Photoshop Quill Pen Tutorial

The quill looks complicated until you break it into four parts: a gradient background, a body built from an ellipse plus the Pen tool, feather texture from a custom brush, and highlights and shadows from layer styles. Done in order it is straightforward, and you can run the whole thing in Online PS.

1. 1

   Create the background and a black-and-white gradient

   1️⃣ New canvas (800 × 800 px suggested), background set to black.

   2️⃣ In the Layers panel, right-click the layer → New Fill Layer → Gradient.

   3️⃣ Choose a black-to-white linear gradient, set the mode to Custom and the angle to 90°; drag the gradient out so it fades left to right.

   4️⃣ Change the gradient layer’s blending mode to Overlay and its opacity to about 30% for a soft, hazy background.

2. 2

   Draw the feather outline

   1. ① Draw the feather body with the Ellipse tool
      • In the toolbar choose the Ellipse tool (U) → draw an ellipse roughly the size of the feather.
      • Use the Add Anchor Point tool (Shift+P) to adjust the top and bottom ends, making them sharper or wider.
      • Press Ctrl+Enter (Mac ⌘+Enter) to turn the shape into a selection.
      • Set the foreground colour to white and choose Edit → Fill (or Alt+Delete) to fill with white.
      • Selection → Select → Modify → Feather, radius about 5 px, then Ctrl+D to deselect.
   2. ② Draw the quill (central shaft) with the Freeform Pen tool
      • In the toolbar choose the Pen tool (P) → switch to Freeform Pen (in the options bar, change “Shape” to “Path”).
      • Click twice to draw a thin straight line, starting at the bottom of the ellipse and ending about a third of the way past its edge.
      • Press Ctrl+Enter again to convert it to a selection and fill with white.
      • Selection → Edit → Fill; when done, merge the two layers (Ctrl+E) into Layer 1.
   3. ③ Draw the feather splits with the Pen tool
      • Select Layer 1 again and use the Pen tool to draw irregular branching paths along the outer edge of the feather.
      • After each segment, first add an anchor point on the path (Alt+click) to close the sub-path.
      • Ctrl+Enter → Select → Inverse → Delete to remove the inside.
      • When you are done, press Ctrl+T to exit the selection.
      • Repeat until every “barb” of the feather is finished.
3. 3

   Make a custom brush (feather texture)

   1️⃣ Create a new 5 × 5 px layer with a transparent background.

   2️⃣ Pick the Pencil tool (B) with black as the colour and dot a few pixels as shown below (any arrangement works — you want a grainy look).

   3️⃣ When done, choose Edit → Define Brush Preset and name it FeatherDust.

   4️⃣ Select the brush on Layer 1, set size to about 30%–45%, hardness 0 and flow 20%, then sweep lightly along the edges and tip of the feather to fake a natural downy texture.

4. 4

   Add layer styles to Layer 1

   Select Layer 1 → fx (layer style) → Bevel and Emboss and set:

   Style: Inner Bevel
   Technique: Smooth
   Depth: 100%
   Direction: Up
   Size: 5 px
   Soften: 0 px
   Highlight Mode: Screen, colour white
   Shadow Mode: Multiply, colour black
                   

   Then click Outer Glow:

   Colour: #fff
   Blend Mode: Overlay
   Opacity: 75%
   Size: 10 px
   Range: Outside
                   

5. 5

   Create the feather shadow

   1. Duplicate Layer 1 (Ctrl+J) to get Layer 1 copy.
   2. With the copy selected, fill the whole feather with black using the Paint Bucket tool (G).
   3. Press Ctrl+T and nudge it down or right a little (a slight offset fakes the light direction), then confirm.
   4. Then Filter → Blur → Gaussian Blur with a radius of 2 px.
   5. Set the layer opacity to 50% for a soft drop shadow.
6. 6

   Add a Gradient Overlay and finish

   Select Layer 1 → fx → Gradient Overlay.

   In the panel that opens:

   • Style: Linear
   • Angle: 90° (adjust to taste)
   • Colour: your choice — a metallic gold #f1c40f → #e67e22 or a soft blue-violet #8e44ad → #3498db both work well
   • Opacity: 100%
   • Blend Mode: Overlay or Soft Light (personal preference)

   When you are done you have a quill pen you can drag around, duplicate or export as PNG.

References

• Adobe Photoshop official documentation
• HTML5 and the principles of modern front-end image processing
• Online PS