Pond Lily PSP Tutorial

This tutorial was done with PSP 9. It can be done with PSP 8, but not with earlier versions, since it has more alpha selections than they can handle.

Most of the directions are not that explicit, since most of the shading is done with the Lighten/Darken Tool. This tutorial is suitable for fairly experienced users. It also is very long, so it may take a few sessions to complete.

You will need the pondlily selection file. Optional--the Flood plugin.

The terms of use are here

If you aren't familiar with using the Colour Pallette for patterns, there is a short explanation here

There is a short tutorial for the Materials Pallette in PSP 8 here.

How to Get The Alpha Selections

Selections - Load/Save Selections - Load Selection from Alpha Channel
Click on the selection you want and then on Load

1. To help keep track of things, there's a template layer with numbers for the petals. Click on the very top layer, the Overlay layer, get the Overlay selection, and Flood-fill with black or red. This will help when you have done all the layers and may want to go back and change something in some of the petals.

(If you right-click on the finished image above and download, you can keep it open to use as a reference for the shading.}

2. Click on the Lighten/Darken Brush and use these settings:

Note the Swap Button box in the image above. Ordinarily, to lighten, you left-click on your mouse to lighten and right-click to darken. However, for many it is very hard to drag with the right-click down. If you click in the Swap Button box, you can darken using the left-click.

3. Next, click on the Background layer and flood-fill with a dark colour, so that you can see what you're doing. If you're going to set your lily in water, make it whatever water colour you want. (I used #224122.)

If you're using the Flood plugin, here are my settings:

4. Now, click on Layer 1 and get the alpha selection, 1. (Remember to keep all your selections selected until you're finished with a petal.) Flood-fill with #F4f5F4 (or use White for a brighter lily).

(You might want to set your whitish colour as the Background colour and right-click to Flood-fill. Then you can change the Foreground colour to the yellows easily.)



Set the Foreground colour to #F9F7aa, click on the Air Brush Tool and, using these settings:

Draw a light yellow stripe down the middle of the petal, as shown above.

Adjust - Add/Remove Noise - Add Noise
25% - Uniform
Adjust - Blur - Motion Blur
Angle 38, Strength 10
Adjust - Brightness and Contrast - Brightness/Contrast
Brightness minus 20, Contrast 0.

Layers - Duplicate
Image - Mirror
Use the Mover Tool to place the petal to the right. (You may want to move it again, later.)

5. Layer 3 - get the Selection 3 and flood-fill with #f4f5f4. Click on the Lighten/Darken Brush and darken the bottom half of the petal.

6. Layer 4 - Flood-fill and darken in the same way.

7. Layer 5 - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and shade by darkening.

8. Layer 6 - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and shade by darkening.

9. Layer 7 - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4.

10. Layer 8 - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and add a little yellow shading along the top side with colour No. #f9f7aa, and the Airbrush Tool.

11. Layer 9 - Flood-fill with #f9f7aa.

12. Layer 10 - Flood-fill with #f9f7aa.

13. Layer 11 - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and shade the right side (so you can see the difference between it and the petal under it) by darkening.

14. Layer 12 - Flood-fill with #f9f7aa and, using the Air Brush Tool, lightly spray with #f5ab0b.

15. Layer 13 - Flood-fill with #f9f7aa, and darken along the right side.

16. Layer 14 - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and darken along the left-hand side.

17. Layer 15 - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and darken near the top.

18. Layer 15a - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and darken the entire selection.

19. Layer 16 - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and darken near the top.

20. Layer16a - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and darken the entire selection.

21. Layer 17 - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and darken the part that is close to the centre of the lily.

22. Layer 17a - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and darken the entire selection.

23. Layer 18 - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and airbrush colour No. #e4e57c along the right-hand side.

24. Layer 19 - Flood-fill with #f9f7aa.

25. Layer 20 - Flood-fill with #F4F5F4 and darken along the right side.

26. Layer 21 - Flood-fill with #e4e57c.

27. Orange Centre - We'll come back to this later. 28. Layer 22 - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and darken along the edges and the centre. If you wish, you could soften the centre line with the Soften Brush .

29. Layer 23 - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and darken along the left-hand edge.

29. Layer 24 - Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and just darken a bit near the sides.

30. Layer 24a - Flood-fill with Flood-fill with #f4f5f4 and darken the whole selection. Then you can spray a little bit of one of the yellow colours in the centre.

31. Front Colour - Set the Foreground to #F4AE14 and use the Air Brush to brush some colour in the front of the lily:

Lower the Opacity of the layer until you like the effect, using the slider in the Layer Palette.

32. Back to the Centre Orange layer--Get Selection 21 again and then spray the same way you just did for the Front Colour.

Optional Reflection

If you want a reflection, close the Water layer and the Overlay layers, and Merge all the rest of the layers.

Duplicate the Merged Layer
Image - Flip
Image - Mirror
Move this layer below the original Merged layer
Use the Mover Tool to bring down the flipped lily
Lower the Opacity of the Layer to around 25
Re-open the Water layer.

If you have any questions or comments, our email address is here

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