Washstand Tutorial




The terms of use are here.

This tutorial was written using PSP 7, but should work in PSP 6, too. For this tutorial you will need PSP (duh) and Washstand Zip which has the selections, legs, drawer pulls, and wood fill. You may also want an ornamental dingfont--this tutorial uses the font Fleurons

Open a new file 350 wide and 450 pixels long. This layer will be your background layer after you've finished making the washstand, so make a new layer, and name it Backsplash.

Go to Selections/Load from Disk and click on 01backsplash.sel. Flood-fill the selection with the wood fill, or any other wood or colour you like.

(If you use a different wood fill or colour, you might want to open the legs.psp file to experiment with matching your wood fill, using colourize or Effects/Enhance Photo, or flood-filling and losing the detail.)

Make a new layer, Marble Top, and select 02marbletop.sel. Fill this with the marble pattern above, or any pattern you'd like better.

Now, another new layer, Marble Front, select 03marblefront.sel, and fill with your marble pattern. Now, so you can see the difference between the top and the front, add a drop shadow with the following values:

Vertical (minus)-1
Horizontal 0
Opacity 24
Blur 1

Time for another layer, Right Backsplash, and select 04rightbacksplash.sel, and fill it with your wood pattern.

The next layer is Left Backsplash, so select 05leftbacksplash.sel, and fill it with your pattern.

The next layer is Wood Front, so select 06woodfront.sel, and fill it with your pattern. If you wish, you can add a drop shadow (approximately V3, H0, opacity 76, blur 8.5). I didn't do this, because then adding a drop shadow at the end became too complicated.

Now it is time to add the drawers--it is important to put the drawers on separate layers, so you can place them properly.

Make a new layer, Left Drawer and get the selection 07leftdrawer.sel, fill it with the wood pattern, and add a drop shadow:

Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow with the following values:

H&V 1
Opacity 58
Blur 3
Colour black

Do NOT deselect, but add the drop shadow again, changing the Horizontal and Vertical to -1. Do NOT deselect, yet.

(If you want the drawers to stand out more, you could make the opacity higher. If you are using a light-coloured wood, then you might want to change the colour from black to a light gray.)

Copy the drawer by pressing CTRL-C, make a new layer, Right Drawer, and paste on the new layer by pressing CTRL-E. Now use the Mover Tool to place this drawer on the right side.

Now make another layer, Middle Drawer, and select the file, 08middledrawer.sel, fill with your wood pattern, and add the same drop shadow as on the other drawers. Now is the time you may want to use the Mover tool to arrange the drawers.

THE LEGS
Open the *.psp file, washstandlegsm.psp, and copy it by pressing CTRL-A/CTRL-C. Now go back to your washstand graphic. Click on Layer 1 on your Layer pallette, and make a new layer, front leg. Now press CTRL-E and move the leg in place.

Make another new layer for each leg, and paste and move the legs in position.

Almost done!!!

BACKSPLASH DECORATION
Make a new layer on top and name it Backsplash Decoration, and use any decorative ding font you like. Click on the Text Tool , then click on your Backsplash Decoration, and choose any colour you like, or choose white if you are going to use something like a Bladepro preset. I used the Fleurons font, Capital E, size 36.

(If you don't have Blade Pro, but want a gold effect, you can use the PSP gold preset: Effects/Texture Effects/Sculpture and chose the preset Gold.)

DRAWER PULLS
Open the file drawerpulls.psp, CTRL-A/CTRL-C, go back to the washstand graphic, make a new layer, Drawer Pulls, and paste the pulls--CTRL-E--on the drawers. You could add a drop shadow (I didn't).

If your drawer pulls and backsplash decorations are all gold, but one is darker than the other, you can darken or lighten the colour by using:

Colours/Adjust/Brightness/Contrast

(I darkened the drawer pulls by applying the values Brightness--(minus)-30, Contrast--0, twice.)

Now you can click on the layers pallette, hide Layer 1 (click on the glasses), left click on one of the other layers and Merge Visible. You can now add a drop shadow to the entire washstand. We're going to do it a little differently--you'll see why later. Click in any blank space on the layer, go to Selections/Invert and then go to Selections/Modify/Contract 2 pixels. Add a new layer, Washstand Shadow, and then go to Effects/3D Effects/Drop shadow with the following settings:

Vertical 7
Horizontal 15
Opacity 52
Blue 8.5

Click on the Deformation Tool and move the shadow just above the bottom placement of the legs. (You can check with the header image.) The reason for this is that if you make the shadow on the legs layer, the shadow will come below the legs, and when you make your background, the washstand will look as though its floating! Depending on your background, you may want to lower or raise the opacity of the shadow layer by moving the slider on the layer pallette.

Wow!! You're all done!

FEEL LIKE ADDING THE MIRROR??

This is quite easy. Make a new layer, and name it Mirror Glass (we will go back to this layer later). Now add another layer, and name it Mirror Frame. Use your Selection Tool , set to oval, rounded rectangle, or any shape you want, and make it a pleasing size over the washstand. Now flood fill this shape with your wood pattern or colour. Then go to:

Selections/Modify/Contract -- about 10 pixels.

Using your Magic Wand and holding down the Shift key, click on the blank space outside the frame and go to Selections/Invert. Now add an inner bevel - Effects/3D Effects/Inner Bevel, with the following values:



Using your Magic Wand, select the inside of the mirror frame, and then open the layer Mirror Glass. Click on

Selections/Modify/Expand and expand 1 pixel.

Now go to the Layer pallette, gradients, and choose the gray metallic gradient with the following settings:



and flood fill your selection.

You can leave the mirror as it is, or add a decoration by making a new layer, Mirror Decoration, using the same techniques you used for the Backsplash Decoration, or adding a flower or bow or whatever. (I used the letter m of Fleurons, and erased the bottom part.)

If you want to add a drop shadow, go to the layers pallette and hide all the layers (clicking on the glasses) except Mirror Frame, Mirror Glass, and Mirror Decoration, left click on one of these layers and Merge Visible. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow--I used H 7, V 7, Opacity 43, Blur 8.5.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial.

NOTE: If you would like to make the pitcher and bowl, you can go to the tutorial:
          Pitcher & Bowl written by Joan Braz.



If you have any questions or comments, please send an email.