Lily of the valley.

This is how I make the white lovely flower Lily of the valley.
The tutorial uses Vectors, but it isn't difficult. Try it!

You will find the Teardrop shape here. Zip it up in your Preset Shapes folder.

Start with a New Image, 300 x 300, transp, 16 mill. Call it Background.
Fill it with a dark color, just to be able to see better.

New Vector Layer. Call it Petal1. Preset Shapes, Ellipse. Make sure Create as Vector is checked.
Foreground, color #EFEDED and Background, white  color. Make an ellipse 30 x 40.

Object Selector, Node Edit. Keep Ctrl down. Point with your cursor on the line.
 Then you will see the text Add. Left click on the line. Now you have added one node.
Add another three nodes the same way. Place them like I did.

Right click on Node1. Node Type, Cusp. Drag Node1 to your left a bit.
Pull the handles, to point like I did.

Push Node2 up a little.
Push Node 3 up a little also.
Right click on Node4. Node Type, Cusp. Drag Node4 to your right a bit.
Pull the handles, to point like I did.

Right click and Quit Node Editing. Left click.

Now you have the shape of the flower. Easy wasn't it?

Duplicate this layer. Object Selector. In your Tool Option box take Properties.
Click in the Fill box and change color to #C9C9C1.
Change in the Stroke box to the same color. Left click.
Drag this layer under Layer Petal1 in your Layers Palette.

Take the Mover and push Petal1 a little upwards, like this.

Now you will have the inner part of the flower showing.
Look at your picture. Do you want the center bottom petal of the inner parts to show a little more?
I do. Therefore I'll take Object Selector and click on that petal.
Node Edit. Drag the bottom Node down a bit.

Right click. Quite Node Editing. Left click.

When you are satisfied with the looks of your flower,
right click in your Layers Palette and Convert to Raster Layer
on both Layer Petal1 ans Layer Copy of Petal1.

Stand on Layer Copy of Petal1. Magic Wand. Click inside your picture. Selections, Invert.
New Layer. Call it Shadows. Airbrush 2, color #989B88. Zoom the picture a bit to see better.
Make some color on the petals. But not on the edges.

Effects, Blur, Gaussian Blur1. Keep it still selected. Airbrush1, white color.
Make some white on the outer petals.

Retouch Tool, Smudge as below.

Smudge the edges very gently. The dark shadow must show and the outer edges must be white.
If you need more dark or white color, just add some more with your Airbrush.
When you are satisfied, deselect. It might look like this now,

Close Layers Background and Petal1. Layers, Merge, Merge Visible. Call it Part2

Stand on Layer Petal1. Magic Wand. Click inside your picture. Selections, Invert.
New Layer. Call it Shadows. Airbrush 2, color #E6E8D4. Zoom the picture a bit to see better.
Make some color on the flower like this.

Keep it selected. Retouch Tool, Smudge. The same settings as before, but change size to 2.
Zoom the picture and smudge the shadows gently.

Deselect. Layers, Merge, Merge Visible. Call it Part2

Now you have the two flower-parts ready. If you like to change anything, do so now.
Stand on Layer Part2. Duplicate. Call it Flower2. Close that layer for a while.
Also close Layer Background. Layers, Merge, Merge Visible. Call it Flower1.
You will now have two flowers like this.

It looks nice when not every flower look quite the same.

Stand on Flower1. Image, Resize as below.

Do the same resizing on Flower2.

Stand on Flower1. Duplicate. Resize with 70%.
Duplicate Flower2. Resize with 70%.
Now you will have two big flowers and two smaller ones.

New Layer. Call it Bud. Preset Shapes, Ellipse. White color on both Fore- and Background.
Make the bud 8 x 8. Magic Wand. Click inside the picture. Airbrush2, color #A2B98F.
Make some green color on top of the bud. Retouch Tool, Smudge, the same as before. Smudge just a bit.

Deselect.

Now you have all the flower-parts. Let's begin with the leaves.

New Vector Layer. Call it Leaf. Preset, Shapes, Teardrop. Create as Vector checked.
Color #5B7335 on both  Fore- and Background. Make the leaf 30 x 230.
Object Selector. Node Edit. Keep Ctrl down. Point with your cursor on the line. Look at the picture below.
 When you see the text Add. Left click on the line. Now you have added one node.

Push the marked node to your left, like this.

Click on your top node and drag the handles down like I did.

Right click, Quit Node Editing. Left click. When you are satisfied with the shape,
right click in your Layer Palette and Convert to Raster Layer.

Stand on Layer Leaf. Magick Wand. Click inside your picture. Selections, Invert.
New Layer. Call it Shadow. Airbrush2, color #46552D. Make some lines on the leaf.

Effects, Blur, Gaussian Blur2. Retouch Tool, Smudge as before, but change size to 5.
Smudge the lines downwards. When you are satisfied, deselect.

Close all layers except Layer Leaf and Layer Shadow.
Layers, Merge, Merge Visible. Call it Leaf.

New Vector Layer. Call it Stalk. Foreground color #5A7234. Background closed.
Line Tool, Bezier Curve, size4. Make a straight line 0 x 215.
Left click. Right click. Object Selector, Node Edit.
Click on the top node. Drag it a little to your right so you can see the handle.
Drag the handle up and to your right. Push it together a bit to make it look like this.

Right click. Quite Node Editing. Left click.

Now you have to make all layers visible again. Take Layers, View, All.

Stand on Layer Leaf. In your Layer Palette, drag it just above Layer Background.
Duplicate this layer. You will now have two leaves. Turn the leaves with Deformation Tool a bit.

Stand on Layer Stalk. In your Layer Palette, drag it just above Layer Leaf.

Place the flowers where you like them to be. You have to duplicate the bud twice.
One bud you will have to resize by 70%. Place them at the top of the stalk.
I have placed and turned my flowers like this. Duplicated some.

Stand on Layer Stalk. New Vector Layer. Foreground color #5A7234. Background closed.
Line Tool, Bezier Curve, size3. Create as Vectors checked. Make a straight line from the stem to the flower.

Left click. Right click. Object Selector, Node Edit. Grab the arrow on the top node.
Bend it like I did.

Right click. Quite Node Editing. Left click.

 Duplicate this layer. Drag it with the Mover to another flower. Make sure it fits
the stalk and flower. If not, take Object Selector, klick on the hanger and Node Edit as before.
You may push or drag the hanger.

Duplicate this hanger so every flower and bud have one. Take Node Edit to form the hanger.
Close the leaves layers to see better.

When you are done, close Layer Background and the two leaves layers.
Layers, Merge, Merge Visible. Call it Flowers.

Open the leaves layers again and place them to your liking. Use Deformation Tool to turn them.

Look at your picture. Do you like what you see? I wanted some more Contrast to my leaves.
Go to Colors, Adjust, Brightness/Contrast. Set the Contrast to 25, Brightness 0.
Do the same with the other leaf if you like. When you like what you see,
close Background. Layers, Merge, Merge Visible and you are done.

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