Art class part 2: art for art's sake

In part one of our art class, we looked at using Paint Shop Pro 9 (PSP) to create unique and individual pieces of art. As a starting point, we focused specifically on the artistic tools in PSP, but if you've downloaded the program and have been exploring its potential, you'll already be aware that its capabilities extend far further.

It's time to take a step up and explore some of the program's more advanced options. Not only is it a powerful photo-editing program, it also allows you to work with vectors in your images and over the coming pages we will focus on bringing all this together in creating impressive works of art.

At the end of it all, we'll suggest some interesting ideas for outputting your creation to your media of choice - be it T-shirts, postcards, mouse mats, or even jigsaw puzzles.

Don't forget that Paint Shop Pro 9 is currently available on a 60-day trial basis free of charge. A good companion to PSP is the powerful vector art program Serif DrawPlus 4, which can be downloaded free here.

No matter what image-editing software you use, however, the approach will be the same. The best way to get to know a new program is by experimenting. With our feature at your side, you have nothing to fear. It's fun, it's free and it will let your imagination soar.

Get creative
Most of us spend a fair bit of money each year on birthday cards, postcards, T-shirts and any number of other items incorporating some sort of picture in their creation. Yet regardless of their cost, these items often lack personal meaning.

With powerful design and image-editing programs like PSP and Serif DrawPlus around, it's easy to add a personal touch to gifts. To give an idea of what is possible with a little bit of effort and imagination, we're going to use these programs to create an image combining photographic, vector and art elements.

The best part is that the finished creation will be unique. The following ideas will show you how to go about using various artistic elements in a more advanced way than our last feature but don't worry if you missed it as we will take each stage step by step.

Often the best place to start when creating digital art is with a photograph that you like. You may have a favourite family snap or a particularly beautiful landscape that you photographed while on holiday. Alternatively, you could explore the internet for examples of other people's photography.

A good place to look online for images is Freefoto.com. These images are free for you to use but bear in mind that they are not for commercial use. In other words, if you are creating artwork to sell on, steer clear.

Once you have chosen an image, click on Open in PSP and locate it on your hard disk. The first thing to be aware of is that the photo's resolution will affect the size of the image when using it in PSP. Therefore, the first step is to decide exactly what it is you plan to create.

Once you've decided, click on Image, then Image Size and enter the dimensions of the object you wish to create. You may wish to look at the template options mentioned in part one for the dimensions of some common output options. Don't worry too much if you aren't sure - you can change the image size at any time.

Do bear in mind, however, that a photograph is an example of a raster image so if you increase its size, the image quality will be affected. We looked at the difference between vector and raster images in more detail in part one of this feature.

Photo editing
Now that you have the photo open on the screen, it's time to explore PSP's photo-editing capabilities. You may be happy with the photo exactly as it is, but if you're not, there are some impressive tools at your disposal for changing everything from colour and contrast to adding quirky effects and shadows.

For our own design, we've chosen a picture of a couple that we want to superimpose onto another image of a sunset. Considering the original photo is set in the countryside, we need to adjust the colour and lighting to more accurately match that of a sunset image.

A good way to achieve this is to click on the Adjust menu, then select Colour, and Colour Balance. Adjust the three sliders to change the colour values. Notice that as you change the values, the preview image on the right shows you what effect your changes will have - the changes are only actually made when you click on OK.

There are many other options for changing such things as brightness and contrast under the Adjust menu. Depending on your own image, you may wish to tinker further - and this is often the best way of discovering unexpected and impressive-looking effects - but after some minor adjustments to the contrast, we're happy with the look of our image.

While on the subject of photo-editing, have a look at the Effects menu and try out the powerful digital effects included in PSP. You can convert images into pencil or charcoal sketches using the Art Media effects, or apply all kinds of distortion effects such as Wind or Pinch.

Remember that you can undo your actions at any time by clicking on Undo in the Edit menu, or simply holding down Ctrl and pressing Z, while PSP's History palette lets you remove individual actions independently of the others.

Moving pictures
The next step is to remove our subjects from the country setting and paste them in front of a sunset. Click on the small arrow next to the Selection tool and choose Freehand Selection. Click and drag to draw a rough outline around the part of the image you wish to use, in this case our two subjects.

Select Cut from the Edit menu, then open a new image and paste the selection into it. Next, click on the arrow next to the Selection tool again and select Magic Wand. This cleverly selects parts of an image with similar colour characteristics. Click a few times on various parts of the image to see how it works, noting the effect of changing the tolerance in the toolbar above the main window.

Now hold down the Shift key and carefully click around the edges of the subject to accurately select bits of the background you wish to cut away, then hit Delete. This may take some time and it might be a good idea to zoom in for greater accuracy, but it is important that none of the existing background is pasted onto the new image.

Once this is done, click anywhere on the blank background, then select Invert under the Selection menu. This will select only our subjects, discarding any background information. Click on Edit, then Copy.

It's now time to magically transport them to their new setting. Open the image you wish to paste them onto, in our case the sunset background. Now click on Edit, then Paste, then Paste as New Layer. Suddenly our subjects appear with the sun setting at their backs.

Pasting the image as a new layer is ideal in that it allows us to more accurately place our subjects, not to mention further tweaking brightness and colour levels to suit the new setting.

Take as long as you like to do this and once you are satisfied, click on Layers, then Merge and Merge All (Flatten) to combine the layers into one image.