Create a Vibrant Vectorized Sofa in Photoshop

Key Takeaways

• This tutorial walks through the process of creating a vibrant, vectorized sofa from scratch in Photoshop, focusing on how to illustrate “soft and fluffy” objects like sofa pillows.
• The tutorial covers the usage of the pen tool, different layer styling techniques, and how to cast a subtle shadow of an object, all within Photoshop.
• The process involves creating the various parts of the sofa (seat backs, seats, base, arms, foot) separately, applying different layer styles and colors to each, and then assembling them together.
• The tutorial also explains how to create a darker room background for the display, using gradient adjustment layers and textures, to enhance the focus on the vectorized sofa.

You can’t always find the perfect vectorized object online. Designers are often asked for very specific illustrations for unique purposes. Because of this, it’s critical to keep your illustration skills sharp. Anyone can hunt for the perfect stock photo or vector image, but you need to keep your skills sharp for those highly-specialized client requests that won’t be sufficed with a simple stock purchase. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through the process of creating a stylish sofa vector from scratch in Photoshop. Illustrators rarely focus on “fuzzy” objects such as sofa pillows when designing vector images; this tutorial will help you keep “soft and fluffy” at the ready in your vectorized skill set. Plus, if you don’t already have a comfy couch in your office, you can design your own in minutes. Along the way, you will learn the use of the pen tool, different layer styling techniques, and how you can caste a subtle shadow of an object. We’ll also create a darker room background for the display. So, let’s get started! Resources: Grunge texture by Starnetblog Wood texture by deiby Illustration by Fil Dunsky Final result: Before we start, let’s look ahead at our end result:

Step 1

Create a new document in Photoshop with a 900px width and a 650px height.

Step 2

Firstly, we’ll create seat backs of the sofa. For that, set #43c609 as your foreground color and select the rounded rectangle tool to draw a rectangle.

Step 3

Double-click on the rectangle layer to open the “Layer Style” window. Apply the following settings:

Step 4

To give it more character, press Ctrl + <click on the rectangle layer> to make selection around it, and then create a new layer. After that, go to “Edit” > “Fill,” use 50% gray in the contents box, and change the blending mode of this layer to “Overlay.” Now use the burn tool (Range: Shadows, Exposure: 45%) at the bottom border of this selection and use the dodge tool (Range: Highlights, Exposure: 45%) at the top border. Once you are done, collect the rounded rectangle layer and this gray layer in a group and label it as “back1.”

Step 5

Duplicate the “back1” group twice by going to “Layer” > “Duplicate group,” and then arrange them as shown below with the help of the move tool (“V”).

Step 6

Now, we’ll create seats of the sofa. For that, set #63c902 as your foreground color and select the pen tool (Tool mode: Shape) to draw the shape as shown below.

Step 7

Now, draw the side seat as below using the pen tool. After that, duplicate this new shape and go to “Edit” > “Transform” > “Flip Horizontal,” and arrange it on the right side as shown below.

Step 8

Now we’ll stylize the seats. To start with, double-click on the central seat layer and use the following settings.

Step 9

Right-click on the central seat layer, select “Copy Layer Style,” and then right-click on the side seats layers one by one, selecting “Paste Layer Style” to apply the same effects on each of them. However, you need to adjust the angle for “Satin” for the right and left seats separately. Double-click on the left seat layer and use the angle of 73⁰ for “Satin.” For the right seat, use a 106⁰ angle.

Step 10

Next, we’ll create the base for the sofa. For that, set #37ba0b as your foreground color and draw a rectangle on a layer just above the background layer using the rounded rectangle tool.

Step 11

Now, apply the following settings for “Stroke” and “Inner Shadow” on this new rectangle layer.

Step 12

Next, draw a large rectangle using the rectangular marquee tool below the rest of the layers, and fill it with color #0d5c00 using the paint bucket tool. The intent is to fill all the minute gaps between the seats.

Step 13

Next, we’ll make the sofa’s arms. Set #43c609 as the foreground color and pick the pen tool (Tool mode: Shape) to draw the shape shown below.

Step 14

Apply the following layer style settings on the arm shape:

Step 15

Now, to complete the arm, draw a vertical rounded rectangle using color #257c07, and go to “Edit” > “Transform” > “Distort.” Use”‘Distort” to give it a shape like the one shown below. Now, press Ctrl + <click on this rectangle layer> to make a selection around it, create a new layer above the rectangle, and fill this selection with “50% gray.” Then, apply the burn tool on this layer, as shown below. Finally, change the blending mode of this new layer to “Overlay,” as we did in step 4.

Step 16

Collect all layers forming the arm into a single group, duplicate the group and flip this group horizontally to form the opposite arm of the sofa.

Step 17

Next, we’ll create sofa’s foot. Create a rectangle using the rounded rectangle tool with a 3px radius. Then, give it the shape shown below using the “Distort” tool. After that, select the ellipse tool, choose ‘“Combine Shapes” from top properties bar, and draw an ellipse at the lower edge of the rectangle to complete the foot.

Step 18

Now, apply following layer style settings on the foot layer: After that, duplicate the foot layer and flip it horizontally to form the other foot of the sofa.

Step 19

Next, we’ll create shadow. Select the rectangle tool to draw a rectangle in pure black color just above the background. Give it a shape like the one below with the help of the “Distort” tool.

Step 20

Right-click on the shadow layer and choose the option of “Rasterize Layer.” Then, go to “Filter” > “Blur” > “Gaussian blur.” Use ta value of 3.5px for the Gaussian blur. Now, stretch the shadow as shown below using the free transform tool (Ctrl + “T”). Once you are done, change the blending mode of the shadow layer to “Multiply” and reduce its opacity to 50%. The sofa mockup is ready. Here is how it looks.

Step 21

Now, we’ll create a darker room background for the display, which will enhance the focus on the mockup and your product. Create a gradient adjustment layer just above the background by clicking the icon of “Create new fill or adjustment layer,” which is present at the bottom of the layers panel. Open the grunge texture in Photoshop and drag it to your document above the gradient layer. Change the blending mode of texture to “Luminosity” and reduce its opacity to 10%.

Step 22

Now, place the wood texture just above the grunge texture and arrange it as shown below using the “Distort” tool. We need two more adjustment layers above the wood texture: “Hue/Saturation” to desaturate the texture and “Brightness/Contrast.” Use the following settings for them.

Step 23

Draw a rectangle in color #cdcdcd above the background layer and use the following settings for “Bevel and Emboss” on this layer. Here is how it looks supporting and adding context to an advertisement that takes the form of modern art: That’s it guys. I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and learned something useful. Do share your thoughts regarding it.

Frequently Asked Questions about Creating a Vibrant Vectorized Sofa in Photoshop