Hello. Today I will show you how to transform an old style Chevrolet from vector file format into a stylish shiny icon. The vector file is provided from one of my best friends from Grafplus.com.
You can check the other FREE vector files released almost each day on Grafplus.com. The vector files are UNIQUE and are released only on Grafplus.

Preview full size icon

I will open the vector car file in Photoshop. And I will use a small image size. Around 512 x 512 pixels. The reason i am using a vector image instead of an sketch is because most of you do not have the talent to draw a car,but i am sure you will find some good image which you can use as a reference. You can also take a photo of your car and try to convert into a stylish icon.

Then I will take the Pen Tool, and I will create more shapes over all parts of the car

Now I recommend you to lower the opacity for all these shapes to 50 % and you can continue to add more shapes with Pen Tool. I will use different colors in the following steps. In this way you can see better what I am doing

I will change back the opacity value to 100, and this is my result so far

Now I will create other shapes for the bumper, and the fenders

This was the hard part of this tutorial. I know it is boring to use the Pen Tool, but without Pen Tool, Photoshop will be almost ZERO. It is a very powerful tool.
Next I will try to add some lights and some shadows r over the car. Select the layer with top part of the car (hood), and duplicate the layer. To duplicate the layer, you need to select the first layer in your layer palette, and when you have the layer selected, press on CTRL+J.

Then right click on the layer, and select Rasterize Shape

Over this duplicate layer I will add some light s and shadows with Dodge Tool, and Burn Tool.

I will add some layer styles on the front bumpers

You will have all the layer styles included in the PSD file.  You can also duplicate each part of the bumper, and rasterize it, then with a smooth round brush you can draw over the bumper to add some lights and shadows
I will continue to add the following layer style to all the bumpers parts

This is my result so far

On the green shapes, I will add the following layer style

This is my result so far

I will add the same layer styles from the previous step to the fenders

Then I will add light gradients to for windscreens

For headlights I will add the following layer styles

This is my result so far

On the left side I will add another shape with Pen Tool

Now I will add one of the most important details. I will select the Hood layer and I will click on the Hood Vector mask thumbnail.

You will see a selection around the shape. You can hide the shape with the hood, and now you need to create a new layer. (Press CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+N)
Select this layer, and go to Edit > Stroke and use the following settings

Then on the same layer go to Edit > Stroke, and this time use another settings

This is my result so far

Now I will change the blending mode to overlay

With the same technique I will make also the doors

Now I will add the following layer styles for my headlights layers

This is my result so far

I will create another layer right above the initial car layer, and with a light grey, I will add a shadow. This is my final result.

You can tweak alone if you like. Apply for a VIP account and you will be able to play with the settings from this PSD file.. Please note that you can download all our VIP files if you apply for a VIP membership.