How to Make a Smiley Emoticon

Photoshop has many uses both professionally and for fun. One way to use it is to create smiley emoticons to use in your email or on websites. If you don't have Photoshop, you can use another graphics program that has similar tools.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Create a Simple Emoticon

1. Create a new image with dimensions of about 30 by 30 pixels or 20 by 20 pixels. With the pencil tool, draw a circle or ellipse (or whatever shape you would like to make your smiley face). Fill in the shape with white color.

2. Enlarge the canvas so the image fits the screen. It will be easier to work with this way.

3. Make your smiley emoticon any color you would like. Note that most smiley faces are yellow, but there are no hard rules, so use your imagination.

4. Shade your smiley face. Choose the magic wand tool and select the inside of your circle. Select a lighter and darker color to shade with. Then choose the gradient tool and a point within the face to begin your gradient. Drag the mouse diagonally across the circle. Now your emoticon is shaded.

5. Draw the face. Most have dots for eyes but you could also make little white circles for the eyes with black dots for pupils. You could instead draw elliptical eyes overlapping the top of the face circle to create an animal such as a frog or alligator.

6. Choose a pink or red color for the lips if you would like to do something different with your smiley emoticon. Next, draw a curve for the smile. For a bigger smile, draw a curve with a horizontal line across the top to look like a big smile with teeth.

7. Add any other features you would like to your emoticon. Ideas include arms or hands, hats, ears, a mustache, feet, legs or an arm holding a sign.

8. Save the file as a gif and optimize it for the Web. It is ready for you to use!

Tips & Warnings

• Most online tutorials will teach you how to draw a smiley face. Remember that your emoticon can be whatever you want it to be: a smiley face, an animal, an alien or any other creature you invent.
• If you want to animate your emoticon, use a graphics animator to create several still images that move together with a flipbook effect. Be sure to test the animation speed and adjust it until you like how it looks.