Salix, Pussywillow.

© Louise G

This is a spring tutorial. When you can see the small "kittens", then youŽ ll know, spring is here.
Lovely isn't it? I love the spring!

For this tutorial, you will need my Selection for the stem.
Get it here and zip it up in your PSP, Selections folder.
I have also included the butterfly and the Bumble-bee. Save them in your Image, PSP-folder.

Remember to save often!

Start with a New Image 300 x 400, transparent.

New Layer. Call the Layer Stem. Selections, Load from Disk, stem.sel.
Fill with color #B37D43. Texture, Effects, Fine Leather as below.

For PSP 10 you can use these settings.

Deselect.

New Layer. Call the Layer Bulb. Preset Shapes, Ellipse. Foreground #C0C0C0. Background white.
Make an oval 27 x 38.

Effects, Paint Engine as below.

Colors, Adjust Brightness. Set Brightness to 35, Contrast closed.
Selection Tool. Make a Rectangle around the oval, click inside it.
Effects, Blur, Gaussian Blur. Make it 0,70. Deselect.

New Layer call it Cover. Foreground #5C3407. Background #8E6331.
Antialias checked. Preset Shapes, Teardrop. Make it 22 x 34.
Effects, Inner Bevel as below.

Deformation Tool. Turn the piece like this and put it on top of the bulb.

Close all layers except Layer Bulb + Cover. Merge, Merge Visible. Call it Bulb.
Duplicate another 15 times. Now you will have 16 bulbs.
Make Layer Stem visible again and place them like I did.
Turn them with Deformation Tool and take Mirror on some bulbs.
Also place some under Layer Stem.

Layers, Merge, Merge Visible. Add the bumblebee and butterfly.

Now you can use the Salix, Willow, as you like. It will look nice in a boquet of flowers. Try that!

Tutorials