String Art Background Tutorial

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

Some images have been made smaller to shorten file size

Step 1.
Open a new image 300 X 300 transparent
In your Foreground and Stroke Properties box choose a fairly dark colour
and in the Background and Fill Properties box choose a lighter shade.
Change the foreground to Gradient with these settings:-
Foreground-Background
Angle=0
Repeats=8
Invert=unticked
Style=Linear

Flood fill your image with the gradient

Step 2.
Go to Effects...Distortion Effects...Spiky Halo...
Use these settings :-

Step 3.
Go to Layers...Duplicate...then Image... Mirror... Mirror Vertical...(Flip in older versions)
On the layers palette change the Blend Mode to Lighten (as a variation try the
other Blend Modes instead, you can get some interesting effects and colours

Go to Layers...Merge...Merge visible

Step 4.
Go to Effects...Image Effects... Seamless Tiling... using the default setting
(Corner, Bidirectional, Verical and Horizontal=0, transition=50, Linear)

Resize if you want to (resample using bicubic)

If you want to create a pale version for putting under text, add a new layer and flood
fill with white, or a pale shade of your main colour and lower the opacity of the layer, by
moving the slider in the layers palette, until you get the transparency you want.
Here are a couple of examples

You can vary the result by changing the number of repeats in your gradient and by
using a gradient with several colours instead of the plain foreground-background one.

I though this example looked very effective, for this I used a plain foreground-background
gradient with no repeats at all, then did exactly the same steps used in this tutorial.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
To see my other tutorials click Here

If you wish to contact me you can find an email address to use included on my Site Map
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