Step 6: Add A Gradient Overlay

Click on the words Gradient Overlay in the list of layer styles along the left side of the Layer Style dialog box. Make sure you click directly on the words themselves, not just inside the checkbox, otherwise we won't have access to the Gradient Overlay options:

This changes the middle column of the Layer Style dialog box to the options for the Gradient Overlay. First, if the black-to-white gradient isn't selected (mine already is but I'll pretend it isn't), click on the gradient preview bar to the right of the word Gradient:

This opens the Gradient Editor. Select the black-to-white gradient from the list of Presets by clicking on its thumbnail (third from the left, top row). Click OK to exit out of the Gradient Editor when you're done:

Back in the Layer Style dialog box, change the Style of the gradient from Linear to Radial:

The bubble should now look like this (don't close out of the Layer Style dialog box just yet):

With the Layer Style dialog box still open, click in the center of the bubble in the document window and drag the black center of the gradient into the top left of the bubble to create a large highlight. Click OK when you're done to exit out of the Layer Style dialog box:

Step 7: Add A New Blank Layer

Click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to add a new blank layer above Layer 1:

Step 8: Select The Brush Tool

Select Photoshop's Brush Tool from the Tools panel:

Step 9: Paint A Small Highlight In The Bottom Right Of The Bubble

With the Brush Tool selected, make sure black is selected as your Foreground color by pressing the letter D on your keyboard, which will reset the Foreground and Background colors to the defaults (black is the default Foreground color). Using a small, soft-edge round brush, click once in the bottom right of the bubble to add a second, smaller highlight:

Step 10: Load A Selection Around The Bubble

Hold down your Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and click directly on the preview thumbnail for Layer 1 in the Layers panel. This loads a selection outline around the bubble in the document window:

Step 11: Apply The Pinch Filter Three Times

Let's make the smaller highlight look more like it's curved around the shape of the bubble. Go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Distort, and then choose Pinch:

When the Pinch filter's dialog box appears, drag the Amount slider along the bottom all the way to the left:

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box, then press Ctrl+F (Win) / Command+F (Mac) twice to apply the same filter two more times to the image. Each time you apply the filter, you'll see the smaller highlight appear more curved. Press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) when you're done to remove the selection outline from around the bubble, which should now look similar to this:

Step 12: Save The Bubble As A Brush

Now that we've drawn our bubble, let's save it as a brush. Go up to the Edit menu and choose Define Brush Preset:

When the Brush Name dialog box appears, name the brush "Bubble", then click OK to exit out of the dialog box:

And with that, we're done creating our initial bubble brush! We still need to customize its behavior, but we're done with the bubble's document window so you can close out of it at this point.

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