Primula Veris. Cowslip.
Here is a springflower for you, a Primula Veris.
Start with a New Image, 250 x 350, transp,
16 mill. Flood fill with a dark color
to be able to see better what you are doing. We will delete that layer later.
New Layer. Call it Tube. Preset Shapes,
Ellipse. Antialias checked. Foreground color #4B552A.
Background color #7D9040 and set to Gradient, Fading Foreground, as below.
Make the ellipse 12 x 35.
That is the tube to put
the petals on.
New Layer. Call it Petal1. Preset Shapes,
Heart. Foreground, Solid, color #E3C917
and Background, Solid, color #EEE95A. Make the heart 9 x 11.
Place it in the middle of the tube at the front.
Drag this layer under Layer Tube in your Layer palette.
Duplicate the heart. Image, Rotate, Right 12º. Place it to your left on the tube.
Duplicate, Image, Mirror and place it to your right.
Close Layers Background and Layer Tube.
Layers, Merge, Merge Visible. Call it Petal1.
Duplicate and drag this layer over Layer Tube in your Layer Palette.
Put it a little higher up on the tube.
Close Copy of Petal1. Stand on Layer Tube. Retouch Tool, Smudge as below.
Smudge a just little at the lower end of the green tube. Make it go downwards, like this.
Open Copy of Petal1 again. Close Layer
Background. Layers, Merge, Merge Visible.
Call it Flower1.
Let's make Flower2.
New Layer. Call it Tube. Preset
Shapes, Ellipse.
Make another tube for the next flower. The same way and size as before.
New Layer. Call it Petal1. Preset Shapes, Heart. Color #F9E220 on both Fore- and
Background.
Make the heart 13 x 16. Duplicate. Image, Rotate, Right 70. Effects, Sharpen
once.
Place the petal on the right side of petal1. Duplicate. Image, Rotate, Right70.
Effects, Sharpen once.
Place it next to Copy of Petal1.
Duplicate. Image, Rotate, Right 70. Effects, Sharpen once. Place it on the flower.
Duplicate. Image, Rotate, Right 70. Effects, Sharpen once. Place it on the flower.
Now when you have got all petals in place.
Close layers Background and Flower1.
Layers, Merge, Merge Visible. Call the layer Flower2.
Selections, Select all. Selections, Float. New Layer. Airbrush1, color #B7C422.
Make some marks at the centre of the flower like this.
Effects, Blur, Gaussian Blur 2. Deselect.
New Layer, make some short lines with Draw,
Single Line 1. Color #E47E00.
On the same layer, make a small dot at the
centre of the flower
with Airbrush 4, round, color #D0CD1C. Place the Tube under the flower.
Close layers, Background and Flower1. Layers,
Merge, Merge Visible. Call it Flower2.
Now you have two flowers. Put them aside for a while and let's make the stem.
New Layer. Call it Stalk1. Draw, Bezier
Curve 6. Antialias checked. Foreground color #5C721A.
Background closed. Make a vertical line 0 x 200. Make a click at 1 and then
click at 2.
Now the stem is slightly bent.
New Layer. Call it Leaf. Preset Shapes,
Ellipse. Color #407120.
Make a horizontal ellipse 90 x 47. Effects, Geometric, Wave as below.
Selections, Select all. Selections, float.
New Layer. Airbrush2, color #2B4814.
Make some darker parts like this.
Effects, Blur, Gaussian Blur 4. New Layer.
Airbrush2, color #6D8622.
Make some light green parts like this.
Effects, Blur, Gaussian Blur 2.50. Deselect.
New Layer. Draw1, Freehand Tool. Foreground
color #315713. Background closed.
Make veins on freehand. Lower the Opacity to 70.
New Layer. Call it Stalk2. Draw. Settings as below.
Foreground color #335B16 and Background
color #7E9B51.
Set your Styles box to Gradient as below.
Close Background in your Styles box.
Make a line 135 x 0. Make one click at the
centre above the line
and another click just beside it.
Now you'll have the bent shape of the stalk.
But we will have to trim it a bit.
Just to make the frontedge of the stalk a bit sharp. Either you can use Eraser
or Freehand Tool.
I used Freehand Tool, with Antialias checked. Mark at the front of the stalk
what you will delete.
Spare just a small part of the stem.
Delete. Turn the stalk with Deformation
Tool to fit the leaf. Put it in place.
Duplicate this stalk layer. Image, Rotate, right 2. Make sure the front edges
fit together.
If they don't, use the Mover to bring them in place.
Close Layers, Background, Stalk, Flower1 and Flower2.
Layers, Merge, Merge Visible. Call it Leaf.
Now to the fun part. Putting all the pieces together to a nice picture.
First, place the stalk a bit down in your
picture. Then place the leaf where you like it to be.
You can look at my picture how I have done. I have also duplicated, mirrored and
turned the
leaves with Deformation Tool. When you turn a leaf, remember to sharpen it once
also.
Or else it looks blurry. I also resized some leaves.
You may also have to cut off some of the
stalks, so they won't show.
On one front leaf I cut off a larger piece with Freehand Tool and Antialias
checked.
That way the leaf looks a little bent.
Drag some of the leaves layers under Stalk layer in your Layer Palette.
This is how it looks now.
To make the picture even more natural, I used Colors, Colorize as below on some leaves.
Experiment with Hue and Saturation and find
some nice colors.
There shall not be any big differences, just small ones.
Change the colors on some and keep some as they are.
If you like, you can close layers
Background and Flower1 and 2 and Take Layers, Merge, Merge, Visible.
Call the layer Leaves. I will not Merge the layers myself. I might do some other
pictures with this Primula.
So I will keep them as they are for later use.
Now to the flowers.
Duplicate Flower1 four times. I have placed
the flowers like this.
Use Deformation Tool to turn them. Also Sharpen them once.
Duplicate Flower2 two times. I have placed Flower2 like this.
I have resized one flower to 80% and one to 90%.
Now you will have to go through your
picture. If you will change anything do so now.
I think I will make my stalk a little longer. Therefore I used Deformation Tool
and dragged
the stalk upwards a bit. I think the proportions of the picture improved by that.
Delete Layer Background. Layers, Merge, Merge Visible.
That was all and now you can use this little spring flower fore some nice pictures.
