Mask Tutorial 3 - Airbrushing

Airbrushing

A very good friend of mine suggested I did a tutorial on this

For you all so here we go

What you’ll need: -

A mask... if you want to use the one im workking on here you can get it here

A tube

PSP

A happy heart

Open your mask and tube in PSP (this will work in any version.

The tools may be in different places but they will be there)

Just a little preparation now so that it’ll turn out right...Lol

If it’s a Black based jpg leave as is…

If it’s a White based jpg then we need to change it to a negative image...

In PSP 9 go to the top menu bar - ADJUST/colour balance / negative image

In PSP 10 go to the top menu bar - IMAGE/ negative image

If it’s a .gif or it has a .pspmask or a .mask at the end then we need to up the colours in the Image

In PSP 9 and 10 go to the top menu bar- IMAGE/increase colour depth and choose the 16 million colours in version 9 or the `rbg 8 bits` in version 10 or hit the shortcut which is ctrl-shift-0 (that’s a zero not a o)

Ok that’s the boring bit out of the way

In the tool palette choose your airbrush

psp 10

psp 9

Look at the tool options bars and set yours like this (we can play and change this later)

 

Now choose a colour from your tube or a colour you like in your foreground (that’s the top box in your materials pallete)

On your mask drag your brush over the part you want to colour. Its better to use short strokes and to try and go in the same direction but you can experiment and see what works best for you

Its very light so do it again until you get the depth of colour you like you can always go over it again later, and don’t worry if you go over the lines a bit it looks ok even if you do

If you have very thin lines to paint just turn the size of the brush down

(Remember you have an undo button so if you make a mistake its no biggy

But do save often just in case)

Choose another colour and carry on building up your picture heres mine so far

Try varying the opacity on different parts of the picture

You don’t have to colour in all the parts if you leave some unpainted that looks good too

Once your happy with your painting add your tube and your name and credits

Add a border and there you have it

Heres mine

Now try this on a White image

Try changing the hardness and opacity thickness and density

Try using a custom brush shape

All you need is imagination

I hope you’ve managed to follow this tut and if you have and you’ve enjoyed it

Let me know and if not and you need anything explaining further let me know that too. And if you want to send me your results ill show them on the blog

Mask Tutorial 2

Overlays 2 - advanced overlay

For this tutorial I will show you another way of making an overlay using two colours.

This way will give you more choices when it comes to blending the two layers together

1 Open a new image I’m going to size mine at 800 x800 which would be a good size for a background paper for a tag or taggers kit

2 Flood fill with a light grey colour I used the one that is two up from the white in the materials palette

3 New layer, flood fill with black

4 Apply a mask the same as we did in tutorial one

5 Delete the Mask and merge your layers

6 New layer, flood fill with the colour of your choice and move this layer by dragging it below the masked layer

7 Highlight the top layer again and play about with the layer blends till you get an image you like. Notice that this time you get more differences in the way the layers blend

8 Merge your layers and save your image

Heres some blend examples

if you enjoyed this tut leave a hug

Mask Tutorial 1

With so many versions of PSP being used around the world
The graphic community has needed to find ways of sharing recourses that are cross version and JPG Masks are one of its hidden gems.

Not just a pretty faded background any longer, masks can be turned into many wondrous things, page layouts, overlays and graphic designs in their own right

Here I will attempt to show you a couple of things I like to do with them

Overlays 1 basic overlay

1 Open a new image I’m going to size mine at 800 x800 which would be a good size for a background paper for a tag or taggers kit

2 Flood fill with the colour of your choice mine is a nice lilac

3 New layer flood fill with black or the next dark grey colour down from black

4 On the top menu bar go to Layers - Load/Save Mask - Load mask from Disk



5 choose a nice fading edge mask



6 * note: for this we need to use the mask in the opposite way to what you would normally so make sure you invert the mask if all the black is at the edge if you click the little box under the preview you will get a better idea of how the opacity looks



7 Apply the mask

8 In your layer palette click on the mask layer and delete it then merge the group

9 Highlight your masked layer and either lower the opacity so you get a nice blended edging or play about with the layer blends till you get an edge effect you like.. then merge your layers and save your image

heres mine I just lowered the opacity



now you can go further with this by using some flower or swirl brushes in the corners
or using a filter to add some stains and lines to make it look older. or you could try adding noise or trying some of the artistic effects that PSP has like chalk or pencil.

i hope i made this easy enough to understand if not leave me a comment and ill try to make it better

if you enjoyed this tut leave a hug.