Color Burn 2-D Orb

This is a very straight-forward, made-up tutorial that explores the different areas of colorization and abstract through the Color Burn blend mode. It's quite short and simple, but also not very sophisticated because the main highlight is just a pretty little Photoshop effect.

Step 1: Since we are going to photoshop an orb, we need a basic texture. And let's be original. Make a new document at a reasonable size (mine is 200x200 px) and fill it in with a color of your choice. Use the "Burn" and "Dodge" tools to create a nice gradient. Feel free to add in another speck of color if you feel imaginative.


Step 2: There is more than one way to distort the gradient, but for this, we'll do Filter --> Liquify (or shift+ctrl+x) and a new window should pop up. Change options around to distort and smudge your gradient into a whorl. For starters, use mainly the first two buttons you see on the left side panel, and experiment with the rest if you wish.

Yours may not be the exact same as mine, but just be sure that you have some sort of circular shape somewhere, since we are making an orb.

Step 3: Open up a new document and make a freehand circle (using the "ellipse tool" ) that is slightly smaller than the size of the gradient you made. Right click the selection and Layer Via Copy. Highlight this new layer and color overlay it a slightly darker color, just enough to be able to distinguish it from the white background. I used F8F8F8. Copy and paste your gradient onto this ellipse and change the gradient layer blend mode to Color Burn.


Step 4: Well that's the foundation. You can move the gradient around to get a different orb texture, or - like I'm about to show you - change the ellipse layer to get a whole variety of effects. One method is to add an additional gradient, by doing a gradient overlay on the ellipse. I did Normal, 50% Opacity, Black & White Gradient Reversed, Style Reflected, 160 degrees. And here's what I got:


Step 5: And with color overlay mixed with a gradient overlay on the ellipse layer, we have yet another outcome.



Step 6: So now do whatever you want with it, don't just leave it sitting like that. Depending on what graphic you are making, add in some other effects to make the orb stick out.

I decided to fire up a blurry background, which turned out to be a terrible imitation of a meteor. To mock a similar result, make a new layer under the orb. Use a dark red fuzzy photoshop brush and brush around the orb. Add in a few strokes of black as well. Then, go to Filter --> Blur --> Gaussian Blur and set the radius to a reasonable strength. Use the Smudge tool to create cleaner radial strokes, depending on what size photoshop brush you use.

Once you are done with the background, go back to the layer with your orb. Do Select --> Load Selection and it should make a circular selection right around the orb. Now make a new layer and pick around a 20px photoshop soft round brush and blacken the parts of the orb that you desire. Remember to never deselect the loaded selection you just made with the orb.

Now add some text and you are done!