*** PREPARATION ***

This tutorial was written for PSP8.1.

For this tutorial you will need:

Paint Shop Pro, version 8.1, which you can get at the Jasc site

An image of your choice or the following flower image which I downloaded from www.amgmedia.com:

Click to open full size image in a new window
then save to your hard drive.

The Teardrop Preset Shape. Click here to download this file for PSP8.

The best advice I can give you is to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE!!!  There's not much worse than losing all your hard work due to a program or computer lock up or melt down!!!  So...save your work often...I will be putting reminders throughout the tutorial:

Save 

As with any of my tutorials, please feel free to use any colors you like to create you own unique image.

Okay, let's get started...

*** CREATING OUR EGG ***

1. Open a new image 300x300 Pixels; Resolution: 200 Pixels/inch; Raster background; Color depth: 16 Million Colors; Transparent. Save this image as "my_reflection.pspimage".

2. Change your Foreground to null and your Background color to: #233F79.

3. Click on your Preset Shapes tool and choose the Teardrop Shape: Retain Style: unchecked; Create as Vector: checked; Antialias: checked.

4. Draw a large teardrop shape on your canvas.

5. Click Objects/Align/Center in Canvas.

6. Click on your Pen Tool; choose Edit Mode and edit the top node as shown below to create an egg shape:

  Save

7. Click on Selections/From Vector Object: you will see the "marching ants" around your shape.

8. Save your selection to the Alpha Channel (Selections/Load-Save Selection/Save Selection To Alpha Channel). This is a precautionary step, in case we lose our selected area and need to reload it.

9. Convert your Vector 1 layer to raster and rename this layer "egg".

10. Add a new raster layer and name it "flower".

Your selection should still be active;
if not, load from Alpha Channel  

  Save

*** ADDING OUR GRAPHIC ***

1. Open your flower image and convert to greyscale (Image/Greyscale).

2. Copy this image (Ctrl+C).

3. Make your "my_reflection.pspimage" active and paste into selection (Ctrl+Shift+L):

4. Change the layer Blend mode to "screen".

  Save

*** CREATING OUR REFLECTION EFFECT ***

1. Add a new raster layer and name it "lights".

2. Change your foreground color to white.

2. Click on your Paint Brush tool and use the following settings:

3. Click once in the lower right portion of your selected area:

  Save

4. Change your Paint brush size to: 50; and the rotation to: 45 and click once in the upper left portion of your selected area:

  Save

5. Apply a Guassian blur of 15 (Adjust/Blur/Guassian Blur).

6. Duplicate your "lights" layer and apply the same Guassian blur to the duplicated layer.

7. Change the Blend mode properties on your "lights" layer to "Soft Light".

  Save

8. Duplicate your "egg" layer. Rename this duplicate layer "egg2".

9. Move your "egg2" layer between your "flower" layer and your "lights" layer.

10. Change the Blend mode of your "egg2" layer to Soft Light.

  Save

11. Add a new raster layer and name it "cutout1".

12. Apply a cutout effect with the following settings:

Horizontal: 5
Vertical: 5
Opacity: 100
Blur: 60
Color: black

13. Add a new raster layer and name it "cutout2".

14. Apply a cutout effect, changing your Horizontal and Vertical settings to: -5.

15. You can stop here; merge visible layers and save as a psp file, a jpg file and/or export as a tube...or continue on the the next part for some variations  Here is what I have so far:

  Save

*** VARIATIONS ***

1. Change your foreground color to #F24CAE.

2. With your selection still active, click on your "egg2" layer and flood fill with your foreground color:

3. Change the Blend mode of your "egg2" layer to "Hue (Legacy)":

4. Use your imagination to make your own unique image.

  Save