In this tutorial, you’ll go through easy steps and techniques to design a simple yet attractive house icon. It’s easy to follow and to play with. There are no intricate curves or complex brush work. Just simple shapes along with layer styles will do the complete job. The aim of the tutorial is to get familiar with the correct use of colors and efficient use of layer styles. I am sure you’ll enjoy following it. Let’s jump in!
Final Image Preview
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Tutorial Details
- Program: Photoshop CS and newer
- Difficulty: Beginner
- Estimated Completion Time: 30-45 mins
Step 1
First of all, create a new 500px by 500px document with white background. Drag out some guides at the center of the document for convenience. Select the Pen Tool (P) and make a shape like the one shown below.
Step 2
You need to add some colors and a thin-white strip to the shape. To do so, double-click on the layer and apply the following Layer Styles.
Step 3
Duplicate the shape (Command + J) and go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal, move the duplicate shape rightward so that the sides join each other as shown.
Step 4
Due to similar colors, the two shapes give a flat look to the roof. There’s a need to fix that. Open the Layer Styles of the duplicate layer, and apply the following changes.
Step 5
Set foreground color to “830F00.” Draw a shape like that shown below with Pen Tool (P). Name the resulting shape “roof left”.
Step 6
Duplicate the shape and name it “roof-right”. Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal and move the duplicate shape rightward so that you get something like this.
Step 7
With Pen Tool (P), draw another shape like the one shown below, name it “body.”
Step 8
Double-click on the layer and give it these Layer Styles.
Step 9
You need to put the roof’s shadow on the body of the house. To do so, Command-click on the “roof left” layer, then Command + Shift-click on the “roof right” layer to sum up the selections of the two layers. Move the selection down and on a new layer fill the selection with the color “5F5343.”
Step 10
Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, enter 10px and click OK.
Step 11
You might notice that after the filter has been applied, the shadow is flowing outside the house’s body, which doesn’t look right. To fix it, Ctrl-click on the “body” layer, and press Command + Shift + I to invert the selection. With the “shadow” layer selected, press Delete.
Step 12
You now need to add a prominent part of the house – that is the door. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), and on a new layer fill a selection with black.
Step 13
Give the door the following Layer Styles.
Step 14
Now we need to add some details to the door. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool (Shift + U) and draw a black rectangle with a 3px radius.
Step 15
Go to its Blending Options and apply these settings.
Step 16
Duplicate the shape and move it down so that you have something like this.
Step 17
A handle can now be added to the door. Use the Ellipse Tool (U) to make a small circle on the door.
Step 18
Give the circle a Drop Shadow and a Radial Gradient.
Step 19
You can add a slab above the door. Use the Pen Tool (P) to make a shape like the one shown below.
Step 20
Go to its Blending Options and give it a Gradient Overlay of a similar tone as that of the roof.
Step 21
With the Pen Tool (P), make another shape like the one below.
Step 22
Give the shape the following Layer Styles.
Step 23
Create a new layer and fill a selection with black on it. Make sure that this layer is placed below the “door” layer in the Layers Palette.
Step 24
Give the black strip a Gradient Overlay of the following colors.
Step 25
As a further detail, you can add a door-step to the house. Make a shape like the one below with Pen Tool (P).
Step 26
Give the door-step a Gradient Overlay.
Step 27
To give the door-step a 3D look, add some thickness to it. Set the foreground color to “A26431″ and draw a shape like the one shown below.
Step 28
It’s time to add windows to the house. Start doing so by filling a selection with black on a new layer.
Step 29
Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), fill a selection with white on a new layer as shown.
Step 30
Go to the Blending Options of the windows cross section, and give it these styles.
Step 31
Now, you need to make shutters. Just like you made the door, make a shutter and put it on one side of the window. Make a copy of it and move it to the other side, give a Drop Shadow to the shutters if you want.
Step 32
Just for increasing details, add a slab to the window like you did for the door. The only difference is that you need to apply the Layer Styles of the door-step to the slab you are making for the window.
Step 33
Create a layer set and put in it all layers that constitute the window. Duplicate the layer set twice and transform it to 60% of its original size. Put the smaller windows on the right side of the door.
Step 34
You can now add a chimney to the house. Create a new layer and on it, fill a selection with black.
Step 35
Give it a Gradient Overlay with these colors.
Step 36
Make a shape like the one below to give the chimney a 3D look.
Step 37
Make another shape of any color for the chimney.
Step 38
Give the shape a Gradient Overlay with these colors.
Step 39
Set the foreground color to “D6C08D” and make a shape like this.
Step 40
It’s time to give shadows to the base of the house icon. Create a new layer, then use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to fill a selection with black.
Step 41
Apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and then Filter > Blur > Motion Blur with these settings.
Step 42
Make a similar shadow for the door-step. You can set the Opacity of the shadows from 80-90% or from 20-30%. I added some grass and ended up with this.
Conclusion
The final image is shown below! I hope you enjoyed creating this icon design!
