String Art Background Tutorial PSP 8 and X This tutorial was created 30th January 2007©Copyright Artwork by EssexGirl please do not copy it, or put it anywhere else without my written permission. *NOTE* Sometimes the links for filters change, it's difficult (and a lot of work) to keep changing them on individual pages, so I have created a page with links to filters and programs that I have used in my tutorials. That way it is easier for me, because when there are changes I will only have one page to update and hopefully better for you, because I'm less likely to miss a page out when doing the updates :) You will find links to filters/programs used in this tutorial Here the link will open in a new window Filters and programs used in this tutorial :- Paint Shop Pro Some images have been made smaller to shorten file size

Please Note* My tutorials were written for people to learn from, so PLEASE DO NOT SCRIPT THEM.

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... flip... 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... Resize if you want to (resample using bicubic) I resized the background tile for this page to 150x150 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 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 as the background in this tutorial.

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