One Room School
Little Red School House

This tutorial was written with PSP 7. The only other thing you will need is the schoolhouse.zip file, which has selections and the bell.



The terms of use are here

NOTE: Each step which needs a new layer will use the format with the name of the new layer, and then the selection for that layer. So Whatever layer - whatever.sel, means make a new layer Whatever, and then get the whatever.sel file by going to Selections - Load from disk.

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

1.  Open a new image, 500 x 500 pixels. Name this layer Foundation and get 01foundation.sel. Flood-fill with the Cemented Rock pattern, Scale 45, Angle 0.

2.   Roof Back layer - 02roofback.sel. Flood-fill with light gray, #C0C0C0.

3.   Side layer - 03side.sel. Flood-fill with #EFEDED for a slightly weathered effect, white, or red #C00000. Go to Effects - Texture Effects - Blinds and use these settings:

Width 8, Opacity 24, Colour #808080, Check Horizontal, for white school
Width 8, Opacity 50, Colour Black, Check Vertical, for red school.

Of course, you can change these settings any way you want!

Now, using the Deformation Tool , pressing the CTRL key, move the lower left hand corner up so that the bottom of the side is pretty much parallel to the foundation. The upper corner will move down, too.


You won't have to do this again! :-)

4.  Front layer - 04front.sel. Flood-fill with whatever colour you're using, and apply the same Blinds effect.

5.  Front Roof Back layer - 05frontroofback.sel. Flood-fill with the light gray colour.

6.  Small Front layer - 06smallfront.sel. Flood-fill and apply the Blinds effect. Then go to Effects - 3D Effects - Drop Shadow and use these settings:

V 0, H 3, Opacity 30, Blur 2.5, Colour black

7.  Front Side layer - 07frontside.sel. Flood-fill, apply blinds.

8.  Trim layer - 08trim.sel. Flood-fill with your colour, or a contrasting colour.

9.  Soffits layer - 09soffits.sel. Flood-fill with light gray.

10.  Eaves layer - 10eaves.sel. Flood-fill with your colour. Keep selected. We want to put a Drop Shadow on the left side of the eaves. Holding down the CTRL key, use the Lasso Tool set to point to point, feather 0, to draw around the right side of the eaves, and the selection will made. Here's how:



After you've done one eave, keep the CTRL key down, and do the same with the other eave. Keep the left sides selected, and apply the following Drop Shadow (Effects - 3D Effects - Drop Shadow)

V 7, H 0, Opacity 30, Blur 2.5, Colour black for white school.
Change the Opacity to 60 for the red school.

11.  Door Frame layer - 11doorframe.sel. Flood-fill with the colour you like, and then go to Effects - 3D Effects - Inner Bevel and use the Metallic preset. Using your Magic Wand , click inside the frame. Then to go Selections - Modify - Enlarge 2 pixels. Keep selected and make a new layer - Door.

12.  Door layer - Flood-fill your door. Then go to Selections - Invert and then to Effects - 3D Effects - Drop Shadow and use these settings:

V & H 2, Opacity 30, Blur 2.5, Colour light gray,
Repeat, changing V & H to minus 2.

Keep selected if you want the door to have a planked look. Make a new layer, Planks. Use the Draw Tool ,

Single Line, Width 2, Line Style #1 Solid, Only Antialias checked.

Use the light gray colour, and draw two or three vertical lines. If your lines go past the door, just hit delete. You can lower the opacity, if you wish, by using the slider in the Layer Pallette.

13.  Inside Windows layer - 12insidewindows.sel. Flood-fill with a metallic gradient, or dark gray, or however you want the interior.

14.  Windows layer - 13windows.sel. Flood-fill with the colour of your choice.

15.  Overhang layer - 14overhang.sel. Flood-fill and go to Effects - 3D Effects, Drop Shadow, and use the following settings:

V & H 2, Opacity 30, Blur 2.5, Colour black.

16.  Bell Tower layer - 15belltower.sel. Flood-fill.

17.   Stovepipe layer - 16stovepipe.sel. Flood-fill with black and go to Effects - 3D Effects - Inner Bevel, and use the Metallic preset.

18.   Roofs layer - 17roofs.sel. Flood-fill with Red or Black. You will notice on the left side that the side is sticking above the roof--that won't do! To fix this, click on the Side layer, and use the Eraser Tool to get rid of the part that's sticking up.

Almost finished!

19.   Roof Trim layer - Click on the Roofs layer to make the Roof Trim layer above it, and get 18rooftrim.sel. Flood-fill with the colour of your roof.

20.   Steps layer - 19steps1.sel. Flood-fill with medium gray, #808080. On the same layer, get 20steps2.sel and flood-fill with light gray.

21.   Bell layer - 21bell.sel. Flood-fill with black. If you wish you can go to Effects - 3D Effects - Inner Bevel and apply the Metallic preset again.

22.  Door Handle layer. Use the Selection Tool to draw a small rectangle and flood-fill with black.

The Plaque
Make another layer and using the Selection Tool again, draw another rectangle above the overhang. Flood-fill with black, go to Selections - Modify - Contract 2 pixels. Flood-fill with #EFEDED. Then, using the Text Tool, , write the name of your school in the smallest size you can. If it still doesn't fit, resize by going to Image - Resize - 90 Percentage of Original. Make sure Resize All Layers is not checked, and that Maintain Aspect Ratio of 1:1 is checked.

Just keep resizing by 90% until your lettering fits.

Weathering - Optional
If you want your school house to have more of a weathered look, get wholeimage.sel. Then click on the Airbrush tool

Shape Round, Size 255, Hardness 41, Opacity 100, Step 25, Density 13.

Set your foreground colour to black and click in a few places. Then go to Effects - Blur - Gaussian Blur 3. Lower the Opacity with the slider on the right hand side of the Layer Pallette to about 25.

You're all done! Congratulations! I hope you like your little schoolhouse.