Stick
Candy
BY...doing this tutorial you are agreeing to the Terms of Use

Please make sure you have read them.

Since I am not providing any fills or selections, you may do what you want with your completed graphic. I'm only providing ideas. The tutorial itself still follows my Terms of Use.

This tutorial was written in PSP9 beta for learning purposes. I think if you are familiar with PSP tools and locations, you could probably do this one. You will be making a gradient, saving to an Alpha Channel, and working with Blend Modes on the Layer Palette. Hope you do lots of experimenting with these.
Make sure your Layer Palette is visible (F8)

First we will create the gradient to use.
Foreground Fill - White
Background Fill - #ff0000 or your color choice
On the Materials Palette, click on the Foreground Gradient Tab
Select Edit on the Material Properties pop-up.
The next pop-up will be the Gradient Editor.
Select the New button
A New Gradient pop-up will appear. Type the name you want to use. I called mine stripes.

  • On the Gradient Editor pop-up, look in the boxed area that says Gradient.
  • You will notice the Fore: will have the White Foreground color and the Back: will have the #404040.
  • Click on the crayon looking icon to the left and click on the Fore: box showing the white.
  • Click on the crayon looking icon to the left and click on the Fore: box showing the #ff0000.
  • Now click toward the center to add a new crayon looking icon. The placement should be at 50%. You can see this in the Location box.
  • Click a touch to the left of the center crayon icon to create another one.
  • Click on the Fore: box to make this one white.
  • Slide over to the Location of 50%.


This image shows another color #404040 because I use it with some other tutorials. You can use whatever color you want your candy to be. I used #ff0000 and white while creating this tutorial, but you'll use several colors before you are finished.

New Image around 50 X 300. You can make this larger or smaller.
I'm going to show you how you can make a bunch. If you want to make several with many colors use 300 X 300.

I like to Flood Fill the bottom Raster white to help me see better
New Raster Layer
Foreground Null
Background - Gradient you made

  • Linear
  • Angle 45 or 315
  • I used 15 Repeats, but you can adjust to your liking.
Preset Shapes - Rectangle Tool (PSP8 and under, just use Rounded Rectangle. You may want to create as vector and node edit a little to make the rounded corners look smoother.)
PSP9 - I set the Horizontal and Vertical Radius at 6. You may need to adjust if you are making a smaller or larger image. No need to use nodes or create as vector.
Make sure the Anti-alias box is checked

Drag out a vertical rectangular shape in the center of the canvas.
Right click on the layer you just work on (should be highlighted) on the Layer Palette and Duplicate.

Select All & Float (CtrlA+F)
Gaussian Blur 2 or 3 (You'll have to experiment and play around to see what you like as you move along.)

Selections - Load/Save Selection - Save to Alpha Channel (Alt S,L,+C)
You do not really need to name. Just tap the Save button.
Select None (Ctrl+D)

On the Layer Palette, you will click on the arrow of the Blend Mode. (Right now it should say Normal.)

When you click on it, you will get a pop up - Click on Normal
Then you can use the roller on your mouse (if you have one) to move up and down to the different blends to see what you like. If you don't have a roller on your mouse you will have to click on it each time and try different blends.

For this image, I used Mulitply - Duplicated the layer again and used a Blend Mode of Color (L)



Click on the eye/glasses on the background layer (Raster 1) on the Layer Palette.
Right click on one of the other layers on the Layer Palette - Merge Visible.

Optional ~ Effects - 3D - Drop Shadow
 Click on the Lock Transparency on the Layer Palette (It will change colors.)

These are the settings I used, but you can experiment to see what you like.
  • Vertical: -1
  • Horizontal: -3
  • Opacity: 80
  • Blur: 14
  • Shadow Color: Black
Use your Mover Tool to move off to the left or right.

Ready to make another one? New Raster Layer
Selections - Load from the Alpha Channel - The selection you created.
On the Materials Palette, click on the little colored foreground and background swatches to change colors. Do not click on the Background and Fill Properties swatch. You want to keep the gradient selected.
Flood Fill
Right click on the layer you are on (highlighted) - Duplicate
Gaussian Blur 2 or 3
Experiment with the Blend Modes to see what you like with the color you used.
You can duplicate the layer again and try different Blend Modes on top of it or just use the one.
When you like the way it turned out, hide all the other layers (glasses/eye) and Merge visible.
Apply the cutout if you like
Select None (Ctrl+D) Use the Mover Tool to move off to the side.
New Raster Layer and try creating many of different colors using this same technique.

Hope you experiment and have fun!

Hope you have enjoyed this tutorial.

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© 2004 Carla Polston All Rights Reserved