Painting My Way

©Doodles by LadyFox  08/15/06

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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 here  
 My Photo - mountains.jpg
Foreground-Background gradient - gradient.zip
      I discovered that I did not have this gradient in my PSP9 folder so I am
      including it here incase you need it
Basic knowledge of vectors and layers
Eye Candy 4000 30 day trial 
      OR      
      Eye Candy 3.1 Free 
      I have included settings for both
      Eye Candy 3.1 instructions will be blue

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

1.

Lets Begin

Open mountains.jpg and use it as a guide for your painting
New Image  500x370
File/Save As: mountains.pspimage

2.

 The Sky

Foreground Color: #cfc1c5
Background Color: #f4eaea
Background Style: Gradient
Gradient: Foreground-background
Angle: 0
Repeats: 1
Invert: NOT Checked
Style: Linear
OK

New Raster Layer
Flood Fill with the gradient

Warp Brush
I used this great tutorial to make the clouds

Here are my settings

 

I had problems with PSP9 freezing up while using the warp brush, so be sure to save often

Place the mouse in the middle of the page, hold down the Left Mouse Button and move the brush in circles moving towards the top of the page. You can move back and forth across the page also.

Go back to the middle to push more of the light color towards the top

Note: I stopped often and saved.
Note #2: you will have to warp over the same areas to see much happening

Adjust/ Sharpness/ Sharpen
Warp some more

I did this twice

Selection Tool
Selection Type: Rectangle
Mode: Replace
Feather: 0
Anti-alias: NOT Checked

Select the part you want for the sky

Selections/ Invert [Ctrl+Shift+I]
Tap the Del Key

Selections/ Select None [Ctrl+D]

Move Tool [M]
Move the image to the top of the window

3.

 The Mountain

New Vector Layer: mountain

Foreground Style: Null
Background Color: #61687b

Rectangle Tool [G]
{0x175 to 500x267}
Draw a rectangle for the mountain

Objects/ Convert to Path

Pen Tool [V]
Mode: Edit

Add and adjust nodes to shape the mountain

Layers/ Convert to Raster Layer

New Raster Layer: grass

Background Color: #404021

Layers/ Arrange/ Send to Bottom

Active Layer: mountain

Warp Brush

Warp the edges of the mountain

4.

 Shading the Mountain

New Raster Layer: shading

Foreground Color: #595a6c
Background color: #82767a

Airbrush Tool
Brush Tip: +Round 10
Size: 10
Hardness: 25
Step: 25
Density:25
Thickness: 100
Rotation: 0
Opacity: 100
Blend Mode: Normal
Rate: 1

Scribble on come of each color
Making sure to go over the edges

Adjust/ Add and Remove Noise/ Add Noise
Gaussian
Noise: 30%
Monochrome: Checked
OK

Effects/ Plugins/ Eye Candy 4000/ Jiggle
Movement Type: Brownian Motion
Bubble size: 3.00
Warp Amount: 36.88
Twist: 99
Seamless Tile: NOT Checked
Random Seed: 1
OK

Effects/ Plugins/ Eye Candy 3/ Jiggle
Bubble size: 5
Warp Amount: 39
Twist: 90
Movement Type: Brownian Motion
OK

Active Layer: mountain

Magic Wand Tool
Mode: Replace
Match Mode: RGB Value
Tolerance: 25
Contiguous: Checked
Feather: 0
Anti-alias: NOT Checked

Click on the mountain
Selections/ Invert [Ctrl+Shift+I]

Active Layer: shading
Tap the Del Key

New Raster Layer: shading 2

Foreground Color: #454651

Airbrush Tool
Change Size to: 20
Opacity to: 75

Add some more shading

Adjust/ Add and Remove Noise/ Add Noise

Effects/ Plugins/ Eye Candy 4000/ Jiggle

Active Layer: mountain

Magic Wand Tool

Click on the mountain
Selections/ Invert [Ctrl+Shift+I]

Active Layer: shading 2
Tap the Del Key

5.

 More Clouds

Active Layer: sky
New Raster Layer: sky 2

Foreground Color: #cdc7d5
Background Color: #f7f3f4

Airbrush Tool

Spray on come clouds

Warp Brush
Warp the clouds as before

Adjust/ Blur/ Gaussian Blur
Radius: 2.00

Active Layer: shading 2
New Raster Layer clouds

Airbrush Tool
Change Hardness to: 50
Change Density to: 50
Change Opacity to: 100

Spray on come clouds

Warp Brush
Warp the clouds as before

Adjust/ Blur/ Gaussian Blur
Radius: 2.00

Active Layer: shading 2

Layers/ Merge/ Merge Down

Adjust/ Blur/ Gaussian Blur
Radius: 2.00

6.

 Adding Grass

New Raster Layer: grass 2
Foreground Color: #404021

Paint Brush [B]
Brush Tip: +Round 50
Size: 50
Hardness: 75
Step: 10
Density: 100
Thickness: 100
Rotation: 0
Opacity: 100
Blend Mode: Normal
Continuous: Not checked
Wet look paint: NOT Checked

Paint in hills to cover the bottom edge of the mountain
 

Make sure to paint from edge to edge so later when you use the Magic Wand only the part above the line will be selected

New Raster Layer: grass 3

Foreground Color: #574f3a
Background Color: #4f4a20

Paint Brush [B]
Brush Tip: +Square 05
Size: 32
Hardness: 25
Step: 1
Density: 25
Thickness:
Rotation: 90
Opacity: 100
Blend Mode: Normal
Continuous: Not checked
Wet look paint: NOT Checked

View/ Palettes/ Brush Variance [F11]

Click the Reset Arrow to restore the default settings
Under Color blend: set the Jitter to 100%
This causes the brush to paint with both the foreground and background colors
Paint some lines for the grass

Effects/ Plugins/ Eye Candy 4000/ Jiggle
Movement Type: Brownian Motion
Bubble size: 3.00
Warp Amount: 307.69
Twist: 17
Seamless Tile: NOT Checked
Random Seed: 1
OK

Effects/ Plugins/ Eye Candy 3/ Jiggle
Bubble size: 5
Warp Amount: 622
Twist: 17
Movement Type: Brownian Motion
OK

Now we need to fix the this
Layer Palette
Double click on grass 3

In the window that opens up, check the Lock Transparency box
OK

Flood Fill Tool
Flood with the background color

Adjust/ Add and Remove Noise/ Add Noise
Gaussian
Noise: 30%
Monochrome: Checked
OK

Layer Palette
Double click on grass 3

Remove the check in the Lock Transparency box
OK

Active Layer: grass 2
Magic Wand Tool

Selections/ Modify/ Expand
Number of pixels: 3
OK

Click in the open area above the green hills

Active layer: grass 3
Tap the Del Key

7.

 Details

New Raster Layer: details

Foreground Color: #5a5035

Airbrush Tool
Brush Tip: +Round 10
Size: 10
Hardness: 25
Step: 25
Density:50
Thickness: 100
Rotation: 0
Opacity: 100
Blend Mode: Normal
Rate: 1

Brush Variance
Color blend: 100

Draw on some detail

Adjust/ Add and Remove Noise/ Add Noise
Gaussian
Noise: 15%
Monochrome: Checked
OK

New Raster Layer: scrubs

Foreground Color: #32311f
Background Color: #161912

Airbrush Tool
Brush Tip: +Round 25
Size: 25
Hardness: 25
Step: 25
Density:50
Thickness: 100
Rotation: 0
Opacity: 100
Blend Mode: Normal
Rate: 1

Scribble on some scrubs

Adjust/ Softness/ Soften

8.

 Plants

New Raster Layer: plants

Foreground Color: #5c4b30

Paint Brush [B]
Brush Tip: +Round 5
Size: 3
Hardness: 25
Step: 1
Density: 100
Thickness: 100
Rotation: 0
Opacity: 100
Blend Mode: Normal
Continuous: Not checked
Wet look paint: NOT Checked

Paint a few yucca stalks

Layer Palette
Double Click on plants
Change Opacity to: 68

New Raster Layer: plants 2

Foreground Color: #857860

Paint Brush [B]
Brush Tip: +Round 25
Size: 15
Hardness: 0
Step: 35
Density: 5
Thickness: 100
Rotation: 0
Opacity: 100
Blend Mode: Overlay
Continuous: Not checked
Wet look paint: NOT Checked

Add some blooms to your yuccas

Layer Palette
Double Click on plants 2
Change Opacity to: 82

New Raster Layer: plants 3

Foreground Color: #1d210a
Background Color: #394021

Airbrush Tool
Brush Tip: +Round 25
Size: 25
Hardness: 25
Step: 25
Density: 25
Thickness: 100
Rotation: 0
Opacity: 100
Blend Mode: Normal
Rate: 1

Brush Variance
Color blend: 100

Scribble some scrubs at the bottom of the yucca stalks

Adjust/ Blur/ Motion Blur
Angle: 0.00
Strength: 12
Ok

Adjust/ Sharpness/ Sharpen
OK
Repeat 4 times

9.

 Flowers

New Raster Layer: plants 4

Foreground Color: #805e0c
Background Color: #855a07

Airbrush Tool
Brush Tip: +Round 25
Size: 25
Hardness: 0
Step: 25
Density: 25
Thickness: 100
Rotation: 0
Opacity: 50
Blend Mode: Normal
Rate: 1

Brush Variance
Color blend: 100

Dab on some color here and there

Note: the flowers in the desert are normally quite small and you have to look closely to see them.

Layers/ Arrange/ Move Down

10.

 Finish Up

Add a signature and a frame and you are done
The frame I used is from my Frame Tutorial

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial