Drawing a Vector Vista Pen in Photoshop
By Rashad Nsouli | Photoshop CS3 | BeginnerThis tutorial is going to teach you how to draw a Vista styled vector pen in Photoshop using the Pen Tool 
and Layer Blending Options. We will go through drawing the pen's basic shapes and then give each of them different Blending Options such as Gradient Overlay, Inner Glow, Inner Shadow, etc. Drawing a pen in vector format will make our drawing suitable for use in any resolution. Your final results is going looks like the image shown below.
Our tutorial is divided into the following sections:
- Drawing the Pen's Base Shapes.
- Applying the Blending Options.
Drawing the Pen's Base Shapes
Start off by opening a brand new file in Photoshop by going through File>New. Set the width to 280px, the height to 275px and the resolution to 72pixels/inch.
We are now going to draw the base shapes of the pen that will make our object and which we will apply Blending Options onto later. Grab the Pen Tool from your Tools Panel of the left side of your workspace.
Draw the each of these shapes shown below separately, you can also use the image below as a reference.
Each one of these shapes should appear on its own layer on the Layers Panel as shown in the image below. Double Click the layers' names and change them to match the number in the reference image above. We will be referring to these layers with the numbers we assigned to them here.
Applying the Blending Options
We are going to use Blending Options to color our vector objects. Using this coloring technique retains vector format and that means that you will be able to scale your object up or down and it will still retain its clarity.
We are going to start the layer labeled 1. Right-click this layer and choose Blending Options. Click on Inner Shadow and input the values exactly as shown in the screenshot below.
Click on Outer Glow and assign the values shown below.
And finally for the first part, click on Gradient Overlay and input the following values
If you click OK now you should have your first part of the pen ready and it should look similar to the image below:
Now it's time to add Blending Options to the pen's clip. Right Click the thumbnail of Layer 2 and select Blending Options. Select Drop Shadow and input the following values.
Select Inner Shadow and input the following values as shown below
Click on Outer Glow and set in the following values in the screenshot below
Finally, click on Gradient Overlay and input the following values in.
That should do it for this part. Once you are done with this shape simply press OK and move it to its right position on the first part we made.
Access the Layers Panel and Right-Click the thumbnail of Layer 3 and select Blending Options. Select Outer Glow and input the following values:
Click on Gradient Overlay and input the following values:
That should do it. Click OK and move the shape to its appropriate position if you haven't done that already.
Access the Layers Panel, then Right-click the thumbnail of Layer 4 and select Blending Options. Select Inner Shadow and input the following values:
Click on Outer Glow and insert the following values:
Finally select Gradient Overlay and input the following values as shown in the screenshot below:
The pen will now look similar to the sample below once you move your shape to its appropriate position:
Finally for the last part of the pen, select Layer 5, Right Click on its layer's thumbnail and select Blending Options. Select Inner Shadow and input the following values:
Click on Outer Glow and input the values shown below:
Finally select Gradient Overlay and input these values:
Click OK and move the final part to its appropriate position to get this end result:
Your Vector Vista Pen is all done! You are free to optionally give the pen a small shadow by Brushing a small grey line as in the sample below, give it a Blur and use Free Transform tool make it proportional with the shape of the pen as I have done below:
This concludes our tutorial, you can check my source PSD here. Make sure you show off your work in the Graphics Showcase forum. I hope that you've learnt something new from my tutorial, feel free to email me on diablo@republicofcode.com if you have any comments or questions or alternatively post in the Republic of Code Forum to get instant feedback.
- End of Tutorial