STEP 1
Opening Notes
- In this tutorial, I will often give keyboard shortcuts for activating tools or commands. These shortcuts save a lot of time, and I use them constantly. When I give keyboard shortcuts, they will follow the tool or command names, often in parentheses.
- Whenever any tool is used, always reset the Tool Options to the default values, unless directed otherwise. Usually, I will only list the values different from the defaults.
- For simplicity and clarity, the bounding boxes have been omitted from many of the screenshots of vector objects in this tutorial.
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Open a new, transparent image, 200 x 200 pixels. Flood fill with white. For the petals of the flower, select gradient for both foreground and background styles, and set both to Nanson's Fire Pink gradient (mqc Fire Pink) - or another gradient of your choice. For all gradients in this tutorial, I used the "Linear Gradient" Style, with Angle = 54 degrees, and Repeats = 0.
Before we start, let's just review some information about Bezier lines. By definition, a Bezier curve is a line connecting 2 endpoints, whose curve is determined by one or more control points which do not lie on the curve. In PSP 7, we created Bezier lines by drawing a basic line from point A to B, and then clicking away from the line 2 times, at points C and D, to create the curve. It's even easier to make Bezier lines in PSP 8.
Note: For an in-depth look at Bezier Lines in PSP 8, visit my Bezier Lines in PSP 8 mini-tutorial.
In this tutorial, all the parts of our flower are made with the same basic Bezier curve. The starting and ending points of our line, points A and B, are very close together. The control points that determine the curve of the line, points C and D, are above, and to either side of the line. Here's an image showing the four controlling points of the Bezier line we will use:
In PSP 8, we use the handles created by dragging from the endpoints of the line to create the curve. Specifically, to create a Bezier line in PSP 8, do the following:
- Click at starting point A, and drag to control point C until the arrow handle of the control arm rests on point C.
- Click at ending point B, and drag directly opposite of control point D so that the circle handle of the control arm rests on point D.
Let's see how that works. Select the Pen tool 
(V) with default settings, EXCEPT change the Segment Type to Point to Point 
, and the Width to 2.00.
Note: In the images that follow, I sometimes included the Bezier curve endpoints and control points. This is for illustration only - your image will not have these, unless you choose to add them so that you get the curve just right.
Click now at a point near the center of the canvas, and drag upwards towards the left. When the arrow handle is about at point C, release the mouse button. Now click at point B, which is really close to point A, and drag downwards towards the left until the circle handle of the control arm is close to point D. Here's an image showing the control arms just before releasing the mouse button:
When you release the mouse button, you should have a flower petal that looks something like this:
This is the basic petal - we'll construct the entire flower from this petal! You can adjust it, stretch it, fatten it, whatever changes you would like to see using the handles on the bounding box. Activate the Object Selection tool 
(O) to get the bounding box.
You might even want to edit the nodes to alter its shape somewhat! Node editing in PSP8 is done this way:
- Activate the Pen tool (V) .
- From the Tool Options palette, select Edit Mode
.
- Click on a node to select or move it.
- Add nodes by pressing and holding the CTRL key as you move the cursor over the contour to where you want to add a node - click when the cursor displays "+ADD".
Here's what I ended up with after reshaping my flower petal:
To exit node editing, select another tool.
When you are satisfied with your petal, save your image.
STEP 2
We're now going to add a little shading to the petal. Add a new raster layer and name it "shading". With the Pen tool active, click the New Shape button 
on the Tool Options palette (or press CTRL + N). We will use the same settings for the Pen tool as before EXCEPT Create as vector UNchecked, Freehand Segment Type 
selected, and Width of 3.00 to 4.00. Set the foreground material style to color and the foreground color to a dark contrasting color - something a bit darker than the darkest part of your petal. I used #AD4355 for my shading. Draw 2 or 3 lines as illustrated below:
Note: You'll want to do the actions in the above paragraph pretty much in the order given, or unpredictable things might happen, like the outline of the flower petal changing to the darker solid color. If you have problems, UNDO, and start again, completing the actions in the specified order.
We're going to do a little work on these lines now, blurring them and softening them until we get something we like! To prevent any of our modifications from "escaping" the flower petal, activate the flower petal layer, select the flower petal using the Object Selection tool (O), and choose Selections...From Vector Object. Now, activate the "shading" layer again, and apply a Gaussian Blur of about 3.0 - this will give us the basis on which to work!
I used several of the retouch brushes to spread and blend the darker color until I had something I was happy with. In each case, I started with the +Default brush tip, and then changed the settings as indicated below. You may find you're satisfied with your flower petal the way it looks now, or you may use other methods to blend the colors. I'll explain here what I did.
Note: In PSP 8, all the retouch brushes that were formerly part of the Retouch tool are now separate brushes, which have been grouped into related categories organized on flyouts. The Push, Smudge and Soften Brushes are located on the Dodge flyout. To access these tools, click the down-arrow next to the Dodge Brush tool (red arrow below) to display the flyout menu, and then choose a tool:
Note also that any of the tools from this flyout may be showing on the toolbar - the most recently used tool remains in view on the toolbar. You'll see that after you use the Push Brush tool below.
First of all, I selected the Push Brush tool 
to push more of the dark color up into the petal. Here are the settings I used:
Brush Tip (+Default), Shape (Round), Size (5), Hardness (10), Step (22), Density (25), Thickness (100), Rotation (0), Opacity (55)
To blend the colors a bit more, I used the Smudge Brush tool 
with these settings:
Brush Tip (+Default), Shape (Round), Size (5), Hardness (50), Step (1), Density (50), Thickness (100), Rotation (0), Opacity (70)
Finally, to soften all the edges of the darker lines, I used the Soften Brush tool 
with these settings:
Brush Tip (+Default), Shape (Round), Size (11), Hardness (65), Step (30), Density (40), Thickness (100), Rotation (0), Opacity (70)
Here's my completed petal:
Deselect now and save your work!
STEP 3
Now let's build the flower! Merge the "shading" layer with the vector petal layer, naming the merged layer "petal". Now create 4 more petals from this petal by duplicating the "petal" layer 4 times. Using the Deformation tool (D) on each duplicate layer, rotate the petals until you have a 5-petal flower, like this:
Merge the 5 petal layers, naming the merged layer "flower1". Duplicate the "flower1" layer, and resize this layer by 50%. Duplicate the "flower1" layer again, resize the duplicate layer by 75%, and rotate this layer 30 degrees, either direction. You should now have something like this:
Wow - it's beginning to look like a flower, isn't it! You may want to sharpen the rotated and resized petal layers. I chose to leave my petals as is for a softer look, but if you do sharpen, Unsharp Mask with Radius = 1.5, Strength = 50, and Clipping = 5 is a good choice!
Save your work, and we'll add a few leaves!
STEP 4
Activate the white background layer and add a new vector layer called "leaf" - and let's draw a leaf! Set the foreground style back to gradient. Select Nanson's Turf (mqc Turf) gradient - or any gradient of your choice - for both background and foreground! Choose the Pen tool (V) again using the default settings EXCEPT change the Segment Type to Point to Point , and the Width to 2.00. These are the same settings as used in Step 1, but we used the Pen tool again in Step 2 and we changed some of the settings. Draw a Bezier leaf in the same manner as we did the petal:
- Click and drag up and to the left.
- Click close to first point and drag down and to the left.
I made my leaf off to the left of the flower, just so I could see it better! Your leaf should look something like this:
Make a couple more leaves by duplicating this leaf layer. Use the bounding box or edit the nodes, if you wish, to reshape the leaves so that each one is just a bit different. Rotate them, and move them into place behind the flower, like so:
When you are satisfied with your leaves, convert the leaf layers to raster and save your image.
STEP 5
I added a yellow center to my flower, using another of Nanson's gradients called Old Yella (mqc Old Yella). Select the Paint Brush tool 
(B) to make the center, with these settings:
Brush Tip (+Default), Shape (Round), Size (21), Hardness (6), Step (25), Density (100), Thickness (100), Rotation (0),
Opacity (100), Blend Mode (Normal)
On a new raster layer at the top of the Layer Palette, make one or two dabs with the Paint Brush tool in the center of the flower. Add Noise at 15%, Uniform, to the center, repeating as needed. Add a small drop shadow with the following settings:
Vertical offset (0)
Horizontal offset (0)
Opacity (44)
Blur (21)
Shadow color (Black)
Here's my flower with the center in place:
Save your image!
STEP 6
All that's left to do now is add some shadows to the petals and leaves. For the innermost petals, and the second layer of petals, I used the same drop shadow as above. Then, for the bottom petals, and each of the leaves, I used a drop shadow with these settings:
Vertical offset (2)
Horizontal offset (15)
Opacity (57)
Blur (21)
Shadow color (Black)
Here's my completed flower:
And there you have it, a Bezier flower! Before you merge the layers on your flower and tube it, you might want to save it in PSP format so you can make additional flowers just by colorizing! The lilac flower in the opening image was made from the pink one, colorizing with Hue = 177 and Saturation = 111.
You're not restricted to oval petals and leaves, either! Use your imagination! For this last sample, I edited the nodes on my Bezier curve petal, added a node at the top of the curve, changed the Node Type to Cusp (CTRL + U), and stretched the arms up a bit, like this, to form a heart-shaped petal:
I did much the same for the leaves, and then used a brown gradient for the center. To get this gold flower, I colorized with Hue = 22 and Saturation = 188:
Here's a very different type of leaf, also made with Bezier curves! Visualize a vertical line for this one, with control points to the left and right of the line. In the following diagram, the endpoints of the original line are indicated as A and B, and the approximate location of the control points, as C and D:
To create this curve, click at A and drag down to the left. Then click at B and again drag down to the left (remember, away from point D!):
Finally, here's a Bezier flowering plant growing in an urn, using variations of the leaves from above:
When you're finished with your flower, delete the white layer, merge visible layers, and tube it!
Have fun making Bezier flowers!
If you have any problems, comments, or questions, please do not hesitate to Email me.
