Closed (sort of)

TEOM as you know it has been closed. I will keep it up for reference but it no longer will receive tutorial updates.

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Thanks for the support throughout all these years :)

Paint Shop Pro X

TEOM Lily

This tutorial was originally writen for Paint Shop Pro 9 and hasn’t been converted to Paint Shop Pro X. It should work just fine, though.

Image credits » morgueFile

The lily that you see at the top of my site was made in Adobe Illustrator 10, based on a photo, which means that only vector tools were used on it.
Since Paint Shop Pro is far from having tools such as the ones in Illustrator, a way of doing a similar effect would be using selections (created or not from vector shapes). It sure gives more work, but I couldn’t think of another way as simple as in Illustrator.

There are two ways that you could use to create the selections: either use the Freehand Selection tool or create selections from vector shapes created with the Pen tool. I prefer using the Pen tool because I have more control over the shape and it is easier to edit if needed, so the tutorial will be using the Pen tool method.

Open the photo, press Shift + D to duplicate it and close the original.

Note: I always start this type of work from back to front, specially because what you don’t see doesn’t need to have a perfect shape (although I do tend to crop things when doing this in Illustrator).

To get the proper look, very few colors are used. In fact, darker and brighter areas are achieved using the same base color but with different blend modes. For the petals, for example, only one color is used. Nothing more. Nothing less.

With the Dropper tool select the base color (works best if not too bright) or set your own color.
Set this color as the background/fill color and change the foreground/stroke to null.

Think of the petals as being divided in three parts: back, middle and front. The back consists of the petals that are darker and more distant than the others; the middle is composed by the yellow structures (don’t ask me the name, I only know the term in Portuguese =D); and the front is composed by the closest and brighter petals.

Add a new vector layer, name it back.
Then create a layer group with the same name. Make the back layer active.

With the Pen tool, trace over the back petals.
» Settings: mode = draw point to point – bezier curves, connect segments + create on vector = checked, show nodes = optional, anti-alias = checked.
Zoom in if needed.

Note: there’s no problem if the color you chose seems lighter than the petals, we’ll be working on the shades soon.

Another note: unless I’ve missed a setting, PSP9 will show the fill color while you are creating the shape, which can be quite annoying when tracing. In order to still be able to see the original photo, change the layer opacity to 50% or less and then change it back when finished with all the work inside the group.

Hit the Close selected open contours and Apply buttons when you finish the shape.

Tip: set keyboard shortcuts such as Enter for the Apply button and End for the Close button in order to speed up the process.

This is how my shape looks. Notice how I didn’t care about its edges on the areas that are hidden by the front petals.

Now, select the shape (if not selected) and go to Selections » From Vector Object.
Save the selection to an Alpha Channel, name it back.
Deselect.

Add a new vector layer (still in the back group) and name it dark.
Change the blend mode to Multiply.

With the Pen tool, trace over the darkest areas of the petals.
There’s no problem if you trace beyond the edges, you can remove that with the previously created selection.

When you finish, go to Layers » Convert to Raster.

Load the back selection from the Alpha Channel.
» Settings: invert image = checked.
Hit the delete button and deselect.

Add a new vector layer, name it bright.
Change the blend mode to Screen.

Follow the same steps from the dark areas for the bright areas.

Click on the layer group name.
Add a new vector layer, name it orange.
Create a layer group for the new layer, using the same name.
Hide the back layer group.

Note: we’ll be using a different color now, so it is a good idea to save the other one as a swatch since we’ll be using it again for the front petals.

With the Dropper tool, select a medium orange shade.

The process here is pretty much the same as the one followed for the petals: create a general shape, create a selection, create layers for the dark and bright shades and use the selection if needed to removed exceeding areas.

Note: in order to create a selection from more than one shape, simply select all the shapes with the Object Selection tool (hold the Shift key and click to add the shapes) and then normally create the selection.

Click on the layer group name and add a new vector layer, name it front.
Again, create a layer group for it and follow the same steps that were used for the back petals.

The only difference now is that there are more bright areas than dark, but the process is exactly the same.

Tip: hide the other groups or lower their opacity in order to view the front petals properly.

Set the fill color back to white or any other color you are using – or even use a completely different color for another interesting effect ;)

When finished, make all groups visible again and tweak anywhere you feel it is necessary (i.e. add more dark or bright spots).

Note: if you want to use more shades just work on more layers. The more layers using the Multiply blend mode, the darker the areas.

And this is how my lily looks in the end:

Don’t worry if yours doesn’t look like this. It all depends on the flower and on the eye for shadows and highlights. The fun about this kind of image is that it is very difficult to get the same result twice.

Plants · Aug 20, 2005 ·