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Making the paperclip The only tricky part of this process is sizing the circles correctly in the first step. We can’t simply draw one circle and then shrink it, because the thickness would then be reduced as well. It may take a little trial and error to get the proportions of the paperclip just right.
P H O T O S H O P
The paperclip shape
1 Draw three gray stroked circles,
sized so they would fit inside each other. Align the tops of the outer two, and the bottoms of the right two circles.
2
Using the Rectangular Marquee tool, select and delete half of each circle as shown here.
3
Use the Rectangular Marquee tool again to make selections the width of the circle outlines, and fill to join the ends together as shown.
Adding shine
4
Use the Layer Style dialog to add an Inner Bevel to the paperclip. The settings I’ve used are a Depth of 220%, with a Size of 4 pixels and a Soften amount of 4 pixels. The gloss comes from the Gloss Contour pop-up in the lower half of the dialog, in the Shading section.
Click the contour button to select an up/down curve from the preset list.
5
We can add a further shine using the Satin section of the Layer Style dialog. I’ve used an Opacity of 68%, a Distance of 25 pixels, and a Size of 29 pixels. Make sure the Blend Mode is set to Hard Light, click the color swatch and choose a pale blue as the satin color.
3 Finally, add a Drop Shadow to make the paperclip stand out from its background.