A pen modelled and rendered with the open-source software Blender.
The Cycles render engine was used.
The engravings were created later using Krita and exported as a 2d texture, onto which the pen nib was unwrapped.
#0: Initialisation.
#1: Noise textures are surprisingly versatile in Blender.
#2: Fountain pen from another angle.
#3: Addition of more interesting textures for the metal– oh no no no go back#4: The pen looks surprisingly good when capped as well.
#5: Discarding the abstract cubes in favour of an actual background.
#6: Pen #5, but with the noise texture dialed down.
#7: A little lighting goes a long way.
#8: And now it has a nib.
#9: ...That is far too much light.
#10: Side view.
#11: Five months later I returned to the pen, with its obvious topological issues to be resolved.
#12: Close-up of pen nib with better lighting and shaders.
#13: Did you know how much difference a HDRI (background) can make to a render? It certainly 'contextualises' the scene.
#14: Closeup of that sweet detail. Note the jagged edges of the nib (low poly count).
#15: It doesn't look nearly as elegant from this angle.
#16: The topology issues have been largely patched. Quite proud of this so far.
