Preview

How to Create a Super Shiny Pencil Icon

Aug 28th in Drawing by Eren Göksel

The Pencil is one of the visual metaphors most used to express creativity. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to draw a pencil icon. We'll have a look at gradients, selection tools, and basic transform operations. Let's have some fun with this.

Author: Eren Göksel

I'm a lecturer in Anadolu University. Photoshop, Max, and corelDraw are my favorite tools.

Final Image Preview

Before we get started, let's take a look at the image we'll be creating. As always, the layered Photoshop file is available via our PSDTUTS Plus membership. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.

Step 1

Create a New Document 950 pixels wide by 600 pixels heigh, 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 select the "Steel Bar" preset from the drop down menu. If you can't see the preset in the list, click the triangle button on the right and select "metals" from the list. Click Append. Create 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 our pencil more reflective go to Image > Adjustments > Curves (Command + M), and adjust it as in the below image.

Step 5

With the selection still active, create a new layer and fill the selection with the color #d60005, then set the layer Opacity to 60%. Name the new layer "Color."

Step 6

Right click the "Body" layer and duplicate it. Name it "Metal" and move it to the top of the layer stack. Select the Rectangular Marque Tool, 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

Select the Elliptical Marque tool and make a selection from point 1 in the image 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. This will give our pencil a perspective look.

It's a good idea to save it because we will need this selection later. Go to Select > Save Selection. Name the selection "Ellipse."

Step 8

With the Marque tool still selected, drag the selection towards the right edge of the "Metal" layer. Drag another vertical guide until it snaps to the center of the selection.

Step 9

Pick the Rectangular Marque tool, then while holding down the Shift key, make a selection as shown below. Go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete.

Step 10

While holding down the Command key, click the "Metal" layer to load the selection (Click on the thumbnail of the layer, not on the layer name). With any selection tool selected, move the selection 4 pixels right. You can do it by pressing the Right Arrow on the keyboard 4 times.

Go 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 that we're going to make. The new selection is the metal part because we're holding down the Command key as well. So the metal part and our current selection will be intersected. 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 these settings. To make it slightly bigger than the metal layer, hit Command + T, and set the Vertical Scale to 102%.

Step 12

Duplicate the "Bump" layer and move the copy 6 pixels to the right. Repeat this step once more to make a total of 3 bumps. Select these 3 layers and merge them (Command + E.) Duplicate the merged layer to create another set of bumps and place it as you like.

Step 13

Duplicate the "Metal" layer and name the copy "Eraser". Drag the "Eraser" layer below the "Metal" layer. Move the "Eraser" layer about 60 pixels right. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command + U.) See the image below for the Hue/Saturation settings.

Duplicate the "Metal" layer again and name the copy "Shadow." Drag the "Shadow" layer below the "Metal" layer. Hit Command + U and bring the lightness to -100. Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Set the Angle to 0 and Distance to 5, then apply it. Now we can merge the layers related to the metal part of the pencil. Choose "Shadow," "Metal," and Bump layers, then Hit Command + E to merge them.

Step 14

Create a new layer and name it "Tip." Using the Polygonal Lasso tool make a selection, as in the image below. Fill the selection with a light yellow orange. Move this layer down below the "Body." Go to Select > Deselect to loose the selection (Command + D).

Step 15

Select and Duplicate the "Body". Name the new layer "TipGradient." Move this layer to the top. Hit Command + T, then set the scale and position as in the below image. 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

With "TipGradient" layer selected, go to Edit > Transform > Perspective and adjust the perspective like this.

Step 18

Go to Select > Load Selection, and load the selection "Ellipse." Position the selection as in the image, then Delete the selected area from both the "Body" and "Color" layers.

Step 19

With the "Color" layer selected, create a new layer and name it "Wood." Press D on the keyboard to change the Foreground and Background colors to black and white. Press X to make foreground white. Fill the selection with white. Then go to Filter > Render > Fibers. Use 10 for both variables. Hit Command + T, rotate it 90 degrees counter clockwise, and scale it as shown below.

Step 20

Go to Edit > Transform > Perspective and adjust the perspective as shown. Set the Blending Mode to Soft Light and Opacity to 60%.

Step 21

Get the Elliptical Marque tool and make a selection, as shown below. Select the "Wood" layer and hit delete. Select the "TipGradient" layer and hit Command + U, then set the Saturation to -100. Hit Command + L and apply these settings. This will make the tip darker and high contrast.

Step 22

Now we're about to finish. Select 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. Choose the "Reflection" layer, then go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical.

Step 23

With all layers selected except the "Background" layer, hit Command + T, and rotate them -30 degrees. Move the "Shadow" and "Reflection" layers as shown below.

Step 24

Choose the "Reflection" layer and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Apply it with a Radius of 3 and set the Opacity to 60. Choose the "Shadow" layer, then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Apply it with a Radius of 7 and set the Opacity to 80.

Step 25

With the "Reflection" layer selected, 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, from white to black, which makes the shadow vanish.

Step 26

With the "Pencil" layer selected, apply a Gradient Overlay with these settings.

Step 27

That's it! You can change the position and also change the background color if you wish. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.


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User Comments

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  1. Decem August 28th

    omfg…wicked!Thanks!


  2. Furkan August 28th

    Wooow! Great tutorial. I <3 psdTuts :) Thanks thanks and thanks..


  3. giackop August 28th

    wow.. awesome


  4. diesel August 28th

    That is one awesome looking pencil! Well done!


  5. Joe August 28th

    Super, Shiny and Sharp pencil indeed! Good project to get familiar with the gradients, selection tools, and basic transform operations available and how to use them.


  6. David Leggett August 28th

    Very polished result! Looks great!


  7. 禾草唐楷 August 28th

    that’s so beautiful,great job,thanks~~~


  8. Sumesh August 28th

    Nice tutorial. Stumbled.

    I was wondering if you could have more tuts on similar objects, like notepads, cards (like those on previous designs of Ma.tt) etc.


  9. grazz August 28th

    Wow… Oh my… wow.

    Okay, wow. Whoa.


  10. Nate August 28th

    Thats Crazy… cool!


  11. Brent Nelson August 28th

    Nice and simple. Good tutorial.


  12. Zenor August 28th

    Awesome


  13. Dustin August 28th

    Very obvious beginners tutorial. I wish all tutorials be the same quality.


  14. Vince August 28th

    Great example of something that is simple to execute but yields excellent results. Great job!


  15. Ahmet August 28th

    @ Eren bey

    Kendi milletimden insanları burada yazar olarak görmek çok güzel. Bu 3. dersiniz şaşırdım açıkçası ama mutlu oldum başarılarınızın devamını dilerim ;)


  16. Noor August 28th

    wow really nice tut!


  17. Kim Dolleris August 28th

    Nicely done… Thx for sharing!!


  18. screw.nail August 28th

    Look really good:) thumbs up


  19. amfis August 28th

    Not bad.


  20. Máté Éva August 28th

    This the from nothing?? Yes, simply perfect!!! Nagyon tökéletes munka!!!


  21. andi August 28th

    Nice, the only thing I didn’t like is there’s a long standing bug in Photoshop with resizing curves/circles/ellipses/etc… so in Step 7 when you resize the circle selection to get the ellipse, it’s not a perfect ellipse, you can see it has that photoshop squaring-off bug starting to creep in, drawing a clean ellipse from scratch would get you a perfect one. Not that anyone would actually notice this by the end result, but still, it annoys me when PS does that :P


  22. Ravi Vora August 28th

    This is a really good tutorial. Nice final product too.


  23. Laurens August 28th

    Very nice!


  24. insic August 28th

    could you guys in psdtuts stop posting tutorials like this?!!!

    coz its so awesome! im just kidding in my first line of course! i love the result.


  25. erdem August 28th

    very nice.. good job..


  26. Dan August 28th

    I always like these icon ones, good stuff


  27. loswl August 28th

    Very nicely illustrated and the instructions were very good….a “clean” result!! :o)


  28. Mr Kuzio August 28th

    Bello veramente!

    It’s beautiful!

    This is the most shiny pencil that i have ever seen. XD


  29. daniel August 28th

    very nice tutorial and result! great! thanks a lot!


  30. BogDinamita August 28th

    wow! is that friggin beautiful!


  31. leandra August 28th

    I was able to throw this together in about 30 minutes, good instructions and excellent result. My only problem came in on Step 18 when the loaded ellipse selection tried to eat a portion of the body or color layer when I tried adjusting it. Not sure what I was doing wrong there.


  32. Zim August 28th

    Hey, it looks really cute, very nice! :D


  33. Chris August 28th

    Just finished the tutorial and even if its not 100% the same it still feels great to create something out of nothing. Would like to see more tutorials of this kind (creating stuff with photoshop).


  34. Darrin August 28th

    You guys are good………Thanks for the share.


  35. BroOf August 28th

    Wow! Amazing outcome! Thanks for sharing this great tuts!


  36. Sean Canady August 28th

    Great tutorial!

    @ Leandra, you probably had your “Move” tool selected. When you have a selection and attempt to nudge it with arrow keys or even move it with the mouse when you have the “Move” tool selected it actually “cuts” while it moves.


  37. Snorri3D August 28th

    AMAZING what a great tut thx for that


  38. Jonathan August 28th

    The coolest stuff is usually the simplest. Excellent!


  39. Simona August 28th

    Great stuff, I love it.


  40. mattems August 28th

    This is soooo coool. Love these tutorials.

    photoshop FTW!


  41. NaldzGraphics August 28th

    wow.thats look realistic.thanks for the tutorial


  42. 678_321 August 28th

    i like the “metal part” on the eraser… so realistic! great tut!


  43. dlv August 28th

    really really nice and light realistic, great job !


  44. curtis allen August 28th

    Awesome, tutorial guys keep up the good work.


  45. Poonam August 28th

    Very Nice tutorial, & very nicely explained


  46. JUGGALO August 28th

    Amazing, so simple to do, I was done in 15 minutes and the result is stunning, never guessed it would be so easy to do !
    I went a little crazy and added some dents and teeth marks, change a little the color to make the metal look like copper, and the end result is pretty good.
    I would do this tut again to get to the bottom of things and try to create a screwdriver I need to do.

    I love those tuts begining from scratch soooo much, thanks for sharing Eren !


  47. Can Ata August 28th

    Eline sağlık.Burada böyle güzel derslerde türklerin adını görmek çok güzel birşey.Harika bir ders.


  48. Shane August 28th

    this has to be one of my favourite tutorials to date - absolutely fantastic end result.

    I very much like icon design - very skillful indeed :)


  49. wildwise August 28th

    clean, very nice one


  50. Mark Abucayon August 28th

    wow, that was cool, I like it thank you for sharing this one.


  51. koen buysse August 28th

    simple, but nice.
    love the shadow too !


  52. Niklas August 28th

    Indeed very sleek and 2.0-ish! Simple yet effective! Nice work!


  53. Alexander Hahn August 28th

    Amazing great! Would be so nice to see an angled version of the body part!!


  54. John Eivind August 28th

    That was great. Thanks a lot!


  55. ashvin August 28th

    Very shiny :)


  56. Victor August 28th

    Man awesome sumply awesome!!!

    I wait more tuts like this!!!

    Thanks!!!


  57. Nders August 28th

    A m a z i n g


  58. maria August 28th

    OMG ! this is fantastic! thanks for sharing ;-)


  59. angeloff August 28th

    Very very nice tutorial


  60. angeloff August 28th

    I hope i can see more tutorials like this one :) .. nice job


  61. William Ahouma August 28th

    very nice job!


  62. Christian August 28th

    Really great tutorial!

    And easy to follow. I have sometimes tried to follow tutorials with a great end-result, but finding it to difficult to create myself. But this tut was great!

    Keep up the good work!


  63. Paul August 29th

    That is an excellent tutorial and an awesome end result. well done


  64. John bon Jovie August 29th

    All of the above x 100.


  65. NgocHai August 29th

    Omg that’s so brilliant. Thank for your tut .


  66. Brandon August 29th

    Great tutorial - it really goes a long way to demystify some of the great icon sets out there right now. Thanks a ton for sharing.


  67. RedLine RedApple August 29th

    Bu yaptığınız 3. çalışma ve diğer ikisi gibi bir harika tebrik ederim. Çalışmalarınızda 3 boyutlu olarak düşünüp tasarladığınız için (bence 3B çalışmalar zor :D ) harika sonuçlar çıkıyor. Yeni çalışmalarınızı bekliyoruz. Kolay gelsin.
    wonderful tut and very shiny :D


  68. Damir August 29th

    Nice.Thank you.


  69. Rilla August 29th

    That looks amazing :)


  70. Joefrey Mahusay August 29th

    I love it.! Keep posting good tutorials. Thanks!


  71. Tom Ross August 29th

    Very clean end result. Nice tutorial!


  72. RafaBritto August 29th

    SHINY!

    I would like to see others woork…
    here it goes mine>>>>
    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3067/2808018530_ca25e87e39_o.jpg

    THANKS.


  73. Michael August 29th

    Smart Design! Thanks!


  74. cpg August 29th

    Maybe it would be interesting to apply a more realistic texture. Te result looks like plastic.
    Nice tut anyway..

    thanks.


  75. dr.emi August 29th

    I think this website is the best quality of tutorials, I like this one !


  76. Eren Göksel August 30th

    thank you everyone for your comments, i’m glad you loved it.


  77. Eren Göksel August 30th

    @ andi

    yes i agree. instead of scaling the selection, filling the selection and then scaling the layer sometimes gives better results. But as you said, making a new one is the best.


  78. Moksha August 30th

    really great


  79. Lamin Barrow August 30th

    That is indeed super shiny. Love you tut by the way. :)


  80. puffgirl August 30th

    :O .. thats excellent! very nice.


  81. Philo August 30th

    Great Result! Love the outcome!


  82. Lawrence August 31st

    super…


  83. D. Carreira August 31st

    WOW! Nice tutorial!

    Thanks!

    David Carreira


  84. web August 31st

    Photoshop tutorial for a pencil icon. Yummy.


  85. Uma August 31st

    really nice thanks!!


  86. T.J. August 31st

    Awesome tutorial. How would you take an icon and size it down even smaller? Every time I try it kills the clarity.


  87. yusuf1 August 31st

    thats a very nice tutorial, just made my day. cheers!


  88. horse crazy September 1st

    it’s very, very, crazy this tutorial!!!!
    it’s “show”!!!
    i like photoshop and this tutorial is “no words”!!!
    thank.


  89. Man Mohan Singh September 1st

    Really Nice Work. Awesome, Like 3D Work. Keep it up……………


  90. cLaK September 2nd

    Wow! great tut… looks very real!! hehehe awesome ;)


  91. Leaonna September 2nd

    I really like the results of this tutorial
    and the first 5 steps was easy but after that I found it a little tuff and LONG….
    No offense but Im far from a beginner but your tutorial made me feel like one…eek!!
    :O


  92. Qbrushes September 2nd

    Brilliant! it so sleek, I’m really amazed at this tutorials outcome.

    Well done mate.


  93. sage September 3rd

    Thank you for and excellent tutorial. I just started photoshop yesterday and i had no problems!


  94. David September 5th

    Great tutorial!

    Easy to follow (except that some of the steps had missing instructions, but I was able to figure it out; w/o too much frustation..which added to the learning experience).

    Tell me what you think:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/30175756@N05/2828186531/

    Thanks :o)


  95. Aakash Goel September 5th

    Great Tutorial… just couldn’t figure out how to convert the final image to an ‘.ico’ . Anyone?


  96. maurizio September 5th

    It compliments!!

    truly a beautiful one tutorial…

    thanks many

    Salutes from Florence - Italy


  97. JONxBLAZE September 6th

    Very good tutorial..I love the reflection effect. Great job!


  98. Matt September 7th

    Great tutorial. Thanks!


  99. Sonali Agrawal September 9th

    Wonderful tutorials..Thanks for it. I tried and have even uploaded the result in my blog post. Thank You PSDTuts. You ROCK!!


  100. HERO September 12th

    Another great tutorial, very well written and a lovely final result. My only suggestion might be to transform for perspective before rotating the pencil. Nice work Eren!


  101. Nix September 13th

    m…. dis is awsom!!!


  102. godonholiday September 15th

    step 10 is not really easy to follow? can anyone break it down for me?


  103. Thomas Eilander September 16th

    Great tutorial! Took me about three quarters. It’s very well explained with clear images. Thanks a lot!


  104. liko September 16th

    skillful indeed ..and detail so wonderful
    godonholiday: the step 10 i explained 3 step for you:
    1.ctrl+click the “metal” layer (load the selection)
    2.move the selectiion to right 6px by hit the arrow key. then inverse the selection(ctrl-shift-i)
    3.holding the combination keys: ctrl-alt-shift+click the ‘metal’ layer.
    then you will see the thin line is selected.
    thanx Eren Göksel ^&^


  105. ahmet September 18th

    elinize sağlık arkadaşlar bu adımda ne yapıyor açıklayabilirmisiniz 12 step Duplicate the “Bump” layer and move the copy 6 pixels to the right. Repeat this step once more to make a total of 3 bumps. Select these 3 layers and merge them (Command + E.) Duplicate the merged layer to create another set of bumps and place it as you like.


  106. Photoshop Brushes September 19th

    What should I say ? I am speechless…Thank You Eren Göksel !


  107. Eren Göksel September 19th

    @ahmet,

    “bump” adındaki layerın bir kopyasını alıp 6 pixel sağa taşıyoruz. bu taşıdığımız layırın bir kopyasını alıp onu da 6 pixel sağa. böylece 3 adet bump layerı oluyor. sonra bunları birleştiriyoruz. Birleşmiş halinin bir kopyasını daha alıyoruz ve onu da biraz daha sağa kaydırıp yerleştiriyoruz.

    —————

    i made a short explanation of step 12 for ahmet in turkish.


  108. rowel September 19th

    a very useful tip indeed…


  109. Katie Back September 25th

    I actually needed to know how to do this two months ago :) This is amazing. I work for a web company and my friend needed some help making a pencil. I had no idea what I was doing, because I do not do graphics (that’s for the designers). I wish I would have had this. Awesome!
    Katie :)


  110. Hero September 25th

    perfect!
    I did it :D thank you so much!


  111. canlı dizi September 27th

    thankkk you perfect!!


  112. dijitalmekan October 9th

    thanks you.very good


  113. Playstation games October 21st

    Awesome article, i love pencils


  114. photoshop maniac November 1st

    awsome


  115. Gav November 3rd

    Pure awesomeness


  116. pandit November 5th

    i saw 1st time its look like 3d model, after see full prosses its great in photosho


  117. nick November 7th

    so cool@


  118. offidea design November 7th

    Is truly very good


  119. remik09 November 8th

    omg it is amaizing, i dont know how you find way to do this pencil but it is great


  120. Gv November 13th

    Thank You Great Work Eren Göksel
    This is mine

    http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/9797/gvpencilmakingaw2.jpg


  121. Gv November 13th

    Created in Photoshop 7

    http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/2875/pencilinpsp7copyzt2.jpg

    Thanks Again Eren Göksel