A Pretty Easter Egg

This egg is one that you can make your own :)

My example is using a fairly small image about 400 X 600 pixels but the general principal can be followed for other sizes and values scaled up/down to suit.

Download My egg preset shape.HERE..Place this in your Preset Shapes folder.

Select a source image which you would like to use ..It can be a pattern, painting , photograph ..or whatever :)

I chose a pretty floral painting by Australian artist Ellis Rowan.

New Vector Layer and reduce opacity to 40%

Select Preset shape tool and locate your egg shape.

With foreground null and background white hold down the shift key to maintain your shape and draw it out over your background image, placing it as attractively as you can.

With the Object selector [Pick tool] make any fine adjustments.

Selections > Selections from Vector Object

Select your background layer and Selections> promote selection to layer .

Layers> Arrang and bring this layer to the top and remove or obscure background layer.

Keep selected.

Effects > Geometric Effects spherize and choose ellipse.

The strength that you use will depend on your image .

I used 80%

Adjust> Sharpening > Unsharp mask

My settings:

Now for some shaping:

Keep selected.

New raster layer Blend mode multiply

Effects > Cut out

I used a darker colour from my image and these settings.

New raster layer, blend mode dodge

Effects> cutout

I chose a light colour from my image and positive settings:

Now for a highlight:

New raster layer blend mode dodge

Select soft paint brush with opacity 30% and fill #c0c0c0

Apply to top area of your image:

Make any adjustments to the opacity of your cutout and highlight layers and deselect.

I added a little embossing to my image and boosted the saturation before merging my layers.

...and another example [vintage style]:

You can download a .pdf file of this tutorial HERE

Some Further Tips:

Don't be afraid to experiment with the opacity of your cut-out or highlight layers.

Lighter colours may require lower opacity.

Whilst still selected blur these layers if you think it is necessary.

With some images I found that using the softening brush around the outline of the egg in my merged image, gave better perspective

Judy