Creating an Egg Shape in Paint Shop Pro

Although bird eggs do come in slightly different shapes, they do seem to follow a pattern of a slightly pointy end with a somewhat thicker base.

This is how I created a pleasing and regular egg shape.

Open a new image 600 X 600 with a vector background.

View >  grid , guides, and rulers ticked.

Make sure your grid values are 100 horizontal and 100 vertical.

Place Guides in the following positions:

Vertical at 175 and 425

Horizontal at 330

Select your ellipse tool.

Make sure you have selected ellipse not circle in the tool bar.

Foreground null, background color of your choice.

Draw an ellipse  from  x:175 y:100  to x:425 y:500

Select the pick [object selector] tool and zoom in and make any minor adjustments to make sure your ellipse is plum within the grid and vertical guides:

Object> convert to path:

Select the Pen tool - your nodes will become  visible:

Zoom in and Click on each of the lateral nodes and holding down your left mouse button  pull each one straight down to your horizontal guide:

If you wish to have your egg a bit more "pointy", click on the node at the top and adjust the "arms" to make them shorter.

When you are happy with your shape, give your egg shape a name.

Select your egg with the pick tool [or object selector]

Right click and Export>Shape [Or File> Export > Shape]

I usually use the same name as I have given the shape as this makes it far easier to find it again when I want to use it.

If you wish to place it in a particular folder within your PSP shapes click on the little file icon to open the file location box [yes I have a LOT of folders:) ] :

To use your new shape simply select it from your dropdown list of PSP preset shapes:

I used the egg shape with a soft pink brown gradient and added shading and texture:

You can download a zip  with a .pdf version of this tutorial and gradient jm_brown_egg_1 HERE

You might also like to look at this tutorial, using an egg shape.

Please feel free to comment and post any queries.

Tutorial for creating Chinese Fan

Experience level - Intermediate.

I used PSP 2018 but the tutorial can be followed in earlier versions of PSP.

Make sure you are using "Edit Mode"

SAVE OFTEN

Download zipfile of materials HERE

This will open a Google drive link.

Materials:

Preset Shape "jm_Chinese_fan_2.PspShape"

  Timber pattern "jm_light_timber"

Gradient "aqua hues"

Place Preset shape in PSP Files> Preset shapes folder.

Place timber texture in your PSP Files> patterns Folder

Place gradient in your gradients folder.

 Open image 1000 X 1000 pixels of any resolution that you wish, background, white.

Select Your preset shapes tool and choose the preset shape jm_Chinese_fan_2.PspShape from the shapes list. Make sure "retain style" is checked.

Hold down the shift key and draw out your shape. [This will maintain the proportions of your shape]

A new vector layer will automatically be created.

 Object align>centre in canvas:

Open your vector layers by clicking on tiny arrows indicated [+ sign in early versions of PSP]

Scroll down and select "group 3"

In the Selections menu select "Selection from Vector object"

 New Raster Layer.

And choosing your flood fill tool and material gradient "aqua hues", fill your selection.

Then close off the visibility of that layer.

Return to Vector Group 3, select the layer and with magic wand selection tool and these settings, select the lighter of the grey areas [Note that “Continuous” is NOT checked]:

Keep selection and return to Raster 1 layer and return visibility.

Adjust Brightness and Contrast:

Selection none.

The Struts of the fan [for want of a better name J]

 Return to your vector layer and select group labelled "back struts".

Selections> Selection from Vector layer and then layer > New Raster Layer label "fan struts back".

Use your fill tool to fill selection with your timber pattern.

Deselect.

Return to your vector group of back struts, open and select the bottom most strut in the layer.

Section from Vector object.

Return to raster layer with timber flood filled back struts and apply bevel.

 Effects>3D effects> inner bevel with these settings:

Rounded bevel, width 4 smoothness 0 depth 3 Ambience 100 Shininess 0 Color white angle 314 intensity 30 elevation 25.

To save  a LOT of angst and time,  now saved a quick script.

Make sure your History palette is visible [ F3] and holding down the shift key select the last three actions and hit the save button:

Return to your Vector layer and select the next strut in the group [2nd bottom]

Hit the "run" button of your quick script:

Continue selecting each strut in turn and use your quick script until you come to last strut in "pile":

Deselect.

By applying the bevel in this manner rather than to the whole layer as one effect, you can get a sense of the different layers of the struts.

As you can see, the strut on the far right hand side should sit on top of the fan material.

It too will need to be filled and bevelled.

Return to Vector layer and select the sublayer "top strut"

Selection from Vector layer, new raster layer and fill timber pattern as before and apply same bevel:

Select None. Bring layer to the top and rename "top strut".

Return to vector layer and select sublayer "pin", create selection from vector layer, new raster layer, fill and apply bevel.

Move layer to top.

Deselect.

Close visibility of background and vector layer and merge raster layers.[merge visible]

You are left with 3 layers.[two not visible]

Crop and save image as .pspimage or transparent.png image and decorate as you wish.

My decoration was applied as an "overlay" layer to maintain the shadowing effect.

Please feel free to use your own materials and experiment with different bevel settings etc.

Comments welcome!

Judy

In the image below I have used different materials and lowered the opacity of the @material@ layer of the fan before decorating and  merging.