Create a Poinsettia
Poinsettias are a full, vibrant Christmas
flower. I'll show you how to create one.
This tutorial can be done in most versions of PI except for the noise
finishing touches and the texture filter, both new to PI8.
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1. Open a new image, 550 W X 550 H.
Using the Path Tool, Shape/Custom/ Leaf 1. Color red, 2-D. Draw a leaf.
Click on the Edit Path on attributes bar. Now zoom in to 200%
so you can see those nodes. We don't need to much editing, just
pull that top one out to make a finer point on the end. Click the toggle button
to check it out. If it looks good, click off the edit button.
Still zoomed in, pick up the paint brush, color dark red, size2 or 3.
Click on the Mode to paint as an object. Begin to paint in the long empty vein in the leaf.
It doesn't have to be perfect. Keep your image in mode.
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2. In the Retouch tools, pick up the Warp tool. Level 10, size 5.
Slightly go over your painted vein This also puts unwanted pixels outside of our leaf.
When you slightly warped the vein, click off Mode. Now you can see some of those
pixels. We can erase them now. You won't erase any of the leaf so erase those unwanted strays.
Click on the paintbrush, same dark red, size 1. Click on Mode again. Now paint some very faint vein lines
on the leaf. Click off Mode.
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3. Back in the Retouch tools, pick up the Burn tool. Preset, wide, Level 20, size, 20.
Carefully burn the edges of the leaf. Now pick up the Blur tool, also in the Retouch tools,
Preset / Slight, Level 1, size 20. Gently blur those burnt edges. Now pick up the Dodge tool,
in Retouch Tools, Level 20, size 15. Brighten the top portion of your leaf. Using the blur tool again, blur those edges
slightly. Back into the Retouch tools, pick up the Sharpen tool. Preset / Slighten, Level 3,
size / 30. Using a light touch go over the whole leaf to bring out some highlights.
While your leaf is active, right click and select all objects. Then right click and
merge as a single object.
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4. If you need a guide, pick up the Path Outline tool, 2-D any color and width and
draw a circle in the center of the 550 x 550 image.
Place your leaf to the one side of that circle and right click and duplicate it.
Using the transform tool, Rotate freely, slightly rotate this leaf upward and place beside the other leaf.
We will need a total of 7 large leaves to go around that circle.
When you get to the other side you can Rotate some leaves Horizontally, under
Edit. Place the leaves loosely.
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5. Duplicate another leaf and use the Transform tool to make it much smaller than the other leaves.
Place in the center. We will need 5 of these smaller leaves to go around
the circle.
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6. Duplicate another of these smaller leaves, using the transform tool, make it even smaller.
Go to Format/ Hue and Saturation. Click on the Colorize button, move the dial until you get a nice green color.
Make 5 of these smaller leaves and place in the center.
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7. Using the Path Tool, Shape /Circle, Color green, 3-D, make various sized green balls and place in
the center of the flower. Open the Layer Manger and click on the green balls while holding your Control
Key down, to select them all. Go to Effects/ Add Noise. Click on the Options button.
Select Uniform and Variance, 50. Walla, they are all done at once. Now make some Yellow, smaller balls
to go on top of the green ones. Do the same thing in selcting them all and adding noise.
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8. To make the large green leaves, duplicate one of the large red leaves. While it is active, go to
Format/ Hue and Saturation and colorize the leaf to green like before. Make 3 of the large leaves.
Arrange them around the flower and use the Pick Tool to send to the bottom of the stack.
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9. Adding shadows to the leaves has to be done one at a time. Click on one of the large
leaves, right click and choose Shadow. I started on the left side choosing leaves and used the second
button for those petals. On the right side I used the first button for shadows. All had the same settings
except for which side the shadow was on.
Basically your poinsettia is finished unless you have Photo Impact 8. We can go a few steps more.
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10. Holding your Control key down on your keyboard, select all the red petals, 7 large and 5 smaller ones.
Go to Effects / Add Noise.
Click on Varied, Monochromatic and Variance, 50. Click ok.
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11. Holding your Control key down on your keyboard, this time select the 3 large leaves.
Go to Effects/ All/ Texture Filter. Click on the Effect: Metal. Use these settings to make the leaves
look like silk.
Intensity- 24, Level- 3, Complexity- 85, Smoothing- 1, Shinning- 80. Preview your leaves. If you like
them, click ok. Right click and Select All Objects. You can either group and save or right click and merge as a Single Object.
Drag it into your easy palette. Now you have a pretty Poinsettia all made from scratch.
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Here is a Hue and Saturation color change on just the petals.
Now go have some fun.
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This site is maintained and copyrighted © by:
Dawn Reber 2002
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