Vectors 101 for PSP 9

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This tutorial will hopeful walk you through the basic steps of how to vector.
We will not be learning how to shade the apple, only how to vector it.

Let's make an apple. My favorite is Granny Smith apples so for this tut that is
what we will be making.

1. Open Paint Shop Pro 9. Go to File, New and set to these settings...

2 Go to File, Save As. Name your canvas Apple.pspimage, click on the Options tab,
make sure that "Save as: PSP 9 compatible file" is the one that is selected. Click okay
and then Save.

2. Set your background color to #00c000 foreground should be off.

3. On the left hand side of PSP you will see a vertical "Tool Bar" something like
this one...

Click to make active the Preset Tool Ellipse.

4. Once you've activated the preset tools at the top of your screen on a task bar below
the bar that has File, Edit, View, etc, you will see a task bar similar to this one...

Set to the above settings. Because we won't be using a foreground color the width doesn't
matter.

5. Now we're ready to make our first vector. On the upper left side of the canvas, click
and hold the left mouse button, slide the mouse over to the right and down making a large
oval. Let go of the mouse. You should have something like this....

6. With your mouse pointer over your oval, click on the right mouse button. A drop down
menu will open like the one below, select "Convert to path"....

7. On the left side Tool Bar click on the Pen Tool

8. On the right hand side of the PSP window, close to the bottom, you will see
a Layers palette. In that palette you should see two layers, one named vector 1
and the other named raster 1. You should also see a small icon that looks like an
eye. Click on the eye. This will hide the color on your vector layer. You don't have to
do this step but I prefer my color turned off when I'm editing my nodes.

If you're really new to PSP you're probably wondering "what's a node?", nodes
are the 4 small squares you see around the outline on your oval. Nodes are what
we use to change the shape of the oval into whatever shape we want. You can
add new nodes and also change the type of node. We will be exploring how to do
that as we go.

9. With the left mouse button click once on the top center node. You will see an
arrow through the small square. Click and hold the square and move it down just
a little to squish the top somewhat.

10. Right click on the top left node. You will see a drop down menu like the one
below, select as shown...

This changes the node type so that each end of the arrow moves freely.

11. Click and hold on the right end of the arrow, pull it up a little. Click and hold
on the left end of the arrow and move it up a little too.....

12. Click on the node on the left side to make it your active node. Right click and
change the Node Type to Cusp. Click and hold on the bottom end of the arrow. Move
it inward to create a slight taper to your side....

13. Click on the right side node. Right click and change the type to Cusp. Move the
bottom end of the arrow in a little just like you did for the left side...

14. Now for the bottom node. Right click on it and change the type to Cusp.
Move the right and left ends of the arrow down just a little to make an ever
so slight indent on the bottom of your apple....

15. Look in your Layers Palette, click once again on the eye to make you color visible.
Right click on Vector 1, you will see a drop down menu, click on rename. Type in Apple
then hit the enter key on your keyboard. This renames your vector layer so that it's
easier to see which layer is which.

16. Right click on your canvas (your apple), you will see a drop down menu, select
Apply....

This brings you out of editing mode but still leaves your vectors intact so that
they can be edited again.

Go to File, Save

17. Now let's make the stem for our apple. Set your background color to #c08c00

18. Click on your Preset Tools and set to Rectangle....

The settings for the Rectangle should be the same as for the Ellipse. Show nodes,
Create On Vector, should both be checked.

19. On your top task bar click on Layers, New Vector Layer...

Name this layer Stem!

20. At the top of your apple, click and hold the left mouse button and draw out
a narrow vertical rectangle....

21. Right click on your stem and select Convert to Path.

22. Click on the Pen Tool . Zoom in on your stem. You can do this by going to
View, Zoom, Zoom in More Or you can look on the right side bar under Overview
and use the slider to zoom in or the + magnifier to zoom in. Either way, zoom in
to about 300%.

23. On your Layers Palette click on the eye beside your Stem layer to turn your
color off.

24. You will see 4 nodes on your rectangle, one in each corner. We need to add two
new nodes so that we can shape the rectangle to look more like the stem of an apple.
 

First let's add a new node to the left side of our rectangle. Hold down the CTRL key
on your keyboard while placing the mouse pointer on the left side line just below the
existing top corner node. When you see + Add, click once to add a new node....

Hold the CTRL key place your mouse pointer on the right side line until you see the
+ Add again and click once to a node to the right side....

25. Make active the top left node. Move it over to the left a little...

26. Make active the top right node, move it up and over to the left...

27. Right click on the right top node and change the type to Symmetric. This will
round the top a little. Adjust the other nodes by moving them as I have in the
screenshot below....

Uncheck the eye beside your Stem layer in your Layers Palette to make your color
visible again. Right click on your stem and select Apply.

Go to File, Save

Making the Leaf.

28. Go to Layers, New Vector Layer. Name this layer Leaf.

29. Set your background color to #048e04

30. Preset Shapes set to Ellipse, other settings the same as we've used before.

31. Close to the top right side of your stem draw out an oval.

32. Right click on your oval, Convert to path.

33. Click on the Object Selector Tool .
You will see a box with a handle in the center. Using the left mouse button
click and hold on the end of the handle, pull up on it and it will rotate the oval
so that the left end is down.....

34. Now click on the Pen Tool so we can edit our nodes. In the Layers Palette
hide your color if you want.

35. Make active the bottom left node closest to the stem, right click and
change the type to Cusp. Move the node so that it is on the stem. Pull the
handles in to form a point...

36. Make active the top right node (the tip of the leaf). Change the node type to
Cusp. Pull down and in on the left handle of the node to make a dip in the top
of the leaf...

37. Make your color visible again then right click on the leaf and select Apply!

38. In the Layers palette click and hold on the leaf layer and move it down
so that it is below the stem layer.

Before we start merging our layers, Go to File, Save. Now go to Window,
Duplicate. Close the original.

With your duplicate, go to File, Save As. Name it Apple2.pspimage.

39. In your Layers Palette, right click on the Apple layer, Choose,
Convert to Raster. Right click on the Stem layer and Convert to Raster.
Right click on the Leaf layer and Convert to Raster.

Your apple is now ready for shading! Have fun playing with it!

Until next time... God Bless!
Connie