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Drawing a Reflected Star in Photoshop CS3

In the process of drawing this reflected star...

you will get introduced to basic Photoshop tools such as gradients, polygon tool, layer mask, and layer styles.

1. First, create a new 400px by 400px document.

2. Note that the Background layer has a lock icon which prevents us from making modifications to it.

Promote this default background layer to a true layer, by double-clicking on the background layer in the Layers pallette. And clicking OK to the New Layer dialog.

3. Now you can see that it has become a normal layer...

4. Set the foregound color a sky blue color...

5. Now press Alt-Enter and it will fill you layer with this foreground color.

6. Time to draw our star. Select the Polygon Tool from the toolbox.

7. Make sure "Shape Layers" is set and enter 5 for the number of sides.

8. Set the Polygon options as shown by clicking the arrow.

You can click the arrow again to close the Polygon Options dialog.

9. Set the color of the star to an orange color.

10. Use the mouse to draw a star approximately this size and horizontal in orientation.

11. If you make a mistake, you can undo with Ctrl-Z. If you need to perform multiple undo's, use Ctrl-Alt-Z a few times. Don't worry if the star is off the canvas a bit like the one shown above. Because we will now use the Move tool and drag the star to the location shown...

12. Now we are going to make a reflection of this star. Duplicate the star layer by dragging the layer to the "New Layer" icon.

Now you got two star layers -- one directly on top of the other.

13. With one of the star layer selected, go to Edit -> Transform Path -> Flip Vertical.

Now one of you stars have been flip.

14. Using the Move tool, drag the flipped star to be below the upright star.

15. With the layer containing the upside-down star selected, click on the Layer Mask icon for that layer.

...

16. Now we need to make the reflection "fade-out". With the layer mask selected, select the gradient tool.

17. Have the gradient settings be as shown and then click on the gradient editor.

18. Select the foreground to transparent gradient and click OK.

19. Drag out the gradient as shown. You can undo with Ctrl-Z to give multiple tries.

20. With the reflection layer selected, drop the opacity down to about 30%.

21. So now you get something like ...

22. Let's add a surface for which the star is standing on. This time we are going to use a gradient overlay. Duplicate the blue background layer by dragging it to the New Layer icon as before.

23. Set the foreground and background colors to be as shown...

24. Then click the "Layer Style" icon for the duplicated layer. And select "Gradient Overlay" from the popup menu.

25. In the Layer Style dialog, click the gradient editor.

26. And select the "Foreground to Background" gradient. Click OK.

27. Back in the Layer Style dialog, set the scale to 10% to get a sharp gradient transition. Click OK.

28. If the gradient transition does not end up at the bottom of the star. You can move the star and its reflection layer with the Move tool.

29. Finally, add a drop shadow to the star. With the star layer selected, click the Layer Style icon and select Drop Shadow. Make settings as shown...

30. And you should get something like ...