This tutorial was written in May 2002 and © by Lady Oz. You may make a copy of this tutorial or print it out for your own personal use ONLY. If you would like to LINK to my tutorials to share them with others please let me know. What you create from my tutorials belong to you to do with as you wish....I hold no claim to them other than my tutorial rights.
How to make a soft Water Colour
painting from a Photo etc.
You can make some interesting 'paintings' just from photographs or from the likes of birthday cards etc...let me show you how. Though it is more rewarding to know that you have created your masterpiece from scratch, we haven't always got the time to do this to everyone...so this is a great way to build up your artwork for use in your site and so on.
What you will need.
PSP 7
(I use version 7 but it can easily be achieved in 5 or 6)
An image which you are going to work on...you can use the sample above, which I scanned from one of my birthday cards....you can use photos, too. Right click and save to your folder. The brush that you see in the image is one that I made by following a tutorial from Kentucky Creations.
How to create your masterpiece! ;o)
Open the image that you wish to work from. To be able to work with many of the tools in PSP, your image needs to be one with 16, Million Colours (24 bit). If you are having any problems being able to use any of the tools, check this out first.
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Choose Colours > Increase Colour Depth >16 million colours 24 bit), OR
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Press <Shift> + <Ctrl> + <0>
Please note that most of the screen shots have been reduced to 80% for faster loading, so yours will look different to these. Also remember to SAVE often!
Step 1. Go to 'Window' at the top of your screen and choose 'Duplicate'...this will give you another copy to work from...now close the original. It's always best to keep your originals for future use.
Step 2. In your layer palette, change the name 'Background' to Layer 1. Now whilst on this layer, right click and choose 'Duplicate'...this now gives you two copies of your image.
Step 3. Next got to 'Effects'....'Blur'....Gaussian Blur and choose a radius of 6.00...or play around until you get something that you prefer. It's your painting after all. ;o)
Step 4. Whilst still on your 'Copy' layer...change the blend mode to 'Darken' and lock the transparency...see screen shot below.
Step 5. Go to 'Effects'....'Artistic Effects....Brush Strokes and apply the settings as in screen shots below.
It should be looking like this shot below.
Step 6. Now click on the original layer in your palette and lower the opacity to about 45...again this is your preference...I noticed some interesting changes by varying this. Merge All (flatten)
Step 7. This is the finished effect. Now anyone can easily see that I did this from scratch...why, I have even left my paintbrush there. ;o) LOL I've added a couple more effects below as well as the original, to give you an idea of the combinations that you can try to achieve endless results. Just don't blame me if you get addicted.
Pic 1. with the above settings.
Pic 2. Same settings but change 'Normal' to 'Soft light'
Pic 3. Change 'Normal' to 'Burn'.
Swedish translation of this tutorial can be found here. *see note at foot of page*
If you would like to know how I made the frame in my first picture, then try my 'Crinkly Glass Frames' tutorial.
Have Fun! and Email if you have any problems!
I have just recently given permission to Maria of MD Design to translate my water colour tutorial from English into Swedish for her stationery group. Thank you for respecting my terms and wishes, Maria and also for the honour bestowed on me by using my tutorial.
Below you will find the links to Maria's groups.
GrafikHörnan (Swedish PSP and Stationery Group)
Updated 30th May 2003
Tutorial by Mary Newton aka Lady Oz aka Lady Newtonia © 2002