Jacquelin Vanderwood
October 2004
Using the Ellipse tool, create an oblong circle. When that is complete, use the Direct Selection tool and select the top point. Hold the Shift key down and drag down a little so you get the actual shape of an olive.
Using the same tool with a darker version of the green, create a horizontal oval.
It's time to add the pimento. Use the Pen tool and draw the shape of the circle at the bottom and then continue until it looks like the one below. Select all and duplicate the olive.
With the base of one olive selected, open Create Gradient Mesh..
Create 16 rows and columns.
Zoom in. Before continuing select everything that is being worked on and lock it.
Go to the Swatches palette and choose Select All Unused and throw it in the trashcan.
I have Pantone Solid Matte color library open. Find a variety of olive colors and drag them onto the Swatches palette. Now you're ready to begin making the olive more realistic.
Using the Direct Select tool, drag around the lower area of the olive. Now click on a color for the shadow area. It will fill immediately.
Do the same for the rest of the olive. Don't worry, we're not done yet.
Now select individual points to fill with the appropriate color.
So now we have the basic shades applied. Select individual rows but deselect the side points and pull down to make adjustments.
Select individual areas and apply color. Unlock everything and put the pieces on individual layers. Export as a .psd Photoshop file.
Select the base olive layer and lock it. Use Gaussian Blur set at 22.2 pixels.
Apply a Lens Flare of 105mm Prime to create a highlight area.
Use the Burn tool set at Midtones and make shadows in the hole area.
For the pimento, use the Burn tool set on Highlights for the area near the base. Change to the Dodge tool and use Midtones and Shadows to make the highlight area reducing the size of the brush as you go along.
For the second olive make sure it was exported as three layers. Lock the main layer. Let's us a basic round brush with the size of 200 depending the resolution of the piece. Make the Mode Dissolve. Lock the layers. Use the Eyedropper to select the base green, then double-click the color swatch and choose a darker version of that green.
Paint around it changing the colors when necessary.
Apply a Gaussian Blur of 45.6 pixels. Apply a lighter stroke with a regular brush set to Normal for the highlight area.
Use the same methods to fill in the pimento and inner area of the olive. The olive on the left was colored in Illustrator while the olive on the right was done strictly in Photoshop less the actual shape.
Copyright (c) 2004, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved