Four Poster

Four Poster Beds Tutorial

All you need for this tutorial is PSP and the fourposter.zip file. This is mostly a cut-'n-paste tutorial, since our puppy chewed up my notes, and as we all know, re-constructing something is way harder than making it in the first place!

You'll need to be familiar with layers and using the Flood-fill tool for patterns.

The terms of use are here

Each time a selection is written, it means for you to make a new layer, and get the selection, unless different directions are given:
01whatever.sel - Flood-fill indicates making a new layer, Whatever, and then going to Selections - Load from Disk and clicking on 01whatever.sel.

1. Open a new image, 350 x 350 pixels.

2. Make a new layer, Upper Curtain Left. If you're using the lace, we'll come back to this later.

If you're using the flowered pattern, get 01uppercurtainleft.sel. Then open the patterntemplate.psp file you downloaded. Press CTRL-A, CTRL-C to copy and then open your four poster image, and press SHIFT-CTRL-L, to paste into the selection. Then go to Effects - Sharpen - Sharpen.

3. 02leftfrontpost.sel. Open the bedpost.psp file from the *.zip file you downloaded, press CTRL-A, CTRL-C, to copy it, and press SHIFT-CTRL-L or go to Edit - Paste - Paste into selection.

4. 03rightbackpost.sel. Press SHIFT-CTRL-L to pop the post into place.

5. 04leftbackpost.sel. Press SHIFT-CTRL-L again.

6. If you want to have the flowered drapes, make a layer, Left Drape, and another, Drape Tieback, which we'll come back to later.

7. 05laceside.sel. Get the selection, and then open the laceside.psp image you downloaded in the *.zip file. As with the posts, copy and past the image into the selection. (The lace tube came from Linda's Gallery. You might want to take a look at the other laces.

8. 06lacefront.sel. Get the selection and paste in the lacefront.psp image.

9. 07bedspreadtop.sel. Flood-fill with any colour you like. I used #F5EDCF for the draped bed. (If you're experienced with PSP, you can add a pattern, but you'll have to fiddle with the angle of the pattern.)

7. 08headboard.sel. Flood-fill with the wood pattern given in the *.zip file, with Scale 50, Angle 357.

8. Decoration Layer. Now would be a good time to add a decoration if you wish. You could add initials or a cupid, using a font in white and then using Blade Pro, or any plugin you wish. You can move it later, if you're adding the drapes.

9. 09bedspreadside.sel. Flood-fill with your colour.

10. 10bedspreadpillow.sel. Flood-fill with colour.

11. 11footboard.sel. Flood-fill with the wood pattern.

12. 12footboardtrim.sel. Flood-fill with the wood pattern, and add the following inner bevel:

13. 13rightfrontpost.sel. Open the bedpost.psp pattern again, and copy and paste into the selection.

Optional Drapes: New Layer - Right Drape - 14rightdrape.sel. Flood-fill with the pattern given, or a pattern of your own. Effects - Sharpen - Sharpen.

Set your foreground colour to #371515, (If you're using a different pattern, you will use a different colour--one darker than your pattern.) and turn off the background:

Make a new layer, Pleats, draw in the curves, with a line width of 2, as shown below (Of course, your lines will not be white.) and go to Effects - Blur - Gaussian Blur - 2.0. This is easy if you're good drawing with the mouse [just use the Draw Tool set to Freehand.)], or have a Wacom pad. You don't have to be too fussy, almost any curves will make nice pleats. For the rest of us, Bezier curves will do the trick.

Using the Bezier Tool. Click on the Draw Tool, and choose Bezier Curve, Width 2, Check Antialias, and be sure that Create as Vector, and Closed Path are NOT checked.

To use this handy tool, you simply draw your line, keeping the mouse button down, until you come to the end. Then you click--making the first click near where you started, and click again near where you ended.

After you've drawn in your curves, go to Effects - Blur - Gaussian Blur - 2.0, and you'll have your pleats!

Press CTRL-A, and then click on the drape with the Magic Wand to select the drape. Press CTRL-C to copy, and then open the Left Drape layer you made earlier, press CTRL-E to paste, and move it into place.

Tie-backs. Make a new layer, Tie Backs. With the Tube Tool, use the Rope tube that comes with PSP. Set it to Scale 32, and draw in the Drape Ties.

14. Upper Curtains.

Lace Upper Curtains - Open the upperlacertside.psp image, and use the Mover Tool to put it in place. (You may want to adjust them after the top is on.) Don't forget to sharpen. :-)

Make a new layer, open the upperlacefront.psp file, and put into place. Sharpen.

Go all the way down, and open the Upper Curtain Left layer. Then open the upperlaceleftside.psp image, and cut and paste in place, and sharpen again.

Drape Pattern Curtains. Get 15rightsidecurtain.sel. Then open the patterntemplate.psp file you downloaded, and copy and paste into the selection. Sharpen.

16uppercurtainfront.sel - copy and paste the pattern again and Sharpen.

15. 17top.sel. Flood-fill with the wood pattern, and you're done!!

Congratulations! I hope you enjoy your four-poster.

Uploaded 20 August 2002