In this tutorial, you’ll learn to design a realistic calligraphy pen from scratch. The tutorial involves a simple use of the Pen Tool and a few flexible Layer Styles. Lighting and reflection techniques are explained throughout the tutorial. This might be a quite useful for icon enthusiasts. Let’s dive in…

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Photoshop
• Version: CS
• Difficulty: Easy
• Estimated Completion Time: 25-35 mins

Step 1

Create a new document with these settings:

Step 2

Create a new layer set and name it “Pen”. Select Pen Tool (P) and draw a shape like one below. Before making the shape, make sure to select “Shape Layers” option from Options bar. Name this shape as "base" and give it a Gradient Overlay of gray shades.

Step 3

Draw another shape using Pen Tool and name it “body”.

Step 4

You need to add some reflections to the body. Create a new layer and Command-click on “body” layer, fill the selection on the new layer with white. Press Ctrl+T and reduce the width of the new layer to 75%. Now go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur ,click OK after making the settings shown below. Finally, reduce opacity of the layer to 50% and give it a Gradient Overlay.

Step 5

Use Rectangle Tool (U) or Pen Tool (P) to make a shape like one below and name it “neck” for convenience. Give it Layer Styles as mentioned.

Step 6

Just like the body of the pen, add reflections to the neck but while doing so, change the opacity of first reflection layer to 75% and that of duplicate layer to 100%, keeping size reduction proportions same.

Step 7

Using Pen Tool (P), make a curved strip as shown.

The strip looks very smooth but actually it has got some aliasing which can create problems in the forthcoming steps. To fix this, right-click on the shape layer and select “Rastersize” from the menu. Now apply these filters to the layer:

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (Radius = 0.5 px)
Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen Edges

Next, give the strip these layer styles.

Step 8

Create a new layer (name it “shadow”) and place it below “strip” layer. Command-click on strip layer and go to Select > Modify > Expand, type 2 px and click OK. Now fill the selection with black on the “shadow” layer. Next, apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (Radius = 0.5 px) to the layer.

Continue Reading…