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Step 1: Create a new layer. Now, using the elliptical select/marquee tool, make a circle on your canvas. You can do this by holding SHIFT and click-dragging. Fill it with a nice cherry red.
Step 2: Copy the circle layer by clicking LAYERS > DUPLICATE LAYER. Hide the bottom red circle layer by clicking the small eye icon in the layers panel.
Step 3: Now, using the same elliptical select tool as in Step 1, "chomp" an edge off the top of the circle, like below. Just select and hit "Delete".
Step 4: Double click the chomped circle layer to bring up its effects menu. Click "Gradient Overlay", and set a linear gradient to 40% opacity, "Linear Burn" blend mode, an angle of 120 degrees and a scale of 90%.
Step 5: Select the pen tool by pressing "P". With white as your foreground color, draw in some reflections, as shown below.
Now, make the opacity of the top reflection 15% and the bottom 8%. I added a gradient to the bottom reflection as well, going from light no top to dark on the bottom the same way as we did on the circle before.
Using the paintbrush tool and a medium-hard brush, make a 100% white dot, as shown below, on a new layer.
Step 6: Create another new layer and make a small circular selection near the middle-left of the cherry.
Go to SELECT > FEATHER and feather it as much as you can. I did 30px. Fill with black, and set the opacity of this new layer to 40%, and the blend mode to "Overlay".
Step 7: Now comes the free-wheelin' part. Select the burn tool by hitting the letter "O". Now, with the chomped cherry layer selected and the burn exposure set to 10%, burn the top, chomped edge a bit.
I've turned off the highlights so you can see the burned edge better, below.
Step 8: Remember that red circle layer you made in step 1 and hid? Well, now it's time for him to strut his stuff. Reveal the layer, and burn the top edge like you did in the previous step. You should have something that looks like this:
I did a subtle change here if you couldn't tell, and selected all layers, then hit CTRL+T, and squeezed the circle in a little bit so it wasn't quite so perfectly round.
Step 9: Starting to look like a cherry now, isn't it? Now for the stem. Stems start thicker at the base and end thicker, too. Draw one in with a dark green using the pen tool, like so:
You can adjust the path ex post facto using the pen tool and holding CTRL.
Step 10: If the stem is not already in between the circle and the chomped circle layer, drag it there. With the basic stem done,try burning the right edge to make it look more rounded, and I duplicated the layer and then painted the top stem layer a greenish yellow.
I then added about 2% noise on the top yellow stem layer, and set its opacity to 40% to get this:
MERGE both stem layers by SHIFT-clicking them in the layers palette, right clicking and selecting "Merge Layers".
Step 11: Here's a sneaky way to get lines in your stem that match the curve and everything. First, select your stem layer. Now, holding the ALT and SHIFT keys, left-click on the stem itself. Drag it a bit to the right. Unclick everything and repeat twice. You should have three new stem layers, each one a bit right of the one before it.
Select all three of the new stem layers and click "Merge Layers". Now, CTRL+click your original stem layer, hit CTRL+SHIFT+I, and hit delete. Everything outside your original stem should be gone and you should have some nice stem lines going on.
Step 12: Let's not leave out the reflections and shadows caused by our stem! If you haven't, rasterize your top shape reflection layer by right clicking it and selecting "Rasterize Layer". Now, make a selection in the shape of a slight frown, click delete, and you're in business!
Hope that you like this tutorial. If you try it, post your results! I'm sure you can do better than this.
