In this tutorial, we will see how to draw a pencil icon by using the gradients, selection tools, and basic transform operations.
Step 1
Open a new document of 950 pixels wide by 600 pixels high. Set the Resolution to 300 pixels /inch and the Background to white. Make a rectangular selection with a Style of Fixed Size, a Width of 400 px, and Height of 100 px.
Step 2
Drag and snap guides to all edges and vertical center of the selection.
Step 3
Open the gradient picker and choose the "Steel Bar" preset. If you can’t see the preset click the triangle button on the right and choose "metals" from the list. Click Append. Make a new layer and name it "Body." Fill the selection with the gradient from bottom to the top of the selection.
Step 4
To make the pencil more reflective navigate to Image > Adjustments > Curves (Command + M), and adjust it.
Step 5
Without leaving the selection make a new layer and fill the selection with a colour. Then set the layer Opacity to 60%. Name the new layer "Colour."
Step 6
Duplicate the "Body" layer and name it "Metal". Move it to the top of the layer stack. Choose the Rectangular Marque Tool and set style to "normal". Make a selection as in the image below and hit Delete. Drag a guide from the left ruler and snap it to right edge of the selection.
Step 7
Make a selection from point 1 in the image using the Elliptical Marque tool while holding down the Alt and Shift keys. Right-click inside the selection and choose Transform Selection. Then set the Horizontal Scale to 50%, and hit Enter twice to apply. Hit Delete to delete the selected area and save it. Navigate to Select > Save Selection. Name the selection "Ellipse."
Step 8
Select the Marque tool and drag the selection towards the right edge of the "Metal" layer. Drag another vertical guide until it snaps to the centre of the selection.
Step 9
Make a selection using the Rectangular Marque tool while holding down the Shift key. Navigate to Select > Inverse and hit Delete.
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Step 10
Hold the Command key, click the "Metal" layer to load the selection. Choose any selection tool to move the selection 4 pixels right. You can do it by pressing the Right Arrow on the keyboard 4 times.
Navigate to Select > Inverse. While holding down the Command + Alt + Shift keys, click on the "Metal" layer. Alt + Shift combination is for intersecting the already selected area and the new selection. The new selection is the metal part. Using this selection make a thin line on the metal part selected. Use these lines to make the bumps.
Step 11
Copy and paste the selection into a new layer and name it "Bump." Apply a Gradient Overlay and Bevel and Emboss with the following settings. Hit Command + T, and set the Vertical Scale to 102% to make it slightly bigger than the metal layer.
Step 12
Duplicate the "Bump" layer and move the copy 6 pixels to the right. Repeat this step to make 3 bumps. Choose these 3 layers and merge them (Command + E.) Duplicate the merged layer to make another set of bumps and place it.
Step 13
Duplicate the "Metal" layer and name it "Eraser". Drag this layer below the "Metal" layer. Move it to about 34 pixels left. Navigate to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command + U.) See the image below for the Hue/Saturation settings.
Duplicate the "Metal" layer again and name it "Shadow." Drag it below the "Metal" layer. Hit Command + U and bring the lightness to -100. Navigate to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Set the Angle to 0 and Distance to 5, and then apply it. Now we can merge the layers related to the metal part of the pencil. Select "Shadow," "Metal," and Bump layers, then Hit Command + E to merge them.
Step 14
Make a new layer and name it "Tip." Using the Polygonal Lasso tool make a selection. Fill the selection with a light colour. Move this layer down below the "Body." Navigate to Select > Deselect to loose the selection (Command + D).
Step 15
Duplicate the "Body" layer and name it "TipGradient." Move this layer to the top. Hit Command + T, and set the scale and position. Hit Command + U to bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog box and use these settings: Hue set to 33, Saturation set to 53, Lightness set to +37, and Colorize Checked.
Step 16
Drag "TipGradient" layer down below the "Body" layer. Hold down Alt and click between the "TipGradient" and "Tip" layers.
Step 17
Select the "TipGradient" layer and navigate to Edit > Transform > Perspective and adjust the perspective.
Step 18
Move to Select > Load Selection, and load the selection "Ellipse." Position the selection and Delete the selected area from both the "Body" and "Colour" layers.
Step 19
Select the Colour layer and make a new layer named "Wood." Press D on the keyboard to change the Foreground and Background colours to black and white. Press X to make foreground white. Fill the selection with white. Then navigate to Filter > Render > Fibres. Use 10 for both variables. Hit Command + T, rotate it 90 degrees counter clockwise, and scale it.
Step 20
Navigate to Edit > Transform > Perspective and adjust the perspective. Set the Blending Mode to Soft Light and Opacity to 60%.
Step 21
Grab the Elliptical Marque tool and make a selection. Choose the "Wood" layer and hit delete. Pick the "TipGradient" layer and hit Command + U, and then set the Saturation to -100. Hit Command + L and apply these settings. This will make the tip darker and high contrast.
Step 22
Choose all the layers except the "Background" layer and Hit Command + E to merge them. Rename the layer as "Pencil." Duplicate the "Pencil" layer and name it "Reflection." Drag the "Reflection" layer below the "Pencil" layer.
Duplicate the "Reflection" layer again, and name it "Shadow." With the "Shadow" layer selected hit Command + U and set the Lightness to -90. Hit Command + T and scale it to three-fourths of its height. Select the "Reflection" layer, then navigate to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical.
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Step 23
Choose all the layers except the "Background" layer, hit Command + T, and rotate them -30 degrees. Move the "Shadow" and "Reflection" layers.
Step 24
Select the "Reflection" layer and navigate to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Apply it with a Radius of 3 and set the Opacity to 60. Select the "Shadow" layer, then move to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Apply it with a Radius of 7 and set the Opacity to 80.
Step 25
Select the "Reflection" layer and add a Layer Mask using the Add Layer Mask button, which is located at the bottom of the Layer Palette. Fill the mask with the Gradient tool, which makes the shadow vanish.
Step 26
Select the "Pencil" layer and apply a Gradient Overlay with these settings.
Step 27
If you wish you can change the position and also change the background colour. See the final image below.
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