photoshop 7.0

Here's the hammer we are going to create. It's from your typical workshop. You are looking at a resize version on the left. For this tutorial I recommend creating a much larger version and resizing it later.

1. Create a new image. I recommend 400 Width and 700 Height. Rulers On.

2. Open the Channels Palette, create new channel. Use the pen tool and design the right side of the hammer handle. I know it sounds boring, don't be a wimp, just do it.

3. Select the Pen Tool. Right-click (Mac: Control-Click) inside the pen shape and select Fill Path. Fill it with white. Right click inside the path again and select Delete Path. If you need to trim up the shape you made, do it now.

4. Control-click (Mac: Command-click) the channel to make the shape a selection. Hold down Alt-Ctrl-Shift and drag over a copy of the hammer.

5. Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Select the Move tool, hold down the Shift Key and drag it over to fit with the right side.

6. Deselect the selection. Ok now if the handle doesn't look right, do what you have to do to correct the shape. Use the Perspective transform tool if you need to. Make sure the top of the handle is NOT too narrow or it definitely won't look right.

7. Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. About 8.8. Now go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Adjust the Levels command to smooth the shape out. I used 93 – 0.63 – 110.

8. Switch back to the Layers Palette and then click on the background layer. Now Make a new Layer.

9. Now we will create the Wood Texture for the handle; Select #F0C78A in the color picker. Fill the whole layer in with light brown. Now go to:Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Amount: 10. Distribution: Gaussian. Monochromatic checked. Then: Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Angle: -90. Distance: 45. Lastly, go to: Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. Amount: 500. Radius: 0.5. Threshold: 0.

10. Select>Load Selection. Select the hammer shape channel from the Channel Menu. It will probably be Alpha 1. Click OK. Now go to Select>Inverse. Then press the delete key to delete the texture outside of the selection. Now once more go to Select>Inverse so you see the selection just around the hammer handle.

11. Next we'll do some shading work on the handle. Keep your handle selected. Make a new Layer. Go to Edit>Stroke. Click in the color box, and paste this number inside the Hex color area: 996633. Click OK, then click OK once more to get out of the stroke command.

12. Ok, you are going to have to actually "think" on this next part. Stay on the current layer and select a medium soft brush, about 35 pixels. Set the foreground color to # 9D6B31. While the handle is still selected, click and move the brush just outside the handle to create a beveled/shadow like you see in my shot. Alright now don't chicken out on this step. If you want to learn how to create my graphics, then you must start doing things my way. Take your time, try and get your shading close to mine as possible :) Don't worry about shading the top of the handle too much because it will be covered up with the head of the hammer.

13. The next 8 steps will show you how to create the hammer part. This is the most advanced part of the tutorial. You have to think, be patient and use talent to complete the tutorial. Switch to the channels pallet. Make a new Channel. Use the Pen tool and create the outline of the hammer. (You may need a visual representation. i.e, go grab a real hammer, and copy it.) Make one of the RGB channels visible so you can see the handle. This is to help you make it the right shape and size.

14.. Connect the start and end point of the path together to complete the shape.

15. Make sure the Pen Tool is selected and then right-click [Mac: Ctrl-Click] inside the shape and select Fill Path. Select White for fill and click OK. Now turn off this path. (If you don't know how, then right-click inside the path and select Delete Path.) Just get rid of it.

16. Ok now we have the shape for the hammer. Use the eraser tool to round off the corners on the front of the hammer like shown. I do this part another way, but it would take many steps to show how.

17. Switch back to the Layers Pallet. Make a new Layer. Select>Load Selection and select Alpha 2 from the channels popdown to load the hammer head selection.

18. Are your Marquee skills good? I hope so! :-) First we'll fill the head of the hammer in since it's the easiest. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Hold down the Alt key till you see a minus symbol next to your cursor (-). Now draw a selection around everything else except the hammer head, this will isolate the selection so the select is just around the head of the hammer.

19. Now fill that selection in with my gradient that you downloaded – Top to bottom.

20. Make a new Layer. Use the guides and set up 2 guides over the head of your hammer as shown. These guides will need to represent a special detail we are creating (As shown in Figure 1.). Turn Snap on to help. Load the hammer selection up (Alpha 2). Next, subtract the selection in the same spot that I have to create the selection you see here on left.

21. Fill in the selected area with a black to white gradient starting on the bottom and dragging up. Make sure you make it look like the example.

22. Create the middle segment as shown. This was filled left to right with a black to white gradient.

23. Now do the top segment, Fill this from bottom to top. Remember, you'll need to load and subtract the selections for all these steps, just like we've been doing.

24. Next make a new layer and isolate your selection around this top piece of the hammer. Then fill it with gray.

25. Make another new layer and then fill your hammer base with a black to white gradient in a vertical direction.

26. The last detail of the hammer takes a few steps. We'll be creating those curved areas you see behind the hammer head. This can get a little messy. You'll need to extend the 3 gradient segments over the head of the hammer. So select the layers they are on. Select the last pixel column of those segments. Look at the screen shot closely.

27. Hold down Ctrl-Alt-Shift, click and drag over a copy of the selected area. Keep clicking and dragging until you have extended the segments over the hammer head.

28. Deselect Selection. Now move the hammer head layer above the 3 segment layer. The rest is easy, just draw 3 oval radial marquees over the right side of the hammer head, press delete - this will reveal the 3 segments underneath it. Look at the screen shot and you'll get the idea.

29. Finish the hammer with a brushed steel texture and add the text.