Google Calendar is one of many apps that runs on the Internet, not on your desktop. I’ll show you how to make your very own desktop icon for Google Calendar and, hopefully, the skills behind creating other similar icons. I hope you enjoy the experience!

There’s no denying that the Internet is going to be a big part of our future of computing. Running applications in the cloud have already become popular, with services such as Google Apps, which we also offer to our clients. Whether you use Google Mail and Google Calendar to help to manage productivity, or social lifestyling apps like Twitter and Facebook, there’s probably a web-based application or two running on your computer throughout the day.

I recently created some icons and released them to the public for free (and hope to be able to release some more soon), one of which was the icon I’ll be showing you to make in this tut. Feel free to go and pick up those icons here.

This guide will walk you through how I created the Google Calendar icon. There’s a total of 41 steps, so it’s a reasonably long tutorial, so feel free to grab a drink before we begin. You’ll be required to spend a few moments at various points in the tut to draw shapes freeform so please, take your time, and enjoy the experience.

Let’s get started!

Final Image Preview

As always, this is the final image for this tutorial:

Step 1

To begin, create a new Photoshop file that is 512 pixels by 512 pixels in size like in the snap below.

Step 2

Let’s start up by making a new layer. Using the Polygonal Lasso tool (L key, or Shift+L to toggle through the Lassos until you get to the one seen in the snapshot) and draw a loose, freeform, angled square. Fill this square with black, either by using the Paint Bucket tool (G on the keyboard.) Deselect your selection with Command+D.

Step 3

Right click on your new layer in the layers panel, and select “Blending Options‚Ķ”. Click “Stroke” (the word, not the tick box), found at the bottom of the new panel that will have popped up.

Step 4

Select the red that’s in that panel, and a Stroke Colour window will pop up. Select black, and OK through both panels that you have up. We want to flatten down this blending option; what I do for speed is to create another layer underneath this layer, select “Layer 1″ again, and hit Command+E (Ctrl+E for PCs) to merge them on top of one another. All Blending Options bake down too.

Step 5

Using the Polygonal Lasso tool again, create another freeform shape on a new layer (below the current one) in a different colour to simulate a facade to the square that we’ve just made. We’re building up a 3D looking “surface” here, which we’ll put the calendar itself onto. Deselect again.

Step 6

Make yet another layer, above all the others, and make another freeform shape with the polygonal lasso tool. I know, lots of free shapes. Take your time to get them just how you want them. I’ll wait here while you do it. Make it another colour again, so that we can see what we’re up to on each layer. This is what will eventually become the “Top Page”. Deselect again.

Step 7

Another layer, another freeform shape with the Polygonal Lasso tool. Make this one underneath the “Top Page” layer, like shown in the image. This will eventually become all of the other pages that are underneath the top one. Again, make sure it’s a different colour, so we can tell what’s going on where, then deselect when you’re done.

Step 8

At this stage you’ll have 4 layers. Keeping layers tidy early on is a life saver later on, particularly when you work on big pieces like this. In the screenshot above, you can see what I chose to rename each layer. I’d recommend using the same names while you use this tutorial so that you don’t risk getting confused later on.

Step 9

Using the Polygonal Lasso tool again, make a selection around the top of the “Top Page” layer.

Step 10

Using shortcuts Command+X then Command+V will cut that section out from that layer, and paste it back into reality on its own new layer. Pop it back to where it was before by using the move tool (V on the keyboard). This bit at the top will eventually become the “bind” that holds each sheet of the calendar in place. Let’s name this layer “Bind”.

Step 11

Select the “Top Page” layer again, and hit Command+L on the keyboard to bring up your Layers panel. In the Output Levels area at the bottom, grab the black nozzle and drag it along to the right until its integer reads 230. Alternatively, just type 230 into that same box.

Step 12

Back on the “Bind” layer, bring up those Blending Options again (second click on the layer, “Blending Options‚Ķ”) and click on Color Overlay from the left-hand column. Pick a colour that you’d like to use for your bind (I chose a desaturated blue, to go with the official Google Calendar icon). HIT OK

Step 13

Select your “Bind” layer’s pixels by clicking on its image thumbnail from the layers panel while holding down the Command key. With these pixels selected, make a new layer and select the Gradient tool (G on the keyboard, or Shift+G to toggle over to it from the Paint Bucket) and click on the little arrow in the top left corner of your screen next to the Gradient icon. Select the second standard gradient, which runs black to transparent. If it’s not black to transparent as an option, make sure that your colour palette on the right side of your screen has black as the foreground colour. Select this again and black should then become the colour which merges to transparent. Be sure that the Linear gradient is selected (that’s the first one of five options, right next to the drop-down you’ve just used to select your gradient colours). Draw a line from the bottom of the “Bind” to about three-quarters up it, then release. This should give you a gradient like in the image above. It usually takes a few goes to get it exactly how you want it. Call this layer “Bind Gradient”

Step 14

I set this new “Bind Gradient” layer to “Multiply” with an opacity of 25% like in the image above. This will make the gradient nice and soft, hinting at the bind’s shape.

Step 15

In a similar way as the Bind layer was created from “Top Page”, we’re going to select pixels from the top of “Bind” to make a highlight to “Bind” itself. Select a thin row of pixels from along the very top of “Bind”. This time we won’t Cut and Paste it back in, though; we’ll instead make the selection and use the Duplicate command (Command+J) to make another instance of the selection above the original. Do this, and use the Levels panel to change the colour to make it lighter than the original “Bind” layer. We’re going to do this again on the bottom of “Bind” too, and make it darker, so that “Bind” looks like the image above. Name these two layers “Bind Highlight” and “Bind Lowlight” respectively.

Step 16

Like instruction #13, we’re going to use that Gradient tool again. On a new layer, we’ll draw from underneath “Bind” down until about three-quarters the way up “Top Page” with the gradient tool, in a south-east direction along your canvas. This will leave you with a big blob of black on your lovely work, filling the top of your screen, and fading to transparent as it enters the “Surface Top” area. Don’t fret; use the Mask tool (the third icon along at the bottom of your layers panel; looks like a moon in a dark sky) and rub out all of the Gradient that we don’t want by using the Brush tool (B on the keyboard) Selecting Bind like in #13 and rubbing out its contents may speed up the process. Name this new layer “Bind Gradient”.

Step 17

It’s time to make that “Top Page” look more realistic. Select the pixels of “Top Page” using the polygonal lasso tool, in the same way as in instruction #15, and make a new layer. Using the Brush tool, we’re going to draw in where we want some light shadowing to be. Turning down the opacity of this layer will make the black nice and soft like in the image above. I chose to make some light shading around the edge of the page, and some to emphasise the lifting of the corner. I kept the lifted corner itself completely clear of all this, to make it appear raised. Name this layer “Top Page Shading”

Step 18

Select the “Top Page” layer and duplicate it (Command+J). Drag the duplicate underneath the original and nudge it down a few pixels from the original using the Move tool (V on the keyboard). Use the Levels panel (Command+L) to make it a little lighter than its original.

Step 19

We’ve got 12 layers on the go at the moment. Even though I work with hundreds of layers on my bigger pieces, I try to keep the count down if I know I don’t need to go back and change anything. Like in the image above, I flattened all of the “Top Page” layers together, and all of the “Bind” layers together. To do this, select a group of layers you want to flatten together, and hit Command+E to merge them.

Step 20

Next step, the “Other Page”. Using the Blending Options on the “Other Page” layer, use the Gradient from the left column to make the layer look like the image above. Flatten the blend mode onto the layer like in instruction #4.

Step 21

Duplicate the new “Other Page” layer, and drag it underneath the original. Using the Levels panel (Command+L), drag the black Input Level over to the right and the white Input Level to the left slightly like in the image above to increase the intensity of the Gradient. Nudge this layer down slightly from the original “Other Page” layer, to reveal the second “Other Page”. The increased intensity of this layer’s Gradient allows the effects of the gradient to be visible in this small space.

Step 22

With this newly positioned “Other Page” copy, copy it a few times more and continue stacking them slightly below one another like in the image to give the feel of there being multiple calendar pages.

Step 23

We want to make the “Surface Top” look better, next. Duplicate “Surface Top” and invert it to be white (Levels panel can help out if you didn’t start out with black).

Step 24

From the menu at the top of Photoshop, select “Filter > Noise > Add Noise‚Ķ”

Step 25

Choose how much noise you’d like to use. I chose 58.91% of uniform, monochromatic noise. Noisy.

Step 26

Select the pixels of the noisy layer. You’ll want to contain this next step, as it leaks all over the place without selections. On top of this new noisy layer, select “Filter > Blur > Motion Blur‚Ķ” from the top.

Step 27

In the Motion Blur window, try to get the angle of your blur in line with the angle of Surface Top. set the distance enough to make a wood grain-like pattern. OK to that.

Step 28

Set this noisy layer to Overlay in the Levels panel. It should basically disappear. Select “Surface Top” and, using Levels panel (Command+L), drag the black Output Level over to the right slightly to make the layer’s pixels off-black. This should reveal your noise again slightly.

Step 29

Use the Levels panel on your noise layer too, in a similar way to the image above, to focus the histogram on the area of effect.

Step 30

On the “Surface Top” layer, select the very bottom of the surface with the polygonal lasso tool.

Step 31

In the Levels panel again, slide the grey input level over to the left slightly to make your selection lighter. You should have a nice little highlight on that edge, now.

Step 32

Next up, new layer. On this layer, you’ll want to use the Polygonal Lasso tool to make a selection for colouring in. In the image above, you’ll see that I drew a 4×3 grid. This will become the calendar itself. Take your time on this step, and feel free to use multiple layers and flatten them together at the end for accuracy. Make sure your lines are all the same thickness all the way along.

Step 33

Make a selection around the squares seen in the image above, and make a new layer below the grid that we’ve just created. Fill it with black, then use the Opacity slider in the levels panel to weaken it off.

Step 34

New layer, above all the others this time. Fill it with a colour of your choice (I went with red, again, to be in line with the official Google Calendar icon).

Step 35

Select a lighter version of your chosen colour, then select the pixels of the layer. With a suitably sized Brush with no Hardness, click a few times in one spot, to give the square a nice highlight.

Step 36

Using the Blending Options panel, give this shape an Inner Glow. Go for a Black one with about 25% opacity, with a blend mode of Multiply.

Step 37

Almost finished now. Time for a bit of polish. Select the Surface Top layer’s pixels, then make a new layer above all the others. Make that brush you were using white, and a bit larger. Click a few times near the centre/top of the Surface Top to make a big white blob. Set the blending mode to Soft Light in the layers panel, and adjust the opacity if you need to, to give some depth to the calendar.

Step 38

Do the same for the Bind layer. I chose to make this layer “Overlay” in the blend mode, to compliment the blue underneath.

Step 39

Make a duplicate of the Surface Top layer, and drag it to the bottom of the layers panel. By going “Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur‚Ķ” we’ll make this layer into a shadow.

Step 40

Set the Radius to about 8 or 9, then Duplicate this layer a few times on top of itself to make the layer effect stronger.

Step 41

Flatten the shadow layers together, and you should have yourself a very fine Google Calendar icon.

And We’re Done!

Voila! You should have your very own Google Calendar icon. More importantly, you should have your very own understanding of how such an icon is pieced together. I truly hope you’ve enjoyed reading this tutorial. Speak soon!

Download Source File for this Tutorial

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FanExtra Network Launch
Create a Google Docs Icon

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30 Minute Redesign – GymDJ
Master a Professional Photo-Retouching Workflow

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Design a Textured Portfolio Website

DAY 4:

Members Area Tutorial: Digital Painting Lesson: Scarecrow’s Joyride

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Design a Grungy Rock & Roll Gig Poster

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Design an Awesome Paint Splattered Dancer

Google Docs Icon Tutorial

Last year I created some icons and released them to the public for free. I created a tutorial which went down well explaining how to create one of those icons. It’s time to go through another, don’t you think? The free icons are all available on my blog. There’s a link to my website in the “About the Author” box down below the tutorial.

This guide will walk you through how I created the Google Docs icon. There’s a total of 50 steps, so it’s another reasonably long tutorial. Like last time, you’ll be required to spend a few moments at various points in the tut to draw shapes freeform so please, take your time, and enjoy the experience.

Let’s get started!

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Step 1

To begin, create a new Photoshop file that is 512 pixels by 512 pixels in size like in the snap below.

Step 2

Let’s start up by making a new layer. Using the Polygonal Lasso tool (L key, or Shift+L to toggle through the Lassos until you get to the one seen in the snapshot) and draw a loose, freeform, angled square. Fill this square with black, either by using the Paint Bucket tool (G on the
keyboard.) Deselect your selection with Command+D.

Step 3

Right click on your new layer in the layers panel, and select “Blending Options.” Click “Stroke” (the word, not the tick box), found at the bottom of the new panel that will have popped up.

Step 4

Select the red that’s in that panel, and a Stroke Color window will pop up. Select black, and OK through both panels that you have up. We want to flatten down this blending option; what I do for speed is to create another layer underneath this layer, select “Layer 1? again, and hit Command+E (Ctrl+E for PCs) to merge them on top of one another. All Blending Options bake down too.

Step 5

Using the Polygonal Lasso tool again, create another freeform shape on a new layer (below the current one) in a different color to simulate a facade to the square that we’ve just made. We’re building up a 3D looking “surface” here, which we’ll put the calendar bit onto. Deselect again. I’m making each piece a different colour for my own benefit; if you want to do the same, hit Cmd/Ctrl+Optn/Alt+U and use the Lightness slider to change the tone.

Step 6

Next up we’re going to create the little calendar bit that sits underneath the main wad of paper. Make a new layer and use the Lasso tool to create a box similar to the one in the screenshot. Deselect.

Step 7

Quickly name your layers so that you (and I) don’t get lost in layers.

• Layer 1: Base
• Layer 2: Base Side
• Layer 3: Paper 1

Create another layer above all the others and call it “Paper 2″. Draw a shape with the Lasso tool again like the one in the screenshot. Deselect.

Step 8

Same again as before, use the Stroke to give the shape some nice rounded corners.

Step 9

Another layer now, called “Other Pages”. Draw a shape like the one in the screenshot, and slip it underneath “Paper 2″.

Step 10

To get all these Blending Options flattened down so they’re out of the way, right-click/second-click on the blending option from the Layers panel and hit “Create Layer”. That’ll make the effect its own layer. Select that new layer and the original it just spawned from, and hit Cmd/Ctrl+E to merge the two together into one single layer.

Step 11

Take a breath and take check on your Layers panel; this is where we should all be up to so far! Time to start taking what we’ve made and make ‘em look pretty.

Step 12

Select “Paper 2″ and hit Cmd/Ctrl+L to bring up the Levels pane. Drag the Black Output Level nozzle over to the right to remove those darks from the layer, making the paper lighter. You’ll want it almost completely white.

Step 13

Make a new layer above “Paper 2″, and with a gray brush ready and no Hardness on your brush, draw an unsightly line across your work like in the screenshot. No, I’ve not lost my mind, work with me here!

Step 14

Cmd/Ctrl+click on the thumbnail of “Paper 2″ in the Layers panel to auto- select all the pixels on that layer.

Step 15

Right/Second-click on the canvas with the Marquee tool selected, and click “Select Inverse”.

Step 16

With everything that isn’t “Paper 2″ selected, and the gray blob layer selected in the Layers panel, hit the backspace key to delete everything we don’t want.

Step 17

Drag the Opacity slider down the left to around 25% to make the gray blob little more than subtle shading on the paper.

Step 18

Underneath the “Other Pages” layer, make a new layer. Now you’re a dab-hand at making unsightly brush strokes, it’s time to do it again, with a big black brush. The trick here is to get the “spray” of this brush peeping through the side of the left side of Paper 2.

Step 19

Use the “Select Inverse” routine again, with “Paper 1″ as your selection.

Step 20

There we go! A little shadow from “Paper 2″ is being cast over “Paper 1″. Very nice. Grab the brush layer and the “Paper 1″ layers, and Merge Layers (Cmd/Ctrl+E)

Step 21

Cmd/Ctrl+U brings up your Hue/Saturation pane. Brings this up with “Paper 1″ selected, and drag the Lightness slider over to the left a little to make “Paper 1″ a little bit darker than “Paper 2″.

Step 22

Select the “Other Pages” layer, and in the Blending Options panel, select Gradient Overlay. I used the default White>Black gradient, reversed it, tilted the angle a bit so that it’s in line with the paper, and changed the scale to get both black and white parts of the gradient visible on-screen.

Step 23

Merge these Blending modes down like before, by right/second-clicking on the effect, creating a layer, and merging them with Cmd/Ctrl+E. It’ll look a little different in the Layers panel this time around, but don’t worry, do it like before and it’ll all be fine.

Step 24

The “Other Pages” layer (which probably has a weird long title at this point) needs duplicating so that we can create multiple pages. Cmd/Ctrl+J three times will duplicate the layer to make a total of 4 “Other Pages”…

Step 25

…Like this…

Step 26

…For you to push around with the Move tool (V) to make a stack of pages.

Select them all in the layers panel…

Step 27

…and Merge the layers with Cmd/Ctrl+E. With the Lasso tool, draw a selection around the page edges. We’re going to want to make these edges more defined, as they’re quite unpronounced at the moment.

Step 28

Cmd/Ctrl+L for the Levels pane again. Drag the Input Levels around until you get a nice and pronounced edge to the pages.

Step 29

Missing those unsightly brush blobs? Yeah, me too. Let’s make some more. Create a new layer above “Other Pages” (or whatever it’s called itself at this point) and make a blob of white, and a blob of black. You want these just touching the edge of the pages on the “Other Pages” layer like in the screenshot.

Step 30

Select Inverse again, from a cmd/ctrl+click selection from “Other Pages”.

Step 31

Hit the backspace key to take out all the mess, then set the layer blending mode to “Overlay” to leave the “Other Pages” with some subtle variation in brightness.

Step 32

Duplicate the “Paper 2″ layer and push the one underneath down a little, and make it completely white with the Brightness slider (Cmd/Ctrl+U). While we’re here, now is a good time to play with the brightness of various parts of the layer (brush blobs, select inverse … you know the drill now!)

Step 33

Select the “Other Pages” and go to Filter:Noise:Add Noise…

Step 34

Add some very light noise, just to add some papery grain to those lower pages.

Step 35

Time to add some color. Grab the “Base” layer, and bring the Blending Options up (double-click the layer in the Layers Panel; I know, I randomly forget these things too sometimes) and add a Color Overlay. Fill it up with a nice blue like in the screenshot.

Step 36

Do the same for “Base Side”, but with a slightly darker blue.

Step 37

Duplicate the “Base” layer with Cmd/Ctrl+J. Go to Filter:Noise:Add Noise… again, with this new “Base” layer selected, but add a nicer burst of noise this time around.

Step 38

Go to Filter:Blur:Motion Blur… and blur the noise in the direction of the layer.

Step 39

Cmd/Ctrl+L for the Levels panel again, to drag the Input Levels around to get some better definition in these new “grooves”.

Step 40

Use the Lasso tool and grab the very bottom edge of the noisy, blurry version of “Base” that we have. With the Levels panel again, drag the
highlights to the left like in the screenshot. This’ll give a little highlight to add some depth to the base as a whole.

Step 41

Merge together the two “Base”s. Create a new layer above our newly unified “Base” layer, and using the brush tool again, create a big white blob in the centre of where “Base Side” is.

Step 42

Trim up this blob with the Select Inverse process we’ve used over and over, and dim the result down so leave us with what appears to be a highlight on the “Base Side”. Merge it down.

Step 43

Looking good so far! Push the “Paper 1″ layer upwards a little like in the screenshot (don’t mind that it got renamed in the screenshot!)

Step 44

Using the Lasso tool, make selections across “Paper 1″ to create a grid like in the example, and fill it all in with the brush tool. Do it in a few
separate selections if you, like me, like to keep selections simple if possible. Take your time. I’ll wait right here.

Step 45

Lastly, we want to make a pen to sit on top of everything, to wrap things up nicely. I made two layers (one for the blacks, one for the whites) but you could just as easily do it all on one layer if you prefer. If you need a helping hand, run a Google Image search for some pens to get some ideas before you start.

Step 46

Just like Step 18, get a big brush and draw with the spray, to get some detail on the side of the white elements of the pen. Cmd/Ctrl+clicking on the respective pen layer will make sure that there’s no mess outside the area you want to draw in.

Step 47

Keep on doing this to add details across the whole pen.

Step 48

Create a new layer and, using the Lasso Tool, make a selection that looks like the nib in the screenshot. Use the brush tool to color in your
selection black.

Step 49

Finally, make a layer beneath the pen and, using the brush tool, color in underneath the pen. The splash from the brush will leave a slight black blur around the outside of the pen, that looks like a shadow.

Step 50

Drag the background layer into the trash and we’re all done! Check out what YOU made! I didn’t know you could make that! You’ve clearly been practicing, you dark horse, you.

Speak soon!

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome:

Download Source File for this Tutorial