Mechanical Pencil

This tutorial builds upon the skills learned in the “Metal Rod” tutorial, as well as employs several new techniques to create a realistic looking mechanical pencil.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to e-mail me.

1. Create a new RGB image, 500x60px, with a white background.

2. Make a new layer, and hit “M” to select the marquee tool. Then, go up to the tool options and select “Fixed size” enter 15px for width and 40px for height.

3. Now click on the left side of the canvas to make a selection. Hit “G” to select the gradient tool and in the options choose the linear gradient, then in the gradient style, select “Silver” and fill the selection from top to bottom (A).

4. Now, hold shift and hit the down arrow 2 times, to move down 20px. Go to Image – Adjust – Brightness/contrast. Set the brightness to -50 and the contrast to -25 (B).

5. Go to Edit – Transform – Scale and drag the bottom of the bounding box up halfway (C).

6. Now hit Ctrl+D to deselect. Then, go to Edit – Transform – Scale again and set the height to 75% of the original (D).

7. Now hit Ctrl+Alt+Right Arrow to duplicate the layer and move it to the right side of the canvas.

8. Then hit Ctrl+E to merge it with the previous layer.

9. Now with your rectangular marquee tool, select the area between the two boxes (change the tool options back to “Normal” for the style).

10. Now, set yoru foreground color to R56 G98 B129 and the background color to R28 G63 B91.

11. Now, go back to the gradient tool and select “Foreground to Background” as yoru gradient type and fill the selection from top to bottom with a linear gradient.

12. Next, go to Filter – Noise – Add Noise and seelct “Uniform” and “Monochromatic” and enter a value of 5.

13. Now go to Filter – Distort – Sphereize and select “Vertical Only” at 100%.

14. Create a new layer, then, go to Select – Modify – Contract and enter a value of 4.

15. After that, hit Ctrl+Alt+D and feather the selection by 2px.

16. Now hit D to reset the colors, then X to invert them. Now go back to the gradient tool and select “foreground to Transparent”

17. Using the linear gradient tool, make click and hold on the top of the selection and hold down the shift key and drag the mouse down 4 or 5px to make a soft white-transparent gradient along the top fo the selection.

18. Hit Ctrl+D to deselect, then holding the Ctrl key down, hit the down arrow key 2 times. Change the layer mode to “Soft Light”.

19. Now hit Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Down Arrow to duplicate the layer and move it down 10px. Theh hit Ctrl+I to invert it and change the opacity to 60%.

20. Hit Ctrl+E twice to merge these two layers with the main pencil layer.

21. Next, using your rectangular marquee tool, select the right endcap and hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift to duplicate it and move it to the right 15px.

22. Now go to Edit – Transform – Scale and scale the height to 35% of the original.

23. Using the rectangular marquee tool, make a selection on the left end of the new pencil tip that’s 3px wide and the full height of the tip. Go to Image – Adjust – Brightness/Contrast and set the brightness to -25.

24. Hit Ctrl+D and Ctrl+E.

25. Now, go to the other end of the pencil and select the chrome end and duplicate it just like you did before, only this time, move it to the left of the pencil.

26. Then, hit Ctrl+Alt+Left Arrow 1 time. Now hit Ctrl+E.

27. Next, hit Ctrl+D to deselect and to go Edit – Transform – Perspective and bring the left end of the rectangle to a point.

28. You’ll notice that this leaves the other end of the cone that we’ve just created with a bit of a feathered edge. Don’t worry about that. We’ll put a black fill behind it later and it will make a nice shadow.

29. Now hit Ctrl+E to merge it with the main pencil layer.

30. Then, using the pencil tool and a 1px brush, draw some black lead coming out of the tip.

31. Next, click on the background layer, and then make a new layer, below the main pencil. Then, Ctro+Click on the pencil layer and fill the selection with black. Merge it with the main pencil layer and you see that we get oru ncie little shadow on the business end of the pencil.

32. Ok, we’re almost done. We just need to add the clip. Again, select a portion of the right silver end of the pencil, this time, make it about 10px wide. Copy it and paste it onto a new layer and move it into position, where you want the top of the clip to be. Hit Ctrl+E to merge it with the main pencil layer.

33. Now, make a new layer and select a rectangular area the size of yoru clip and fill it with black.

34. Next, right-click on the layer in the Layer’s Pallet and go to “Blending Options”

35. Use the following options:

  1. Drop Shadow: Multiply, 75%, 120 degrees, Distance = 3, Size = 6, everything else at the default value.
  2. Bevel & Emboss: Structure – Inner Bevel, Chisel Hard, 610%, everything else at the default value. Shading – Angle = -60, Attitude = 63, Glass contour should be the third one in the top row, anti=aliased. Hilight = Screen, White, 100%, Shadpw Mode = Multiply, Black, 50%.
  3. Bevel & Enboss – Contour: Select the 4th contour option in the top row, anti-aliased at 100%
  4. Satin: Overlay, White 100%, Angle = 135, Distance = 8px, Size = 9px. Contour should be the tird option in the top row, anti-aliased.
  5. Color Overlay: White, Normal, 50%

36. Now merge the layer with the main pencil layer below it.

Phew! That’s a lot of work for just a little clip, but it also finishes the tutorial.

We’ll just add a little drop-shadow to the whole thing for good measure.

Well, that pretty much wraps up our pencil-making for today.

The main thing that I can’t stress enough when working on a project like this, where you’re trying to render somethign as realistic as possible is the need to observe. All the step-by-step processes and fancy tutorials in the world won’t get you anywhere unless you’re able to look at things with a critical eye and see for yourself how light is reflected and shadows are cast, etc. Once you’ve mastered that, it’s simply a matter of learning the techniques to bring those observations to life on the screen.

I can teach you how to draw a pencil, but until you learn how to see one, you’re never going to progress to an ink pen, a bowl of fruit, a glass of wine, etc.

So grab a mechanical pencil and set it there on your desk, take a look at how the light plays off of it, and how we’ve brought that to bear in the tutorial.

You’ll probably find ways to make improvements, over time.

Added Saturday, May 13th, 2006 at 9:00 pm under Drawing & Painting.