This tutorial was written July 9, 2003 using Paint Shop Pro 8. It is assumed that you have been working with PSP 7 or another version of PSP and have some familiarity with the program.

If you do not already own Paint Shop Pro 8, you may purchase it or download a trial version of PSP 8 HERE.

The purpose of this tutorial is to familiarize you with several of the PSP 8 tools and their use, particularly the Mesh Warp tool. You will create a marguerite daisy which will utilize the tools listed below.

The PSP8 tools that you'll be using are:

Preset Shapes:
Pen:
Object Selection:
Paint Brush:
Smudge:
Push:
Soften:
Lighten/Darken:
Mesh Warp:
Deform:

To begin, open a 500x500 transparent canvas. Do a Save As and name your image 'Daisy' or whatever you like.

Get your Preset Shape tool and select Flower 4. Use the following settings: Anti-alias and Create as vector = checked; Line Style = #1 Solid; Width 1; Miter limit = 10. Your Preset Shape Toolbar should look like the following:

Set your Background color to #FDFAED and your Foreground to Null. With your Preset Shape tool draw out a nice large flower. We'll resize it later and also work on the color later. The main thing is to not use white as the color as that would be too stark. This is what you should now have:

Click on your Pen Tool - we're going to do some node editing. Make sure that Simple Mode is checked and the first Mode tool, the Arrow, is highlighted. Pick a node at the tip of any petal and click on it. You'll get an arrow pointing counter clockwise. Right click on that node and then select Node Edit>Cusp.

Next hold your cursor over the Arrow tip and pull it down and toward the petal. Then do the same with the other end. You want to have more of a point at the end of the petal:

Adjust the nodes the same way for each of the flower's petal tips. Next click on each of the nodes in the center and move them in a bit. This doesn't have to be perfect as there will eventually be a color center added later.

Click on your Object Selection Tool and when you see the bounding box around the flower, right click and select 'copy'.

Next, go to your Layer Palette and add another Vector Layer. Then add another Vector Layer above that one so you have three Vector Layers. Notice that the boxes should look like the ones in your Vector 1 layer.

Make sure that Vector 2 layer is highlighted. Then go back to your canvas and right click>Paste as New vector selection. Position it over the first flower. Next, click on Vector 3 layer to activate it and 'Paste as New vector selection' again. This is what your Layer Palette should look like:

Now we need to do something about moving each of those two new vector flowers so it will begin to look more like a flower. Since the Vector 3 layer is highlighted, let's start with that one. If you do not see the bounding box, make sure you have your Object Selection tool active and click on the flower. Hold your cursor near the handle in the middle around the solid square until you see the two arrows. Then left click and start rotating your flower so that the petals will fill in some of the space between the Vector 1 petals.

Next, click on the Vector 2 layer to make it the active layer. Repeat the steps you followed with Vector 3 layer and rotate this layer so that more of the space between the petals is filled with the Vector 2 petals. Again, this does not have to be exact:

That's all the vector work and node editing for this flower! Now we're going to work on making the petals look more realistic. Let's start with the Vector 1 layer first. Hide the other two vector layers by clicking on the eye in your layer palette. Highlight Vector 1 Layer and then right click>Convert to Raster Layer. Now go to Selections>Select All then Selections>Float.

Get your Lighten/Darken tool and use the following settings: Select the first brush tip, + Default; Shape = round; Size = 8; and use the rest of the Default settings. The key to using the new Lighten/Darken tool is that you use the left mouse to Lighten and the right mouse to Darken. OK, start by painting some strokes with the Lighten tool but don't lighten all of the petal areas. Again, don't worry too much about the center as it will be covered later. Your flower may look something like this:

Now it's time to do a little blending. Get your Smudge tool and use the following settings: brush tip = +Default; Shape = round; Size = 40; Hardness = 40; Step = 25; Density = 68; Thickness = 100; Rotation = 0; Opacity = 35; Sample merged = unchecked:

Move your Smudge tool up and down each petal to blend the lighter color in with the base color. Again, this is only to blend the two shades but not to make the petal a 'solid' lighter color.

Now we need to make a darker, but pale line down the center of each petal. Get your Lighten/Darken tool again and change the Size to 4. Then right click and draw a line down the middle of each petal. Again, don't try to make it perfectly straight. Once you've done that, get the Smudge tool again and go over the line to make it less pronounced. This time use a series of short strokes from the outer edge toward the line. This will smudge some of your lighter color on the line which will make it look more like the top part of the petal. When you are satisfied with that flower layer, go to Selections>Select none.

We're going to follow the same steps on each of the other two vector layers. You may wonder why we don't just duplicate the layer we've just completed. The reason is that we want each layer of petals to be different based on how we apply the Lighten/Darken tools and also how we smudge them. This will make for a more realistic looking flower. Your flower will look something like this after you've completed each of the layers:

OK, now it's time for some fun! Hide the top two flower layers. Then get your Mesh Warp tool. (It's in the Deform tool fly-out.)

Use the following settings: Mesh horizontal = 9; Mesh vertical = 9; Show grid = checked; Edge mode = Background; Draft quality = High; Final apply = checked.

To give the points some curve put your cursor over on of the square nodes, left click and drag a bit to the left or right. You may then want to adjust some of the other nodes near the tip of the flower. Continue making your Mesh Warp adjustments to each of the petals. When you are done, click on the check mark on the left in the Mesh Warp toolbar.

Now hide this layer and make the second flower layer active. Follow the same Mesh Warp steps on this flower, then do the same with the third layer of the flower. When you unhide all the layers some petal tips may overlap. That is okay as it's natural looking. Your flower may now look something like the one below. Just remember, at this point your flower is big enough to be a giant chrysanthemum and we will be reducing it later for your daisy!

Let's add a slight drop shadow on the top and second layers. Start with the top layer and use the following settings: Vertical and Horizontal = 0; Opacity = 45; Blur = 3; Foreground color = #C0C0C0; Shadow on new layer = unchecked.

Now that we have all the petal work done it's time to reduce our flower. First open your Layer Palette and make sure that the bottom layer is hidden. Then highlight one of the flower layers and go to Layers>Merge all visible. Next, get your Deform Tool and you will see the bounding box around your flower. We're going to use the Deform Tool to resize this in order to preserve the details of the base. Right click on the bottom left node and drag the box inward until you have a smaller size - more like a real daisy. Once you have the size you want, hold your cursor over the center of the flower until you see the 'x' appear. Then left click and reposition the box to the center of your canvas. If you have turned on your Rulers (View>Rulers) you will line this up at the 250 mark for both the vertical and horizontal positions. Once it's centered, double click to complete the deformation and then click on another tool to remove the bounding box.

The next step is to add the center to the flower. Add a Raster Layer. Change your Foreground color to a nice deep golden color. I've used #D29F06. Get your Paint Brush, click on the Presets arrow on the left of your Brush Toolbar and click on the Default arrow as shown below. Then use the following settings, or whatever settings that will work best for you: Shape = round; Size = 80; Hardness = 70; Step = 25; Density = 100; Rotation = 0; Opacity = 100; Blend Mode = Normal.

Center your Paint Brush over the middle of the flower and click once. Next, go to Adjust>Add/Remove Noise>Add Noise with these settings: Gaussian = checked; Noise = 15; Monochrome = checked.

Change your Foreground color to a medium brown, such as #805A19. Add a Raster Layer. Change your Paint Brush size to 25 and the Hardness to 50. Center your brush in the middle of your flower and click once, then apply the Noise with the same settings as before.

Add a Raster Layer. Change your Brush size to 4 and put some nice little dots around your daisy center. Then apply the Noise once again but change the Noise to 25.

Hide all the layers except your three flower center layers. Then merge visible the gold and brown flower center layers. Get your Push Tool and use the following settings: +Round05; Shape = circle; Size = 2; Hardness = 100; Step = 25; Density = 100; Thickness = 100; Rotation = 0; Opacity = 39.

Go to View>Zoom and increase the size one or two times. Then, using your Push tool, start making little strokes from the edge of the flower center out. Go all around the outer edges. Then push some toward the little 'seeds' from both sides of the row of seeds. Finally, push some paint toward the brown center. To see how it looks unhide the flower layer. If you need to make any adjustments this will show you where. You will be able to see if you need to add more or push some back toward the edge. This is how my daisy now looks:

Now all you need to do is Merge>Merge all Visible. Then go to Edit>Copy, Edit>Paste as New Image. Then File>Export as Picture Tube. You can use your daisy in different sizes and can add stems and leaves to create your graphic. Here's a graphic I've done where I've added some stems and leaves. I find it easiest to put each element on a separate layer. Each stem is on a raster layer right below its flower. I also placed my leaves on separate raster layers.

I hope you've enjoyed learning about some of the newer features of PSP 8. If you have any questions, please contact me.