Painting Cactus

©Doodles by LadyFox 10/08/07

This tutorial and all images [except the PSP logos] belong to ©Doodles by LadyFox. You may make a copy of this tutorial or print it out for your own personal use ONLY. You are free to LINK to my tutorials if you would like to share them. What you create from my tutorials belongs to you to do with as you wish.

Feel free to email me LadyFox

This tutorial was done with PSP9
but could be done with version 8 or higher.

All of my tutorials are written following the steps I used to make my graphic.
It is my hope that you will take what I provide
and do your own thing with it.

YOU WILL NEED

	Paint Shop Pro - Download a trial version

	Basic knowledge of vectors and layers

Remember to SaveOften
STEPS - These are the steps I used.

Lets Begin

New Image 400x400
File/Save As: cactus.pspimage

Brick Template

New Layer: bricks 1

Foreground Color: #2a5430

Paint Brush [B]
Shape: Square
Size: 25
Hardness: 100
Step: 25
Density: 100
Thickness: 100
Rotation: 0
Opacity: 100
Blend Mode: Normal

Paint a line across the top for the first row of bricks

We are making adobe bricks. These were handmade and the rows were not exactly straight

Magic Wand Tool
Mode: Replace
Match Mode: RGB Value
Tolerance: 50
Contiguous: Checked
Feather: 0
Anti-alias: NOT Checked

Click on the line
Edit/ Copy [Ctrl+C]
Edit Paste/ Paste As New Selection [Ctrl+E]

Move below the first line, leaving a space for the mortar to show through

Continue placing the lines until the image is filled

Painting The Bricks

Magic Wand
Select one of the lines

New Layer: bricks 2

#a98c7c
#886958

Paint Brush [B]
Shape: Square
Size: 85
Hardness: 90
Step: 105
Density: 100
Thickness: 100
Rotation: 0
Opacity: 100
Blend Mode: Normal

Brush Variance Palette [F11]
Color Blend: 25

Paint over the line

Active layer: bricks 1
Select the next row

Active layer: Bricks 2
Paint this line starting over the edge so the bricks will be staggered

Continue selecting and painting until all the lines are painted

Details

Active Layer: bricks 1
Layers/ Delete

Active Layer: bricks 2

Adjust/ Add/Remove Noise/ Add Noise
Uniform: Ticked
Noise: 10%
Monochrome: Checked
OK

New layer: mortar
Layers/ Arrange/ Move Down

Flood Fill with the Foreground Color

Adjust/ Add/Remove Noise/ Add Noise
Uniform: Ticked
Noise: 10%
Monochrome: Checked
OK

Active Layer: bricks 2

Effects/ 3D Effects/ Drop Shadow
Offsets: 3
Opacity: 35
Blur: 5.00
Color: #43312b
Shadow on new layer: Checked
OK

Repeat the Drop Shadow
Changing Offsets to: -3
Color to: #dcccc4

New Layer: noise

#e7d7cf
#dfcec7

Paint Brush [B]
Shape: Round
Size:43
Hardness: 0
Step: 35
Density: 1
Thickness: 100
Rotation: 0
Opacity: 100
Blend Mode: Overlay

Brush Variance Palette [F11]
Color Blend: 50
Position Jitter: 5

Paint on some noise

Lower the opacity to 64

Cactus

New Layer: cactus

#68795d
#749172

Paint Brush [B]
Shape: Round
Size: 45
Hardness: 90
Step: 200
Density: 90
Thickness: 70
Rotation: 0
Opacity: 100
Blend Mode: Normal

Brush Variance [F11]
Color Blend: 50
Size: 5
Rotation: Direction
Position Jitter: 150

Paint a few cactus pads

Effects/ 3D Effects/ Drop Shadow

Offsets: 0
Opacity: 70
Blur: 5.00
Color: #12160e
Shadow on new layer: NOT Checked
OK

New layer cactus 2
paint some more cactus pads
Apply the Drop Shadow

Keep adding layers and cactus pads until you have a nice plant

Fruit

New Layer: fruit

#752a41
#a2275e

Paint Brush [B]
Shape: Round
Size: 15
Hardness: 100
Step: 200
Density: 90
Thickness: 50
Rotation: 0
Opacity: 100

Brush Variance [F11]
Color Blend: 50
Size: 2
Rotation: Direction
Position Jitter: 0

Paint some fruit

Effects/ 3D Effects/ Drop Shadow

Offsets: 0
Opacity: 35
Blur: 3.00
Color: #000000
Shadow on new layer: NOT Checked
OK

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial