Carnival Masks Tutorial

psp9 and pspX

Filters and programs used in this tutorial:-
Paint Shop Pro
Super Blade Pro

Materials:-
My selection files, dusky rose SBP preset and tubes Here
The Blade Pro pre-set I originally used was Dee's 'Pink Jewel'
which is no longer available, my dusky rose is a similar alternative.
The gradient aspectrum was created by Peggy Jentoft

some images have been made smaller to shorten file size

Most of the screenshots are from the psp7 version of this
tutorial, so the setting dialog boxes may look different
to yours, but the settings themselves should be the same

This tutorial was originally written for PSP7 and used the Sinedots filter
and PSP's Geometric Effect...Perspective...Vertical. Unfortunately the
Perspective effect works differently from PSP9 onwards, this distorts the
sinedots shape too much to use, so I have made a selection file to use
instead, which you can find in the materials zip.

step 1.
Open a new image 200 x 200 transparent
Flood fill with a dark colour

Add a new layer
Go to Selections...Load/Save Selection...Load Selection from Disk...
choose the half-mask selection and use the default settings

Step 2.
You may need to zoom in to see the selected area
Flood fill the selection with any colour for now (except the colour
used for your background), we will be changing the colour later.
You should now have something like this.

Step 3.
Go to Image...Canvas size...in the placement section
choose the centre box and change the canvas size to
400 x 400 make the background the active layer and
flood fill with your background colour

Make the raster 2 the active layer,
go to Image...Rotate...Free Rotate...all layers unticked
Rotate by 90° 'Left' (you can get a different
shaped mask by rotating 'Right' instead)

Use the Mover tool to position the image at the top right
I have turned on the grid (200 horizontal 200 vertical)
for the screenshot so that you can see the position I used

Step 4.
Go to Layers...Duplicate...then Image...Mirror

Go to Layers...Merge...Merge Down
Go to Image...Resize...and making sure that the
'all layers' box is not ticked resize the layer
to 80% resample using Bicubic

Step 5.
Change the palette foreground to gradient fill
you can choose any gradient you like, I used aspectrum

Go to Selections...Select All...
Selections...Float...
Selections...Defloat...
flood fill the selection with gradient,
if the colour isn't strong enough with one
click, you can click 2 or 3 times
then de-select

Step 6.
Add a new layer
Use the Pen Tool
Mode=draw lines and polylines
Connect Segments=unticked
Create on Vector=unticked
Show Nodes=unticked
Line Style=Solid
Width=8
antialias ticked
with the foreground colour white
hold down the shift key (this will keep the line straight)
and draw a line from the top left of the mask to
near the bottom of the image. You can adjust the
position with the mover tool if necessary

Select the stick with the Magic Wand, go to
Effects...Plugins...Super Blade Pro...
and apply sg_dusky-rose or any preset
you want then de-select

To make the stick more rounded I added an inner bevel
Go to Effects...3D Effects...Inner Bevel...
use these settings

Layers...Merge...Merge Down...
Go to Effects...3D Effects...Drop Shadow...
use these settings

Step 7.
To add some decoration and to cover the join between
the stick and the mask, These are the tubes that I
used, but if you don't have the same ones you can
use any alternative tubes you that like.

For my ribbons I used the 'streamers' tube
that came with psp7 (I have included this in the
materials zip for this tutorial) scale=100 step=100
place each one on a seperate layer and stretch them
to different lengths using the Deformation Tool,
you can flip or mirror them, if you think any of
the ribbons would look better the other way around.

This was my first ribbon (streamer)

Click on the Deformation Tool and then pull
the bottom centre down to stretch it

Double click to remove the deformation box
Then go to Effects and sharpen

I did three ribbons deleting any that I didn't
like the shape of. You can use the colourizer on
them if you need to change the colours.
Don't forget to put them on seperate layers.

The streamers already have a drop shadow
so you don't need to add one. I finished with
a tube of my own called sg_pink flower using
scale =30 step =200
Go to Effects...Sharpen...and sharpen
then I added a small drop shadow, changing
the vertical and horizontal setting to 2.

The sg_pink flower and sg_pink blossom tubes that
I use in this and the second mask are available for
download at the top of the page if you want them,
but you can use your own if you prefer
This is how my first mask looked after decorating

Turn off the visibility of the background layer
by clickin the eye on that layer in the layers
palette. Go to Layers...Merge...Merge Visible.
Turn the visibility of the layer background back
on, by clicking the eye again.

Step 8.
For the second mask, with the following minor
adjustments, follow steps 1 to 5 (inclusive)
in in Step 1. use the half-mask2 selection

Step 3. after rotating, move the image to the
centre right, see the screenshot below (you will
need the space when we rotate this mask later)

in Step 5. the gradient I used this time was
red-green-blue with these settings, you can
use any other gradient instead though.

This is the colour I had at step 5

When you have completed step 5 with the
second mask go to step 9.

Step 9.
Go to Image...Rotate... and rotate 35° 'Right'
making sure that the 'all layers box is not ticked
Then go to Edit..Sharpen...and sharpen

Go to Edit...Copy...
This image is no longer needed

Step 10.
Make sure that the top layer of your picture is active
Go to Edit...Paste...Paste as a new layer and use the
Mover Tool to re-position as you want (I adjusted the
position of my first mask as well)

Step 11.
Make sure that the top layer is active and
add a new layer. Repeat Step 6. making the line
run diagonally so that it crosses the first stick
the as in the following screenshot

When you have completed Step 6 with the second mask,
follow Step 7. The tube I used to finish this mask
was my 'sg_pink blossom' scale=30 step=200

If you want to change the colour of your background,
flood fill with the colour, or pattern of your choice
Merge all layers
Add your own choice of frame

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
I would like to give a big thankyou to Suz
for testing this tutorial for me