Di's Delights PSP8 Mesh Butterfly Tutorial

PSP8 Mesh Butterfly

By doing this tutorial you agree to my terms of use.

For this tutorial you will need - PSP 8 and a good general knowledge of vectors. This tutorial should work as well in PSP7.

Yours will have your own individual look as you will be doing all the drawing. Do not expect to get an exact copy as we all have our own style of drawing.

I know vectors for some people are a dirty word but they are so very useful to use
and well worth getting to grips with. So come on, don't be afraid, they don't bite :o)
I've tried to keep it simple so exactly how much node editing you do is up to you.

Remember to save often as I am not in the habit of making this reminder.

1. Open a new image 300x300. Set the foreground colour to white, null the background. Create a vector layer named l wing. With the preset shape tool

, ellipse, antialias and vector checked, line style +solid, width 3. Draw an ellipse, shape and size doesn't really matter as we are going to edit the nodes. Choose the pen tool

, from the tool bar at the top, click edit mode

. For my wing I moved node 1 to the left. Node 2 down, shortening the bottom control arm as shown. You can play and edit the shape more but for this tutorial I will keep it simple.

2. You can now create a new vector layer named r wing or you can duplicate the l wing layer and mirror the image. Renaming the duplicated layer to r wing. I chose to duplicate, being lazy :o)

3. Create a new vector layer named l wing2. Draw another ellipse to the bottom of your canvas. Using the pen tool, edit mode, edit the shape. All I had to do was to move node 1 to the right. Node 4 to the left. Of course, the complexity of the wing is your choice.

4. You can now create a new vector layer named r wing2 or you can duplicate the l wing2 layer and mirror the image. Renaming the duplicated layer to r wing2.

Arrange the wings so that the top and bottoms overlap, leave a big enough gap in the middle for the body. Look at your layer palette and arrange the layers as shown. This is what you should have so far.

5. Make sure the top layer is active. Swap materials so that the foreground is nulled and the background is white. Create a new vector layer named body. With the preset shapes tool draw a long ellipse for the body.

6. Create a new vector layer named head. Draw a rounder ellipse for the head.

7. If you are happy with the look of your butterfly, convert all layers to raster.

8. Make the layer1 active. Create a new raster layer named detail bottom. With the pen tool, contiguous checked, simple mode checked, drawing mode

, freehand

, tracking 10, line style +solid, width2, antialias checked, miter limit 10. Draw in some detail.

For each separate piece of detail you need to click new

9. Make the l wing2 layer active. Create a new layer named detail top, draw in some detail for the top wings.

10. If you have Blade Pro go through the layers applying a silver or gold preset and jump to step13. If not, follow step 11 and 12.

11. Effects - Texture Effects - Sculpture, apply the shown setting to all the layers.

12. Effects - 3D Effects - Inner Bevel, apply the shown setting to all the layers.

Lets make the mesh for the wings

13. Choose 2 different colours for the foreground and background. I chose #EFAC9D & #845B95. Set the foreground fill to foreground/background gradient. Change the angle of the fill to 330. Make the l wing layer active. With the magic wand, replace, click inside the l wing. Selections - Modify - Expand by 1. Create a new layer named l wing fill. In the layer palette drag it below the detail top layer. Flood fill with the gradient. Bring the opacity of the layer down to 60. Ctrl+D.

14. Make the r wing layer active. Select the inside of the wing. Create a new raster layer named r wing fill. Drag it below the detail top layer. Change the angle of the gradient to 30 and flood fill. Bring the opacity of the layer down to 60. Ctrl+D.

15. Change your foreground and background colours. I chose #845B95 & #87B797. Make the l wing2 layer active. With the magic wand, replace, click inside the l wing. Selections - Modify - Expand by 1. Create a new layer named l wing2 fill. In the layer palette drag it below the detail bottom layer. Flood fill with the gradient at an angle of 30. Bring the opacity of the layer down to 60. Ctrl+D.

16. Make the r wing2 layer active. Select the inside of the wing. Create a new raster layer named r wing2 fill. Drag it below the detail bottom layer. Change the angle of the gradient to 330 and flood fill. Bring the opacity of the layer down to 60. Ctrl+D.

17. For a finishing touch apply a drop shadow, vertical & horizontal 1, opacity 40, blur 5, to both the detail layers. On a new layer below the head, with the draw tool, width 2, draw in the antennae, applying the same Blade Pro or sculpture preset. Merge visible and save in PSP format or as a tube.

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