Diamonds are a Mom’s best friend! Since Mother’s Day is just around the corner, this tutorial will show you how to create a beautiful heart filled with these gorgeous sparkling stones. So if you can’t afford the real thing, you can still make Mom happy with this design! Let’s get started!
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS6
Difficulty: Beginner
Completion Time: 3 hours
Image Used For This Tutorial
Top and bottom view of large diamond over the black background:7161805 ©arsgera
Step 1
Open a new document in Adobe Photoshop with the following settings.
1000×1000 pixels
300 dpi
Step 2
Fill the background layer with a deep red color (#40020f) using the Paint Bucket Tool (G).
Step 3
On a New Layer (Control-Shift-N) use the Brush Tool (B) and enlarge it to around 1200 pixels, or until it stretches pass the canvas. Select a bright red color (#ff062f) and bring down the Hardness to 0% to make a soft bright dot in the center.
Create the Heart Sketch
Step 4
We’ll need a guideline for the diamonds so let’s create an easy heart shape! Select a heart shape from the Custom Shape Tool (U), setting the Color to White with a Stroke of 2pt. Place the heart layer into its own group for better organization.
Step 5
Now let’s move onto the arrow! Use the Line Tool (U) with the same settings as the heart shape: Color set to white with a Stroke of 2pt. Create the shapes for the arrow point and tail for Cupid’s notorious arrow. Keep these steps simple, because we’ll only need these guidelines for a short while.
Add Diamonds to the Heart and Arrow
Step 6
Open your diamond reference in Photoshop. Try to pick a reference with a clean black background to make the extraction process much easier. Use the Magic Wand Tool (W) to select the black background and hit Delete on your keyboard to get rid of it. Now use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (W) to select the diamond and Copy and Paste it onto your document.
Step 7
Control-T to Free Transform, resizing the first diamond so that you can fit it onto your heart-shaped guideline. Continue this step all throughout the heart, varying the sizes of the diamonds until it is completely filled.
Step 8
This step is definitely the most time consuming part of this tutorial so be patient! The method I found best was to make several duplicates (Right-click to Duplicate Layer) of one particular size and to position them all around the heart before moving onto a different size. As long as you make sure that the edges of the heart are clearly defined you don’t need to worry about holes.
Here is what your heart should look like when it’s completely full.
Step 9
Continue the same steps as before, but instead, use the diamonds to outline the shape of the arrow point and tail. Vary the sizes again for a more balanced look. Hide the visibility of the sketch layers afterwards when you no longer need them, and merge the all diamond layers together.
Here is what the completed heart and arrow should look like after we’ve filled them with diamonds.
Step 10
Create an easy twinkle for the shine of the diamonds by creating a 1px line with the Pen Tool (P). Filter > Blur > Motion Blur setting the Angle to 90 degrees and the Distance to 15 pixels to blur the first line. Duplicate it several times, rotating the other duplicates into place with the Free Transform Tool (Control-T).
Merge all the line layers together, and make several duplicates of the twinkle to place around your heart shape.
Adjust the Colors
Step 11
Now let’s make these diamonds shine! On a new layer set to Overlay use the Brush Tool (B) to paint a few soft white spots where the diamonds would shine brightly.
Step 12
Add a simple vignette effect by filling a new layer with black and using the Eraser Tool (E) to erase out the center.
Step 13
Add a new adjustment layer for Color Balance. Adjust the Midtones to: Green -30, Blue +33, and the Highlights to: Red +19, Blue +11.
Step 14
Add another new layer and fill it with a neon green color (#c7ec18). Set this layer to Color Burn, bringing down the Opacity of the layer to 25% for a cool tint effect.
Step 15
For our last step we’ll make a simple shadow for the diamonds to lie on. Create a new layer underneath your diamond heart and use the Brush Tool (B) to paint a soft black shadow underneath. Set the Opacity to 25%.
And there you have it! I hope you’ve had fun creating this beautiful diamond heart perfect for that special someone in your life! Do share if you have thoughts or even ideas of what you would like to see in the next few tutorials!