This tutorial was written May 10, 2003 using the Public Beta version of PSP 8. It is assumed that you have been working with PSP 7 or another version of PSP and have some familiarity with the program.

There are many changes and enhancements in PSP 8. The purpose of this tutorial is to familiarize you with the Materials Palette, including textures.

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

The PSP8 tools that you'll be using are:

Paint Brush:
Picture Tube:
Flood Fill:

OK, let's get started....

Open a transparent canvas, size 400 x 400. Do a Save As and name your image 'materials_background', or something similar. Remember to save often as you do your work.

Add a Raster Layer named 'sky'

Add another Raster Layer named 'grass'.

Set your Background color to Null. Click on the solid circle Style button in the Foreground Material box in the Materials Palette, then click on the Material Box. When the pop-up opens, select a green color for the grass. Finally, place a check in the Texture box, click on the down arrow where shown and select one of the grass textures. I've selected Grass 1 for this image.

Get your Paint Brush tool and use whatever brush settings you want for the image. I've used the following: +Default brush; Shape round; Size=70; Hardness=50; Step=25; Density=100; Thickness=100; Rotation=0

Check the Layer Palette to see that the grass layer is active. (Just look in the blue bar and it will show the name.)

Once you have your color, texture and tool settings, start placing your grass on the lower portion of your canvas. You can paint your grass however you like. It is, after all, your creation! This is how mine looks:

Next, make the sky layer active in your Layer Palette. Then click in the center of your Foreground Materials box. Pick a nice sky blue color and in the Textures box select Plastic 3. You may also find that you want to use a larger size brush.

To complete your background, click on the Foreground Materials box. Uncheck the textures box and select a color from the Color palette. Click on the first layer in your Layer Palette. Select your Flood Fill tool and fill in the background color. Here's how mine looks now:

Add a new raster layer at the top of your Layer Palette. Then all you need to do is place your tube creation on that layer. You may also want to add a drop shadow, depending on the image.

To finish, Layers>Merge All Flatten and you're done. You can also add a frame if you like. Here's my finished unframed image:

I hope you've enjoyed learning something about some of the PSP 8 tools and how to use them. If you have any questions, please email me.