
Thanks
( )Katalog Stron March 19th
Very high quality effect. Respect.
( )Andrew D March 19th
Excellent tutorial! Thanks
( )John March 19th
That mesh patter rocks! I’d personally tone down the gloss a bit – but very good tutorial.
( )Cain March 19th
Please share more!
Are we going to make a whole construction theme here?
( )Daniel March 19th
very nice icon ! great tutorial. thanks a lot
( )James March 19th
Good looking icon… my only beef is the “reflection” looks like you painted the side of the cone. Traffic Cones are not reflective glossy plastic so at best it would be a VERY muted gloss.
( )Josh March 19th
QUESTION:
In Step 9, how do you draw the ellipse so that it snaps to the cone shape?
In other words, are there some special settings I should use to draw the ellipse?
————
BTW, the tutorial is neat.
“tom” can go whine to his mommy if he doesn’t like it.
( )tom March 19th
oh you guys are dumb…
you think the dude spend his time to write this tutorial only for you to learn something?,if you think like that kill yourself now
he gets money fools so stfu
( )Germán March 19th
@tom: do you actually work ad honorem? I think is great to earn money doing what you like to do… and teaching some techniques is a good way to earn money.. besides, he’s not forcing you to buy anything.. thanks man
( )PublicRecordsGuy March 19th
A lot of work, but I’m definitely doing it. I think it would look great on custom 404 pages, or under construction pages. I love it. I just need to learn to transfer my wedding photography skills and limited photoshop into becoming an artist.
( )Václav KrejÄà March 19th
@tom – sure, you´re right. I will tell you one big secret – I do everything for money. And I don´t see anything wrong with it. Of course I could do milion different things than writing the tutorials, but I like it, and if readers likes it too, it´s great. For me it looks like you´re the only one unsatisfied, and moreover it look´s like enviousness. Calm down boy.
@all – thank you very much for your nice comments!
( )barat March 19th
It was realy nice one. I had some time and I followed this tutorial. Who knows, maybe I’ll learn how to ilustrate/draw because now I’m using vectors/pen tool only for making selections/substracting
( )James Carlos March 19th
Really well done. Great attention to detail as always.
( )remmac March 19th
Some guys write supertuts, other people waist time critisizing people’s supertuts
( )Markus March 19th
There is a site named Firetuts.com. It works like PSDtuts, but they dont have many tutorials, and they are not updating :S
( )Chris March 19th
Great tutorial – but I’d lower the opacity of the gloss a bit. It’d look more photorealistic.
( )Sonny Bill Williams March 19th
Toms a wanker…
( )Sonny Bill Williams March 19th
A funny wanker, but still a wanker
( )goldenthunder March 19th
awesome dude! thanks! and luk yes
( )madBOX20 March 19th
im stuck on step 9/10 could someone help me please?
( )ali March 19th
nice tutorial, i agree with Chris ^^^ tho, the gloss is a bit bold
( )webthese March 19th
Nice and different tutorial. I really like it.
( )Ibrahack March 19th
maybe he is getting money but i bet that money is not a big thing for all this content he publish! i think this community is full of ungrateful people! :S
( )cheers
tom March 19th
@ valcav kerjicici or what ever the F**K is it…YES you could do anything else that you can earn money but this shit got lots of money in itslef,so stfu and stop actin like a kind, good man… aight
everyone else yall can kiss what is between my leg
thank you.
( )Heiko March 19th
just awesome!
( )Flaunt March 19th
Someone please ban Tom. His bad attitude is bringing down this site. He needs an attitude of graditude. Lets keep it positive.
( )Ben Griffiths March 20th
These icon tutorials are fantastic – love them.
( )guterkuchen March 20th
Thanxs
( )Alberto March 20th
@ Manuel – quote: “Could really be a vista like vlc icon.”
Maybe you meant osx like vlc icon…
Great tutorial. I create a lot of icons and this technique is really great!!
( )Ibrahack March 20th
Agree with Flaunt, i think you should think on banning people or something.. this people is very annoying..
( )Manicd March 20th
Brilliant tutorial – Ive learnt lots of techniques
( )Andrew March 20th
@ Tom
If your so awesome go make your own tut.
——
This cone tut though is great!
( )JokR March 20th
great tutorial, I’ve learned a lot of interesting stuff can’t wait to try it myself.
( )barcusi March 20th
i never really post on tutorials but i just have to say this site is excellent, you guys are doing great work!
( )Casey March 20th
Very nice. Looks almost isometric in a way.
( )senol March 20th
good man cool
( )nick March 22nd
Nice… I toned the shine down a bit.
( )[img]http://img.skitch.com/20080321-pythepa376qic1q4rst1dad5hu.jpg[/img]
Ricardo March 24th
Very very nice icon.
( )Thanks!
mahalie March 25th
I really like the pattern application to the strips on the cone. Also the color swash – I’ve done some small variations of that but never consciously, I really like it.
I can’t believe some of the negative feedback or requests for other programs. I ask only for more of the same. Along these lines I’d love so see a tutorial on creating tiny vs. large icons. For instance, what would you do to make this cone readable at, say, 20px high and to prevent poor aliasing. This is a problem I’ve come up against using Illustrator for small icons and have read suggestions to move to PS for this small scale pixel-perfect control.
( )suresh March 26th
great tutorial….
thanks
( )internet & web design blog March 27th
nice tutroials mate keep up the good work
( )f0ox March 27th
http://alltutorials.ru/ – уроки фотошоп, уроки photoshop cs3, уроки по фотошопу
( )Karl March 29th
Step 9 has me stuck. I’m still not proficient with knowing when new layers are required, so I’m not getting the white with my rectangle. Also, if I hold down the shift key while making it, it wants to be a square.
( )Qbrushes April 24th
thanks for the tutorial
( )Dimas April 24th
I cannot do the step 5…I dont know what to do.Also,I do the triangle at step 6 to become a cone…
( )rybaxs April 25th
ive remember my VLC icon.. yaho0! great!
( )Martin April 29th
The brush parts would have been excellent in video tut format. On the other side you’re forced to play around with the brush settings yourself.
This was a learning experience, but i need to work some more on my shadow brush skills for sure
( )marikikis May 3rd
cool tnx =)
( )mahesh May 23rd
awesome tutorial
( )Harish Mohan June 11th
You taught me that still i am not so far more than a student! and thanks!
( )noOne June 23rd
Really great tut, i did it exacly as u did,
( )hh twin cones.
reethahari July 26th
Nice article.. Can you please post the Photoshop PSD file ?
( )Cooper Shrieve August 14th
so THIS is how they made they VLC icon…..!
( )Valodes August 18th
THIS really coooooooooool thanks man
( )audrey October 30th
hi
( )since april 2008 i’ve had my license and now i ‘m driving very well and continue to improve myself.
but i like doing your tutorial now ,because it remembers me many things it’s nice and creative
veerendra November 2nd
that was awesome .. really liked that how smartly u put texture in white area
( )mojito January 4th
nice tut… as ever
To all that critisize the critisizers.. .leave’em alone. Banning is the worst that can happen. Let them scream. When someone needs to scream to be heard… we all have been kids one day. Whoever enters this site may be pleased with the content. Or may be not. One can say “thx”, one can say “this s***t is f***ing stupid”. One decides how wants to be treated later on.
( )Ian January 24th
The lighting looks a little overdone to me. Other than that the outcome looks great. Nice tutorial.
( )honour chick February 16th
great illustrations
( )kileika February 26th
This tutorial is definitely not for beginners. It misses a lot of details. I got stuck in step 9 and 10, but luckily I had a little bit of experience. Later on I stuck in the pattern making part and I couldn’t do the lighting exactly like it is instructed. So guys, I think partly that Tom dude is right with his statement: “you think the dude spend his time to write this tutorial only for you to learn something?,if you think like that kill yourself now.”
Yeah, it is a cute nice icon for your inspiration only. You can never have it exactly like the original.
( )chicago web design April 10th
This IS a great tutorial! Normally, correct me if im wrong, but something like this is typically done in illustrator right? I also love the perez hilton style drawings on the tutorial it self.
( )ProfeCompu April 23rd
What resolution do you work at? I have a hard time getting the amount of detail you achieve in your work, after I resize the icons.
( )Bernard April 29th
I’m also stuck at steps 9 and 10. I’m not well enough educated in Photoshop to grasp the techniques used there. :/
Would you be so kind and elaborate those steps, perhaps edit the tutorial?
Anyway, the tutorial is well written and comprehensible, but maybe a tad “quick” for the beginners like myself! Nice finish too.
( )دردشة May 27th
Nice tut. Thanks for sharing.
( )Anil June 30th
This tutorial is very nice, but i can’t understand Step 13, so please Step 13 and later steps, be explain clearly. Thanks
( )Gottin June 30th
simple but interisting,keep up the good work
( )jmarreros September 12th
thank you for this tutorial, it is very nice
( )MS November 10th
tis may help for me
( )