Create a paperclip from scratch in Adobe Photoshop
The other day I was sitting at my desk and thought to myself, “Paper clips are so cool. They do such a great job at keeping things organized and still maintaining that ‘disheveled, unorganized look’.” This unorthodox thought process led me to also think, “I bet a paper clip would be really cool as a design element for my website.” So I decided to try to replicate one, from scratch, in photoshop.
I thought it turned out pretty good. So good, in fact, I decided I’d show you how to do it.
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Create a new document (cmd+n for macs ctrl+n for pcs; this is a VERY useful keyboard shortcut to know) with a width of 300 px & height of 400 px @ 72 dpi. (The 72 dpi is only important if you want to create web-only graphics)
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Select the
eliptical marquee tool & make a large, symmetrical circle by holding the shift key as you drag the circle.
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Create a new layer (cmd+shift+n on macs or ctrl+shift+n on pcs), name it “top turn” & stroke the marquee on the inside through Edit > Stroke with a width of 10 px with a stroke color of black (#000000).
Result:
- Now, deselect your marquee by using Select > Deselect or cmd+d, and Repeat step 2 with a circle about half the size of the first circle, & repeat step 3 (naming the layer “bottom turn”).
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Now left align those layers by selecting the Move Tool (keyboard shortcut of V).
- Create a new layer, naming it “straight aways”, and using the rectangular marquee, create a rectangle that is as wide as the smallest circle, and has ends at the center of both circles. The circles can be moved later, so it’s not that important to align just yet, but it is important that it’s the exact width of the smallest circle. When you stroke the rectangle, it is imperative that you stroke the inside in order for it to look right. Stroke it at 11 px, rather than 10 px.
- Now align all layers left, & “clear” out the parts of each layer that aren’t part of the paperclip. For instance, the bottom of the top circle, the top of the bottom circle, and the horizontal bars of the rectangle. The best way to do this non-destructively is to use the layer mask, which is at the bottom of the layers palette.
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Select the “top turn” layer, and use the marquee to select the top half of the circle. When using marquee to select what you want to layer mask, select what you want to show. Repeat the same steps for the subsequent layers. If you feel the straight away layer isn’t long enough, simply use Edit > Free Transform (or cmd+t for macs, ctrl+t for pcs), and drag it vertically. Be sure not to let it change horizontally, because it will adjust the width of your straight sections, making for a “disconnected” paper clip.
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After you’ve layer masked:
- Tip: If the straight sections don’t quite line up with your bottom circle, use the marquee to select the right half of the straight section, select the Move Tool (V), and simply use your right or left arrow buttons on your keyboard to move it directly over the right side of the bottom circle.
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At this point, your paper clip should look like a dull, “clip art”-esque paper clip. This is where the magic of layer styles comes in.
- Tip for Noobs & Professionals: Go to your history palette (if you can’t see it select Window > History), and create a snapshot of your work before moving onto the next step. This way, if anything goes terribly wrong in the next step, and you continue without realizing you’ve made a horrible mistake along the way, you have your snapshot to revert to.
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Select all of the layers you’ve created (do not select the background layer) and merge them by selecting Layers > Merge Layers or using cmd+e for macs or ctrl+e for pcs. Now you should have one layer, which you should rename “paper clip”. Now using the eliptical marquee, create a symmetrical circle, to go at the top of the “bitter” end of the paper clip (the long, right straight part) to make it look rounded, and fill it with black by selecting Edit > Fill or pressing D to reset your foreground color to black, and using option+delete on macs or alt+delete on pcs to fill it with the foreground color.
Do the same for the top circle’s loose end.
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Select the effects button (fx) at the bottom of your layers palette, and begin by selecting “drop shadow”. This will make our paper clip look like it’s above the page that it is clipped to.
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Use these settings:
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Next, under the effects button, select “Bevel & Emboss”, and use these settings:
Now we’ve got some “3d” effects, it’s time to make the paper clip really “shine”. -
Under the effects panel, select “Satin” and use these settings:
- I found that playing around with the contour shapes really helped to tweak my paper clips “almost touchability”. So roam. Play. Find new things.
- One more little finishing touch. Create a layer mask on your “paper clip” layer, make a rectangular marquee at the “big circle” loose end, and fill it with black, which will make it look like it’s “clipped” to another piece of paper. It may look strange right now, but we’re going to use a really neat-o, not so well known blending option.
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Double click on the effects title under your layer and click on Blending options.
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In the Advanced Blending section you’ll find a check box that says, “layer mask hides Effects”. Check “yes”, Romeo!
- As you’ll see when you check it on & off, the layer’s effects assume that the “layer” itself is being hidden by the layer mask when the check is off, and makes it do some really funky effecting. When it’s checked on, it makes it almost like the entire layer, effects & all, are hidden behind whatever it is your paper clip is clipped to. The work around for this used to be to merge this layer with another layer & simply cut off the part that looked “icky”. This is nice, because it keeps your effects entact & allows you to make it look like it’s a truly, used, paper clip.
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Your finished paper clip should look a little, if not entirely, like this:
- Hope this tutorial was helpful, please feel free to review the tutorial itself, as it was my first ever.