Create a Vectorized Leather Wallet in Photoshop

Photoshop is adored by web designers around the globe, as it has the potential to make their ideas come to life. Designers are focusing on creating more and more realistic items these days. Photoshop holds its own in this regard; it has all the necessary gadgets to attain that realism — all you need to do is keep practicing and polishing your skills. Today, I’ll show you how to create a leather wallet in Photoshop from scratch. We’ll use various shape tools, blending options, and filters to achieve the final result. Hopefully, you will learn some useful tips along the way. So, let’s get started! Resources: Leather Texture Final result: (Download the finished, layered PSD file.)

Step 1

Create a new document in Photoshop with a 1000px width and a 750px height.

Step 2

Set #d97d2b as your foreground color and select the rounded rectangle tool. Click on the canvas, and enter following values for rounded rectangle, and hit “OK”. Now go to “Edit” > “Transform” > “Skew” and drag the point shown below upwards.

Step 3

Select the pen tool (Tool mode: Shape) to draw the shape below over the top-left corner of the rectangle. After that, select both the rectangle and the new shape layers and go to “Layer” > “Combine shapes” > “Unite Shapes.” Now, label the combined shape as “Wallet front”.

Step 4

Duplicate the wallet front layer, change its color to #79330c, drag it a bit outward, and position it behind the original layer.

Step 5

To create shading, we’ll use the burn and dodge tools. Press Ctrl + <click on the wallet front layer> to make a selection around it. Create a new layer above it and go to “Edit” > “Fill.” Use 50% gray to fill the selection. Now, select the burn tool (Range: Midtones, Exposure: 40-70%), choose varying sizes soft round brushes, and apply them roughly on this layer to darken some areas. Once you are done, select this layer and go to “Filter” > “Blur” > “Gaussian Blur” and apply a 3px value to blend any harsh outlines. To create highlights, select the dodge tool with the same settings used with burn tool and apply it on the gray layer. Apply a 2-3px Gaussian blur filter on it to blend it in. Change the blending mode of gray layer to “Overlay” and adjust its opacity to 80-90%.

Step 6

Set white as your fill color and select a 5px soft round brush. Now, select the pen tool (Tool mode: Path) to draw the path shown below. After that, right-click the canvas and choose the option of “Stroke path” > “Brush.” Then, hit “Delete” to get rid of the path. To make another highlight, draw the line shown below using a 16-18px soft round brush and go to “Filter” > “Blur” > “Motion Blur.” Apply the following settings here. Make few more highlights using the same technique. Collect all of the highlights and gray layer in a single group, and label it as “Shading.”

Step 7

Next, we’ll apply texture on the wallet. Go to “File” > “Place” and choose the desired leather texture. Resize and align it over the wallet using the free transform tool (Ctrl + “T”). Now, press Ctrl + <click on the wallet front layer> and press the “Add layer mask” icon present at the bottom of the layers panel. Change its blending mode to “Soft Light.”

Step 8

Now, we’ll give it stitch effect. Set #e49251 as your fill color and go to “Window” > “Brush Presets.” Load the square brushes. Press “F5” to open the brush panel and apply the following settings for square brush. Next, we’ll apply this on a new layer in a straight line. Duplicate it and change its color to black using “Color Overlay” with the settings shown below. Drag the black stitches layer a bit to the right and below the original layer.

Step 9

Double-click on the original stitches layer to open the layer style window and apply the following settings. Select both stitches layer and press Ctrl + “E” to merge them. Now, duplicate it, position near the top edge of wallet using the free transform tool, and erase any unwanted parts. Duplicate it twice and position them over the other sides.

Step 10

Set #c16819 as your foreground color, drag a round rectangle with the same settings as used in step 2 and skew its right border a bit to give it the shape shown below. Label it as “Backside.” Duplicate it and change its color to #59260d. Place it behind the original and drag it slightly outwards. Apply the following values for inner shadow on the backside layer.

Step 11

Now, make a highlight near the top edge of the wallet backside in the same way as explained in step 6. Select the soft round eraser tool to erase the line at several points to make it realistic. Look below for clarity.

Step 12

Duplicate the backside rectangle, decrease its size, and change its color to #d97d2b. Label it as “Inside.” Duplicate it, change its color to black, place it behind the original layer and drag it outwards as shown below.

Step 13

Apply the leather texture at the backside in the same way that we applied it to the front in step 7. Reduce its opacity to 80-90%.

Step 14

Duplicate the stitches layer few times and arrange them over the backside, as shown below.

Step 15

Next, we’ll make few pockets. Duplicate the inside rectangle and apply the texture on it. Merge both layers and label it as “Pocket.” Apply the following layer style settings to it. Duplicate the stitch layer, place it near the top edge of pocket, and merge it with pocket layer. Now, duplicate the pocket layer twice and arrange them at some distance over each other. Now, click on the pocket layers one by one, press Ctrl + <click the inside rectangle> to make a selection around it, and add layer mask to them.

Step 16

Select a soft round brush with 50% opacity and apply it on a new layer in black. Change its blending mode to “Overlay.” To do more shading over the pockets, create a gray fill layer and apply burn and dodge tools over it using the same technique from step 5. After that, change its blending mode to “Overlay” and its opacity to 40-50%.

Step 17

To give the impression of coin in lower pocket, make an ellipse using the ellipse tool. Set your fill color to 0% and apply the following settings for “Bevel and Emboss.” Now, apply a 1.5px Gaussian blur filter on it after rasterizing the layer. You can make more coins by simply duplicating the layer.

Step 18

To make the stripe, draw the following shape using the pen tool (Tool mode: Shape) using color #d97d2b. Make a small ellipse below the rest of the layers in #682f08 color and position at the top-right corner of the stripe.

Step 19

I did some shading over the stripe and applied a texture with 40-50% opacity. To make the button, draw an ellipse using color #141414.

Step 20

Now, apply following settings for Bevel and Emboss and Drop Shadow on the button. Duplicate the stripe layer, change its color to black, and place it below the original layer. Now, position it at an angle using the free transform tool. Finally, change its blending mode to “Multiply” and its opacity to 40%.

Step 21

To make the other half of button, draw an ellipse using color #817282. Slightly compress it using the free transform tool. Then, duplicate it. Apply the following values for Drop Shadow on the original layer. Apply the following settings for Stroke and Gradient Overlay on the duplicated layer. Now, make a smaller purple ellipse above and apply the following drop shadow settings on it. Make another ellipse above it using color #e2e0e3.

Step 22

Now, make the shadow using the same technique from step 6, but use a pure black color this time. Duplicate and position your two shadows as shown below.

Step 23

That’s it guys, the leather wallet is ready. However, you can add further enhancements your wallet to make it even more interesting. I’ve add few credit cards and money vectors as an example. That’s all for now, I’ll be back with some other exciting tutorials for you.

Frequently Asked Questions about Creating a Vectorized Leather Wallet in Photoshop