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Paint Shop Pro 7

Pansy

For this tutorial you’ll first have to create two brushes: one is a perfect circle (no jaggies like PSP’s default round) and a four-dot.

Perfect circle brush:

Create a new image.
» Settings: 250×250 pixels, 72 dpi, background color = transparent, image type = 16.7 million colors.

Set the foreground color to null and the background to black.

With the Preset Shapes tool create a circle almost the size of the canvas.
» Settings: retain style = unchecked, antialias = checked, create as vector = unchecked.

Note: To make a circle using the Preset Shapes tool simply hold down the Shift key when using the Ellipse shape.

Go to Selections – Select All and click on the Paint Brush tool.
On the Tool Options Palette click on the Brush Types button and choose Custom; on the box that appears click on the Create button.
Click OK and your first brush is ready.

Four-dot brush:

On the same canvas, deselect and hit the delete key.

Set the Paint Brush to custom and use the perfect circle brush we just created.
» Settings: size = 5, opacity = 100.
Make four dots as shown below:

Save it as a brush too and close this canvas.

Pansy:

Create a new image.
» Settings: any size you wish, 72 dpi, background color = transparent, image type = 16.7 million colors.

Set the foreground to null and background to dark red.
» My color: #A5030B.

Add a new vector layer. Name it Petal1.

With the Draw tool, create the first petal as shown below.
» Settings: type = point to point line, antialias + create as vector + close path = checked.

With the Object Selector tool, right-click on the shape and choose Create Raster Selection.
Then go to Selections – Modify – Expand by 1 and save this selection to an alpha channel. Name it Petal1.
Deselect.

Add a new vector layer. Name it Petal2.

Change the background color to another shade of red.
» My color: #BE030A.

Follow the same steps as before for creating this petal.

Add a new vector layer. Name it Petal3.

Change the background color another shade of red.
» My color: #E21E27.

Add a new vector layer. Name it Petal4.

Keep the same background color as Petal3.

Add a new vector layer. Name it Petal5.

Change the background color to another shade of red.
» My color: #EA2728.

When you are happy with your shapes convert all layers to raster.

Now on each petal you’ll paint a little bit of white.
To do this, make the Petal# layer active, create a new raster layer naming it Petal#-1.
Use the Airbrush tool for painting.
» Settings: shape = round, size = 20, hardness = 100, opacity = 100, step = 25, density = 55.

Except for Petal3, Petal4 and Petal5 you should paint the entire edges.
In their case, you won’t be painting near the middle.

Try to make the white areas between 20 and 30 pixels large.

When you finish the painting each one, apply a Gaussian Blur effect.
» Settings: radius = 2.
Then load the corresponding selection from the Alpha Channel, Invert it, hit delete and deselect.

Make the Petal1 layer active.

Add a new raster layer. Name it Petal1-p.

Load the Petal1 selection and with the Airbrush fill it with a light and a dark shade of red (one color a time).
» My colors: #E7322B and #8A0403.
» Settings: shape = round, size = 50, hardness = 100, opacity = 100, step = 25, density = 10.
Deselect.

With the Retouch tool set as Smudge, start making zig-zags towards the white area.
» Settings: custom brush = four dots, size = 50, opacity = 70, step = 1.

Make the Petal1-1 layer active.

Change the smudge opacity to 35 and start pulling from the red area to the outside, without making zig-zags (release the mouse whenever you get out of the petal).

When you finish, hide all layers except for Petal1, Petal1-p and Petal1-1.
Merge visible and rename the merged layer back to Petal1.

Load the Petal1 selection from the Alpha Channel, invert it, hit delete and deselect.

Change the Retouch tool mode to Lighten RGB.
» Settings: custom brush = four dots, size = 50, opacity = 33, step = 1.
Make the same movement you did for the white area (not zig-zags) to give a shiny look to the petal.

Now you’ll repeat each of these steps (starting from making the Petal1 layer active) for each of the other layers.
The difference is on the colors you’ll be using: for Petal2, besides the two colors used for Petal1, I used #EB5753 too; for Petal3 and Petal4, I used again these 3 colors, but mostly the darker one; and for Petal5 I used mostly #FFAC8E.

In the end you should have something like this:

With the Petal5 layer active, add a new raster layer. Name it Dark1.

Set the foreground color to very dark brown.
» My color #110000.

Change the Airbrush size to 20 and density to 69.
Paint near the middle of the flower (Petal3 side), mostly on the area where no white was added.
Smudge it just like you did with the red areas.

When you finish, load the Petal3 selection, invert it, hit delete and deselect.
You will also have to load the Petal5 selection and hit delete (don’t invert it).
Change this layer’s blend mode to Luminance.

Add a new raster layer. Name it Dark2.

Follow the same steps on the Petal4 side.

Add a new raster layer. Name it Dark3.

Follow the same steps for Petal5, but Expand the Petal5 selection by 1 before inverting it.

This is how it should look like:

Add a new layer. Name it DYellow.

Set the foreground color to dark yellow.
» My color: #BE9228.
Paint it with the Airbrush near the middle, over the Petal2 area.

Change the Smudge’s brush size to 30 and smudge a little bit.

Change the Retouch tool mode to Lighten RGB.
» Settings: change the brush to normal, shape = round, size = 20, hardness = 0, opacity = 33, step = 1 and density = 100.
Lighten the middle of the yellow area a bit.

Move the DYellow layer under Dark1.

Make the Dark3 layer active
Add a new raster layer. Name it BYellow.

Change the foreground color to bright yellow.
» My color: #FEB30A.
Follow the same steps as before, but this time paint over the Petal5 area.

Load the Petal5 selection, Expand it by 1, invert it and hit delete.
Deselect.

Add a new raster layer. Name it Dots.

With the Paint Brush tool make two dots on the middle of the petals (on top of Petal5) using these colors: #3B1105 (for the back dot) and #906E14 (for the front one).
» Settings: custom = perfect circle, size = 22 and opacity = 100.

Pass the Retouch tool (Lighten RGB) slightly over them.

Add some Noise to it (Effects – Noise – Add).
Settings: noise = 15%, uniform = checked.

Load the Petal5 selection, expand it by 1, invert, hit delete and deselect.

Add a Drop Shadow effect.
» Settings: vertical + horizontal = 0, opacity = 40, blur = 8, color = dark red.
» My color: #522218.

Add a new raster layer. Name it final.

Set the foreground to null and background to light yellow.
» My color: #FEFEBE.

With the Preset Shapes tool create an ellipse about 20 (width) x 50 (height) pixels.
» Settings: ellipse, retain style + create as vector = unchecked, antialias = checked.

Go to Image – Rotate.
» Settings: direction = right, 22 degrees, all layers = unchecked.

Move it to the right edge of Petal3, part of it on top of the petal and part of it on top of the dots.

Add some Noise to it.
» Settings: noise = 15%, uniform = checked.

Apply the same Drop Shadow you used for the dots.

Duplicate this layer and go to Image – Mirror.
Place it next to the previous ellipse, on the left edge of Petal4.

Plants · Aug 01, 2002 ·