Draw a Speaker Icon in Photoshop Part 1

This tutorial is contributed by Sohan Negi and will show you in every details on how we can create a set of speakers icon from scratch in Photoshop. As this is the longest tutorial ever, it was split into Part 1 and Part 2.

Preview of Final Image

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First of all, create a new document at 800×800px and use a white background.

Get the Ellipse tool (U) and draw an ellipse of size 5.4 in by 5.4 in. Fill this shape with color #1A1A1A. Rasterize this layer.

Select+CTRL (Windows) or Select+CMD (Mac) this circle. Contract the circle; Select > Modify > Contract. Set the radius to 3 pixels. Create a new layer and fill this selection with color #2E3138.

Add noises to this layer by going to Filter > Noise > Add Noise with following settings.

Get the Ellipse tool (U) and draw an ellipse of size 4.6 in by 4.6 in. Fill this shape with color #1A1A1A. Rasterize this layer.

Add Noise with these settings. Amount 4%, Distribution-Uniform and tick Monochromatic. New texture will be looking like mine below.

On this sphere, we will add Drop Shadow and Inner Shadow Layer Styles. Observe the settings and get them as similar as I did.

Draw a new Ellipse shape (U) and fill it with #BEC2C9.

Give Drop Shadow effect to this shape you have just drawn.

You should be having something similar to what is shown below.

In this step, we will create a new texture for the fourth circle. Create Square shape with size 5.5 in by 5.5 in and fill it with color #8E929B.

Highlight this shape by Select+CTRL (Windows) or Select+CMD (Mac) the shape. Go to Filter Menu > Texture > Rough Pastels. You will get a texture something like this.

Keep highlighting this shape and give some blur effect. Go to Blur > Radial Bur with these settings.

We got a new texture (with very thin circles which are not so visible). Now cut an area from this texture equal to the fourth circle that we created earlier. Get the fourth circle on the middle of this square layer. Ctrl-click on circular shape and go to square shape layer > Right-click > Layer via Copy, so that you get the smallest circle with our new texture.

Your canvas should look similar to my one below.

Finally on this circle apply these Drop Shadow settings.

Draw a new small Ellipse shape (U) with size 0.93 in by 0.93 in and fill it with #747578.

Apply Drop Shadow settings as shown below.

With the help of Dodge tool we will give some shiny effect on this sphere. Select the Dodge tool and set its Range to Highlights, Exposure to 3%. Move your Dodge tool in circular motion at where you want to it to shine the most. Caution: Before using Dodge and Burn tool, make a backup of the applicable layer so that you can restore it whenever desired.

Now select your Dodge tool (O) to shine the left quarters, get these settings: Range – Highlights and Exposure – 3%. After applying dodge tool in semicircular way I got like this.

Let’s give the shine effect to third circle as well. This part will act like a rubber part of the bass. Get these settings on your Dodge tool. Set Range to Highlights and Exposure to 3%. Dodge this circle’s visible part in the middle and get it like this.

Let’s give the shine effect to third circle as well. This part will act like a rubber part of the bass. Get these settings on your Dodge tool. Set Range to Highlights and Exposure to 3%. Dodge this circle’s visible part in the middle and get it like this.

Let’s fix some bolts on it. On a new 200 x 200 pixels canvas copy the smallest shiny 3D circle that is the fifth circle. Now apply Burn tool on the boundary part of this sphere with these settings. Set Range to Shadow and Exposure to 5%. After that go to Image > Image Size and resize this image to 40 x 40 pixels.

Copy this bolt to your original canvas, make 8 copies of them and fix them like this.

Get your Dodge tool (O) with Range to Highlights and Exposure to 3%. Dodge the left and right side of this circle’s visible part and get it like this.

Since we already have created the big bass so we will use the smaller version of it to act as a small bass. Make copy of the bigger bass in new canvas 500 by 500 pixels and resize your canvas to 200 by 200 pixels.

Let’s now design the Woofer body on which we will assemble the big and small bass. On the same canvas, select rounded rectangle tool, set radius 20pi and draw a big rounded rectangle with size 6.25 in by 9.6 in.

Select+CTRL this shape, go to Modify > Select > Contract by 10 pixels. Create a new layer and fill this selected shape with color #323433. To make the Woofer texture more realistic, we will add noise to this layer.

Apply Drop Shadow settings on this layer.

So we are done with all the individual parts of our Woofer. Now is the time to assemble big and small bass on Woofer’s body. Continue to the next post on making the Speakers.