In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to make some great looking pearls by combining layer styles and simple brushwork.

1. Start with a blank canvas, of course. For now, let’s keep the background color white, so we can easily see what’s going on. Create a new layer.

2. On that layer, make a circular selection the size you want your pearl to be. I reccommend that you keep it fairly small. Fill the selection with a medium grey. I’m using #B4B4B4.

3. Now take the burn tool and, using a soft, feathered brush, burn in a little area on the bottom right of the circle like I have below.

4. Now double-click on the layer in the layers palette to bring up the layer styles (blending options) dialog. Use the following settings.

{mosgoogle}

Now, as you can see, our pearl’s starting to get a little depth to it.

Now it’s time for a little brushing and blurring and feathering - On my!

5. Create a new layer and grab your paintbrush. Select the 5px feathered brush, and set the foreground color to black. Now brush a thick, black blob that roughly follows the curve of the pearl, just inside of the perimiter of our object.

6. Now go to Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur and enter an amount of 3.

{mosgoogle}

7. Ctrl+Click on this layer to select it. Fill this selection with black 3 times.

8. Duplicate the layer and hit Ctrl+I to invert the colors. Hit Ctrl+E to merge it to the previous layer.

9. Ctrl+Click on the main pearl layer to load the selection and hit Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection. Keeping the shadow/hilight layer active, hit delete to get rid of the excess fuzziness outside of the pearl.

10. For me, that main dark spot’s a little strong, so let’s go to Image - Adjust - Hue/Saturation and set the Lightness to +25.

11. Finally let’s add a little hint of color, in this case, pink. Create a new layer above the other two and fill it with a dark pink tone. I’m using #9E005D. Set the layer mode to Color and the opacity to 40%. Now, if you want to change the color of your pearl, all you have to do is change this one layer. Darker hues will work better than lighter ones.