Opal Finish Porcelain Basket
 
 


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This tutorial was written February 17, 2003.




I will be using a ding font for this tutorial that I found at House Of Lime called "Someone Special".
For best results the ding should have areas of detail that are cutout in order to be more effective in producing the "raised"
look we want without having to do a lot of hand shading to raise the image. However if you're more adventurous you can use one
of your own tubes. It can be modified to get the same look by turning the tube white, (you can do this by using the Adjust,
Brightness/Contrast filter) then use the Airbrush, Push Tool, & Smudge Tool to apply shading to the tube to give it a raised
appearance!
The grapes used in my above finished image were done by me following a tutorial written by Liz.
 

1.) Open a 450x450 transparent canvas. Since we will be working with white I suggest you flood fill layer 1 with a dark color
to help you see better.
 

2.) Preset shapes set to Ellipse, create as a vector and antialias both check. Background color set white.

3.) Draw out an oval, manipulate and add nodes until you have something like the screenshot below...

4.) Now we need a handle, for this I used the the Draw Tool with these settings...

The reason I chose to use the bezier line is so that once I drew the line I could round it by setting the handles to look like
and upside down U and then node edit it to bringing those nodes together at the bottom forming a one sided handle but still
maintaining my rounded arch at the top.

5.) You have your basic vector shapes. Save a copy in its vector from if you wish but convert the copy you will be working
with to Rasters, renaming if you would like.

6.) Add a new Raster layer, set your background color to White.... have the ding you wish to use open or installed in your
front folder.
Click on the Text Tool, find your font! If you're using the font I'm using, set the size to 100 and type the lower case C key. Have
your "Create As" set to "Floating" and Antialias check. Have the "eye" button push in so that you can see what the ding looks like.
Adjust the size of you ding of needed. Click okay, your ding should be there with marching ants around it.

7. ) The next steps will apply if you're using the same ding as I am or a similar one that is only a cutout.
With the marching ants around your ding go to Selections, and click on Invert. Switch your white background so that it becomes
your foreground, use the Flood Fill Tool to add color to the heart and a few of the flower petals. Go back to Selections, and invert
once again. Now hit the delete key on your keyboard. This should remove the outline white area. Keep Selected.

8. )Now let's add some color back to the outline area. Apply a Cutout with these settings...

Color of Cutout is.. #AEB2DC

9.) Do not Deselect.  Apply a Drop Shadow with these settings, (shadow color used is same as for cutout color, even though
it doesn't look it)...

10.) Once again apply a drop shadow same as above, but change the Blur to 21. See how once you apply the last Drop Shadow
the heart jumps down and there are two of them? Well let's use that to our advantage. Leave Selected and click on your Mover
Tool. Move the top heart so that it shows a little of the bottom heart, something like this....

11. ) Deselect. Zoom in on your image so that you have a nice up-close view of your heart.
Click on your Retouch Tool and set to these settings...

I want you to use the Push Tool to push around the back heart that shows giving some dimension to your heart. Softly go around
the back bold hard lines and blending them so that it will give an upward appearance to the top heart. Use the Soften Tool
to smooth and fade out the areas of the heart/flowers.

12.) Once I had my heart the way I wanted it I chose to Duplicate and Mirror the layer. This is what mine looks like at this stage...

14.) Make the basket your active layer! Select your basket so that you have the marching ants around it.
Then Contract the selection by 2.  Add a new Raster Layer. Click on the Airbrush Tool with these settings...

Below is the list of colors that I switched back and forth between to get the pearly finish..

#C0C0FF
#F4D6E0
#94CAC7

15.) Play around with the size on your Airbrush making some heavy and light areas of color.
Use these settings to Blur your colors...

16.) Once you're happy with the pearl effect you have, merge visible the bottom basket layer, the ding layer and the shading layer.
Duplicate the layer. Hide the duplicate, make your original your active layer, use the Mover Tool to offset the back layer so that it will
show slightly above the duplicated layer.
Then go to Colors, Adjust, Brightness/Contrast and set the brightness to -10 or so. We want it a few shades darker so that it will look
as if it is the inside of the far side of the basket. Although in my finished image the back didn't show but there might be a time you
want a part of it to show.

17.) Make active the Duplicated layer. Use your Selection Tool to select the top area of your basket as I have in the screenshot below...

Once you have it selected go to Selections, Promote to Layer. With the promoted layer active go to Image, Flip, move the flipped
piece into place so that it lines up with your basket. This will become the "lip" of the basket.

18.) Add a shadow to the lip with these setting..
Shadow color used.. #C0C0FF

You should have something that looks like this now..

19.) Select your handle, add a new raster layer and use the colors you used for the basket to shade the handle. Blur your
shading using the same settings as for the basket.

20.) With your shading layer your active lay, set your Draw Tool to these settings...

Foreground color should be set to White! Use the bezier tool to draw some detail on your handle, Copy and paste as a new selection
the line you make to continue the design up the handle.
You should end up with something like this...

That's it, all that's left is to hide your back layer and layer one, merge the handle and the front layer visible. I chose to leave my back layer
as it's own layer so that I could place things inside of the basket!

I hope you've enjoyed this tute and will make many different styles of baskets!!

Until next time, God Bless!
Connie



 


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