PSP with TOC

Making an inch "brush" in Paint Shop Pro

2011-02-07T02:19:00.008Z

Making an "Graduated Inch brush" - a TUTORIAL for Paint Shop Pro.

This tutorial assumes that you know a little of your way around Paint Shop Pro. It was written for Version 9 but if you use later versions you should still be able to follow the instructions.

Please email me if you have any queries.

Colouring Old Photos

2010-08-23T10:03:00.022+01:00

I love colouring old photos to give that "hand coloured" look and I hope these tips are useful to you.
The Photo I used, "Little Orphan Annie" by Elizabeth B Brownell Public Domain is available on Wikimedia Commons -- Image HERE

For the tutorial I have reduced the size of the image, but I encourage you to recolour at the original size of your photo or illustration.

The tutorial was created using PSP 9 but later versions should be similar.

Open your image, copy and close original.
[Don't forget to save often]

Adjust>Hue and Saturation>colorize and reduce saturation to 0%

Promote background layer and resize canvas to give yourself some room :).
New raster layer and fill with white and send to the bottom.

Layer> new mask layer> hide all. Apply a white brush to your mask as outlined in my vignette tutorial [ http://www.judyattoc.com/2009/01/using-mask-to-create-vignette-in-paint.html ]

Now for some colouring.
We'll start with a general recolour by adding a new raster layer blend mode "overlay"
Flood fill with #ca6740 ...oops...a bit strident..Lower opacity of the layer to suit your preference..I've gone down to 50%

Already looking better.Notice how the colour is only taken up by the non white areas.
Now a little colour to the cheeks.
New raster layer called "cheeks", blend mode "overlay" [or "color"].
Using a round paint brush opacity about 50% and hardness 30% zoom in and colour the cheek areas...and again lower opacity of your layer..it is best to be subtle. Erase or undo any overcolouring.until you are happy.
I used color #ca4040

Similarly apply colour to the lips.I used the same colour.
I brightened up the eyes with a bit of yellowy brown in the same way.
Use a new layer for each colour.

The dress I took to be calico coloured.
This time my new layer was blend mode "color" and I carefully coloured the dress area with #446244 and lowered opacity way down until just some colour showing.

Finally some highlights for the hair.
New layer, blend mode "dodge"

Using a brush with color #ffff00 clear yellow, lightly apply to the hair area which you want to highlight.

If you only wish to use your image with a white background , save now as a .jpg.

However, you may want to use over a variety of backgrounds and will want to have your vinigrette saved as a pspimage or .png with a transparent background.
Let's fine tune our mask by flood filling our background [layer 1] with black.

Open the mask layer again

Using the black brush on the mask layer remove any more unwanted areas and add any missing areas by applying white to those, until you are satisfied with your image.

We will save this mask to the alpha channel:-
Whilst the mask layer is selected, layer>load/ save mask> save to alpha channel.

Close your black background layer so it can't be seen.

We now have some of our first fill colouring to remove from around our image.

We will now apply our saved mask to this layer.

Layer>load /save mask> load mask from alpha channel.

Repeat with any of the layers where you may have strayed beyond the image with your paint brush as a "clean up"
You should end up with something like this:

Save as a .pspimage or a .png

I then added a lightly patterned background and a frame.

I have used only a few layers in this example ...with a more complicated image you will have more and you may need to experiment with colours to get just the look that you would like.
I tend to use quite strong colours at low opacity and find that works best for me.

A Couple of Tips:

Do any repairs to your photo before you start :)

If your resultant image looks a bit "muddy" or dark, lighten your original image.

A quick way to do this which I find works well is to duplicate the layer of your photo and change the blend mode of that duplicate layer to "screen" and adjust opacity to suit before merging down.

Have fun ..and DO experiment.
Judy

JUDY AT A TOUCH OF CLASS

Using Multilayered Preset Shapes in PSP Part 1

2010-07-30T15:22:00.031+01:00

USING A PSP LAYERED SHAPE

One of the great things that I really like about Paint Shop Pro is the ability to be able to make, save and use layered PSP vector shapes.
There must be a limit to the number of layers that it will support...but so far I haven't reached that limit :)

In this tutorial I'll show one option using a very simple layered shape that I have made.

In my DOWNLOAD ZIP are several files.
Place the shape "jm_rect_layered_frame_5_7.PspShape" in a folder within your PSP Files for Preset Shapes. [I have a lot of shapes saved so have quite a number of folders in my shapes library]
Place the texture JM_Wood Texture3a.jpg in your texture folder.

Open a new file say 500 X 500 at 72 dpi transparent background raster layer and fill with any colour . ..however size however doesn't really matter for this exercise.

Make a New Vector Layer ..name it "frame".
Select the shape tool

Select the shape "jm_rect_layered_frame_5_7.PspShape" from the drop down list.

[If your shape does not show up, make sure that you have subfolders ticked in your preferences. go to File>Preferences.File locations and tick subfolders enabled box]

Use these tool bar settings with foreground nil and background a simple gradient of your choice linear style.

Click image above to enlarge.

Now hold down the shift key while with your left mouse key held down, you draw out your frame:
[Holding down the shift key will maintain the width/height proportions of your shape which in this case is approx 5/7]

Then go to Objects >align>centre in canvas

You should have something similar to this :

Now for some editing :)
Open your vector layers in the layer palette by clicking on the + sign adjacant to the layer and then on the group layer

Hover your mouse over each of these layers to see what they contain . In later versions of PSP they will be seen more readily...

eg PSP 10

It is now possible to change the properties of these individual layers within the group.

Select frame segment_1 layer within the group and right click on this :
It will open a dialogue box Select Properties:

Leave the line style for the moment and click on the fill to alter.

I have selected one of the metallic gradients that comes with PSP and kept the repeats as 0 and direction angle at 0.

Repeat for Frame seg2 but with gradient angle 90, frame segment 3 angle 180, frame seg 4 angle 270

Now for a bit of fine tuning and texture:

Select the layer named frame background and change the fill to a darkish colour from your gradient and also tick the stroke box and change that fill colour to the same colour and alter the width to about 2 or what just shows around your frame to define it a little.[a matter of taste]

You may like to save your frame at this stage as a vector..[.I tend to remove the background layer at this stage]

Now lets duplicate our vector layer and convert the duplicate layer to a raster layer so we can apply some effects.

Your layers should look like this

I am going to apply some wood texture.

On Vector layer select frame seg-1 Hold down the shift key and select frame seg-3 Go to Selections>selection from Vector object

Now whilst selections are still in place go to your raster frame layer and Effects>texture effects and apply a texture. I have used the following settings:

If you use another woodgrain texture, make sure your grain is running horizontal.

Image>rotate>rotate clockwise [or right] 90 degrees

Repeat texture using frame seg-2 and frame seg-4 layers for your selections.
Selections> select none
Image rotate>counter clockwise 90 degrees.

Delete background layer if you have not already done so and save as a .png file or .psp image

You will see a fine diagonal line in the corner of your frame, which is more obvious in smaller images. It is quite in keeping with a wood textured frame but can be eliminated using a small sized smudge brush.

Of course you can alter the colour/hue etc to suit and apply more textures and finishes!

In the example below I used a striped pattern in the frame segments and finished the frame with a slight bevel.

Have fun!

Judy

Tutorial - Joan's Woods-Co-ordinating tileable patterns

2009-02-18T20:10:00.020Z

Fun tut for those who know their way around Paint Shop Pro. This tutorial requires plug-ins. I am assuming you have those but if not go to our PLUG IN links on left.

Take this simple picture of some woods (many thanks Joan for the great picture) - click on the pic to see full size, right click and save to your desktop.

Using your square selection tool choose a reasonably sized square, copy and paste as a new image.

Resize to around 300x300 px. Windows duplicate twice so that you have three separate squares. This is the basis of our play. Firstly we will make all our tiles then create finished papers.

1) With your first square duplicate the layer, flip and reduce opacity to 50 - this is to tone down the amount of light sky colour - merge all flatten. FM Tile tools, blend emboss at default. Then use Xero, Artifax with the following settings: 255/170/25/0/255
Add new layer and drag to bottom, fill with colour - I used #859fa0 - on top layer change opacity to suit you. Merge all flatten and save as .jpg tile 1.

2) Using your second square, Effects, Distorion Effects, Polar co-ordinates, rectangular to pole.
Use your deform tool to pull your image right of the sides to fill the square. Then use your crop tool around the square and delete from the edges to get rid of any polar left outside. Blur, gaussian blur 12. Add noise gaussian mono 5. Now DSB Flux, centre mirror at default. FM emboss, FM seamless tile at default. Save as .jpg tile 2.

3) Using your third square cut a little square piece out with no sky - effects, image effects, seamless at default. Save as .jpg tile 3.

Having fun? Let's go make our papers

Take your first saved jpg tile, minimize, open new image 600 x 600 (or whatever size you want). On your colour pallete select pattern and settings 0 50, fill. You may add texture or anything else you wish to this plaid. As it is a subtle colour it is very easy to recolour using hue and saturation.

Take your second saved jpg tile, minimize and select it in your pallete again, this time settings are 45 and 10. Open new image as above, flood fill with pattern, add a layer of the same soft green colour as earlier, reduced opacity to about 70 to tone with the plaid. Save this as your second paper.

For the third paper using your saved tile 3 use the tile as a pattern, open new image and fill with pattern, settings 45 and 50. Use FM emboss twice, add a new layer, fill with the soft green colour as earlier and reduce opacity to suit.

There you have three completely different papers from one image, all tone nicely. As we have used a soft colour each paper can be duplicated and coloured as often as you like.

Here are my papers with addition of a deer! You will notice that I coloured a paper also.

Hope you have enjoyed this play.

Obviously the tips we have given here can be applied to any picture.

Please take time to visit our main Touch of Class blogs. Links on the left.

Chris at Touch of Class

PSP KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

2009-01-22T19:24:00.002Z

Very useful information. Saves a heap of time after you memorise those you use most.
Chris

PSP Keyboard Shortcuts

A Freehand Secection tool ("lasso")
B Paintbrush tool
C Hide/Restore Color Palette
D Deform tool
E Erase tool
F Fill Flood tool
G Zoom ('magnifying glass")
H Hide/Restore Histogram
I Draw tool
J Arrow tool
K Scratch Remover tool
L Hide/Restore Layer Palette
M Magic Wand tool
N Clone Brush tool
O Hide/Restore Tool Options palette
P Hide/Restore Tool Palette
Q Vector Object Selection tool
R Crop tool
S Selection tool
T Hide/Restore Toolbar
U Airbrush tool
V Mover tool
W Overview window
X Text tool
Y Dropper tool

A Quick Vignette

2008-09-09T12:34:00.012+01:00

Quick Vignette.

I was in a hurry[what's new] recently and tried a new way of making a vignette....something I find rather useful especially when I am trying to "match up " a couple of portraits which may have really varying backgrounds.
...and anyway I like them !

First scan your photo at at least 300dpi , higher if you think you are going to need to enlarge it much. Many old photos are really quite finely grained and will take quite a bit of enlargement.A nice size for a 12inch X 12 inch album page portrait is 5" X 7" if you want to add a bit extra text to your page.

I usually save my scanned image as a .png file...which is a bit more stable than a .jpg file.

Duplicate your image and work on the duplicate. At this stage it is worth using your clone tool and scratch tool to do any running repairs....and yes save that image too.

Now to create your vignette.

Open your image in PSP.
1. New layer and floodfill with white. Lower the opacity of this layer to about 80% so you can just see the image below.

2. Using your eraser tool set at maximum size and opacity of about 9% carefully erase the face area first with outward sweeps.

3.Return the opacity of the layer to 100% and continue erasing the areas that you wish. I like to concentrate on the face and maybe hands and to get a reasonable outline of the upper body, letting the rest of the image fade into the background....but it will depend on your subject.I usually reduce the size of the brush and work on the eyes and lips to make sure thaey are especially clear.
Your best friend is your undo button :)

4 Merge visible.

Why do I like this method? I like the amount of control it gives me...and the fact that the original photo remains intact on the layer below if I make a hash of it!

At this stage you can recolour to suit your project. eg sepia from black and white. or a slight colouring to match my background.

Another method of blending your image into your background and allow the texture to also come through, is to flood fill a layer below your image with your textured background, then change the blend mode of your portrait to multiply.

My Final image:

HINTS on making BACKGROUNDS in PSP

2008-08-24T07:38:00.005+01:00

Backgrounds are easy and fun. This one is both and has heaps of possibilities.

You will need FUNHOUSE filters which you can download free. You also need SIMPLE tile tools, also free.

I started with a small selection from a large picture of the sky. You can use mine or similar from one of your own pics.

1) Open the image in Paint Shop Pro, edit, copy.

2) Open a new transparent raster image 600 x 600 – I used resolution 72 but if you are making large printable images choose 200.

3) Selections, select all, paste into selection, selections none.

4) Effects, texture effects, weave – gap size 2, width 30, opacity 100, both colours white, no tick in fill gaps

5) Effects, plug ins, Fun House, Tile Mirror, default settings

6) Effects, Reflection Effects, Pattern – image area 0. 0, 90, 0 – Pattern setting – 3, 3, 0, 0, OK

7) Effects, Simple, Quick Tile

All done.

Preview above. The lighter images I added a new layer, filled it with an ivory gradient, and set the layer to Hard Light with opacity at 75.

I then duplicated and colourized two of the images.

My finished backgrounds are 600 x 600 resolution 72. If you would like them you can download a zip file here which also includes a copy of this mini tut.

Chris