©Cathy's Corner - Easy Plaid Tutorial

(Click on the above graphic for an
explanation of the FBN skill ratings.)

This tutorial will show you how to make an easy plaid such as the one I used for this background. This tutorial was written using PSP7, but should work with PSP6, also.

Normally, my first piece of advice with any tutorial is to save your work often. This tutorial is so easy, it doesn't even warrant this advice! LOL

I've used the "Blue Metallic" gradient for this tutorial. If you don't have this gradient, click the heart to download it and extract to your Paint Shop Pro gradient folder.

Open a new image: 300x300 pixels, 16 million colors, transparent background

Flood fill Layer1 with white and add a new layer. (The white will allow you to adjust the transparency on your color layers later.)

Change your foreground color to gradient and choose Blue Metallic using the following settings:

Flood fill Layer2 with your selected gradient.

Add another layer and flood fill with "Blue Metallic" gradient again, changing the angle to 90.

Lower the transparency on Layer 2 to about 60; and Layer 3 to about 40, as follows:

(The transparency can be adjusted to your liking.)

Double click on your selection tool and enter the following settings:

Now go to Image/Crop to Selection (Ctrl + R). You now have a 100x100 pixel image with three layers.

Now for the fun part - adding (changing to be exact) color!!!

Copy your original image (Shift +D). You can save your original as a psp file for later use and work with the copy.

Highlight (make active) Layer2. Click on Colors/Colorize and play with the settings. When you're happy with the color click OK.

Repeat the colorizing on Layer3, but try another combination of hue/saturation.

You can also change the transparency on your layers to change the appearance of your plaid.

When you're happy with your colors, merge all layers and save as a gif or jpg file for a seamless background.

TIP: You can also colorize your plaid filled layer, in case the color doesn't quite work with your graphic!

TIP: You can change the transparency of your plaid filled layer on any graphic if you add a layer of white beneath it.

Here are some samples I made, using different color combos:


Layer2 Hue: 255 Saturation: 100 Layer3 Hue: 150 Saturation: 100	Layer2 Hue: 30 Saturation: 200 Layer3 Hue: 220 Saturation: 200	Layer2 Hue: 150 Saturation: 100 Layer3 Hue: 150 Saturation: 100	Layer2 Hue: 230 Saturation: 255 Layer3 Hue: 30 Saturation: 150


	This is what your original plaid should look like without changing colors.	This is the original plaid with the transparency turned down to 20 on Layer1 and 40 on Layer2.

If you've made a graphic which needs a plaid background, you can make it on the fly using the above method. Just add three new layers to your graphic and move all three to the bottom. Fill the bottom layer with white and the next two with your gradients. Since this method does not need to be seamless, you can play with the settings. Choose 2 complimentary colors for your foreground and background colors and you can use the Foreground/Background gradient.

Play with it and have fun!!!

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