2 posts tagged “paint shop pro”

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Paper Scrap Effect

Nov 16, 2007
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I'm excited about this thing I figured out last night in Paint Shop Pro! I made my scanned doodles look as if thy were drawn on torn scraps of paper!

I'm a writer, not a visual artist. However, my artsy sister has encouraged me to keep drawing, and I've made several doodles I like. I love scanning my doodles and fooling around with Paint Shop Pro. Here's how I did this, on the off chance that I can help someone make something cool. :p

I drew my doodle on the blank side of a 3x5 notecard and scanned it. (When scanning note cards, you have to select the note card itself, so that the scanner will not scan its own lid. Also, this this gives you a nice big image to start working with.)
I opened up a new, transparent image in Paint Shop Pro. I opened up my doodle and selected the monolith. I left a bit of white space around it.
I copied and pasted the selection (as a layer) into the transparent image. I used the eraser tool to erase the natural texture of the note card. I left enough natural texture right around the monolith to give the appearance of someone tearing the monolith doodle from a piece of paper. I made the eraser tool smaller to give the effect of the "nibbled" edges on the bottom right.
I used the Resize option under the Image drop-down menu, just to make it look better to myself.
I copied my new torn-edged monolith using the Paste As New Image option. I put it off to the side.
I made my image it into a negative image. (This is under the Colors drop-down menu in PSP 7.)
I pasted the copy (from step 4) over top of the negative image. I shifted it slightly to give it that shadowed effect of the negative image peeking out from underneath.
The monolith was looking a bit faded, so I used the Sharpen option on that scrap. (Sharpen is under the Effects drop-down menu.)
I repeated these steps with the smaller images. I played with the layers of the three images (six if you count their shadows) so that the monolith's top left corner overlaps another scrap. (I renamed the scrap layers so that I could keep track of them.)
I used the paint bucket tool to pour the leaf texture onto the transparent background. Voila!

Nifty, eh? One minor problem is that the scarps have a slightly out-of-focus look. The Sharpen option helps a bit, but messes with the texture of the note card if used too heavily. If you have suggestions or comments, please let me know!

Poetry Collection Update: Categories

Aug 30, 2006
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I mentioned earlier that I was looking for a way to organize the poems in my upcoming collection. I ended up writing each poem's title on a 3x5 note card, so that I could shuffle the order around. I've got four categories right now, in the following order: depression, love/friendship, imagination/creativity and resolve. That is probably the final order of the categories, but I am still juggling the poems around within each category.

Last night, I decided whether each poem would be accompanied by a commentary or by a picture. Interestingly enough, a couple poems felt better bare, with nothing to accompany them.

Steve, Bran and I have formed an informal writing group. We have gotten together twice to brainstorm and write. This weekend, we are probably doing an overnighter at Brian's place. By that time, I kinda want to have a rough draft of my collection printed out. That means I'm going to have busy evenings this week. I have to sketch some of the pictures by hand. I'm a bit nervous about that, but if Moby and Bono can (pretend to) be artists, so can I. The other illustrations will be public domain photographs or clip art that I will alter in Paint Shop Pro.

After last night's session of deciding on the material accompanying each poem, I can visualize the collection much better. A book is being born!