This tutorial requires Paint Shop Pro 5 and Blade Pro.
The illustrations of the image being made need to be viewed full size. In order to reduce the size of the tutorial they are represented on this page by thumbnails. Right click on them and use View Image to see them full size.
You will need a marble texture tile. Mine came from http://www.grsites.com/textures/ They have a huge selection of marble textures, all in seamless tiles.
You will need my Inlay3 Blade Pro Preset. Download the preset
You will also need a suitable woodcut pattern, one which still has clear texture when viewed at the size of your finished image. If the texture is lost and it becomes largely black when you zoom out, it is not suitable. You can scan images from books or pictures, or there are suitable woodcuts in the bigger Imsi Masterclips collections.
If you wish to use the lion pattern I have used, Download it here.
Open PSP 5 and load in the pattern.
Zoom out until you are viewing the pattern at the size of your finished image. Mine was at 1:4. (Remember to right click on these illustrations and use View Image to see them full size.)
Use Colour/Increase Colour depth/16 Million
Use Masks/New/From Image with This Window, Source Luminance selected and Invert Mask Data checked.
Use Masks/Save to Alpha Channel and name the mask Thin.
Use Edit/Undo Mask from Image to delete the mask from the pattern. It will still be in the alpha channel.
Use Image/Other/Erode. Use Masks/New/From Image with the same settings as before. Use Image/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask with Radius 1.00 Strength 100% Clipping 5. Click OK.
NB. If the erode makes the lines run together into large solid black areas, and the sharpening does not separate them again, Undo both of these actions, have only the thin mask, use it whether the instructions call for thick or thin, miss out the next two instructions, and go straight to Image/Resize. This leopard was done with only the thin mask because eroding the image lost all detail. Right click to view the full size image and you can see that this pattern would be impossible with any less detail
Use Masks/Save to Alpha Channel and name this mask Thick.
Use Edit/Undo Mask from Image to delete the mask from the pattern. It will still be in the alpha channel.
Use Image/Resize and resize the image so that it looks the same size on the screen, but is now 1:1. (If your image is 1:4 - resize to 25%, for 1:3, resize to 33% and so on.) Have Resize All Layers and Maintain Aspect Ratio checked.
Use Image/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask with Radius 1.00 Strength 100% Clipping 5. Click OK.
NB If you wish to make a bevelled edge to your marble, increase the canvas size at this stage by enough pixels to accomodate the size of bevel you want. Use Image/Canvas Size, set the size you require and make sure that the two centre image options are checked.
Set your background colour to black and your foreground colour to red 255 green 226 blue 67 (HTML code #FFE243).
Use the replace tool (Red arrow interlocking with blue) and change the black all over your image to yellow.
Use Selections/Load from Alpha Channel and load the thin selection.
Use View/Toolbars and check Layer Palette.
Use Edit/Copy then use Edit/Paste/As New Layer twice, so that you now have the background layer with the heavier lined lion on it on a white background, and Layers 1 and 2, each with a thin line copy of the lion on a transparent background, all yellow.
Use Selections/Select None.
Load your marble texture. Click on your lion image to make it current and choose the flood fill tool. Use View/Toolbars and check Control Palette. On the control palette set the fill style to Pattern. None of the other settings are important. Click Options on the control palette and select your marble texture and click OK. Click on Background on the layers control palette to make it current, and then click anywhere on your image. The marble will show through the lion picture.
NB If you enlarged the canvas in order to bevel the marble, make the Background layer current, make the background colour light grey, and use Image/Effects/Buttonize, setting parameters which give you the effect you like.
On the layers control palette, click on layer 1. There will be no change to your picture. Click the button at the bottom left corner of the layers control palette to create a new layer, layer 3, which will be between layers 1 and 2. Click on the striped buttons beside Background and Layer 1, to turn them off. You will see the yellow lion against a transparent background
Use the double headed, right angled arrow to reverse your background and foreground colours, so that the yellow which you will need again is preserved as the background colour. Change the foreground colour to white.
On the layers control palette click on layer 3 to make it current.
You should still have the fill tool selected. On the control palette change the fill style to Solid Colour and click on your image. The background will become white.
Use Layers/Merge/Merge Visible. You will be left with Background and Layer 1(both switched off.) and Merged which is switched on.
Use Image/Other/Dilate followed by Image/Other/Emboss. Your image will become grey and blue.
Use Selections/Load from Alpha Channel and load the thin selection.
Use Selections/Modify/Feather with the setting at 5.
Reverse your colours again so that yellow is the foreground colour. Make sure that the merged layer is the current one, and use Image/Other/Hot Wax Coating. Use Selections/Select None. Your image will look like the one on the right.
Use Selections/Load from Alpha Channel and load the thin selection.
Use Edit/Copy and Edit/Paste/As New Layer. Layer 3 will appear above merged on the layer control palette.
Click on merged on the layer control palette and click on the trash can button at the bottom of the palette, to delete that layer, leaving you with background and layers 1 and 3. Click the buttons to switch the background and layer 1 on again.
The marble will reappear, but the lion will be in subdued colours, as on the left.
Click on layer 3 to make it current. Use Selections/Load from Alpha Channel and load the thick selection.
Apply the Blade Pro inlay 3 preset.
Use Selections/Select None and then pull the layer 3 slider back to 80.
If you are not satisfied with the colour of the gold, because that is a personal preference, switch off Layer 3 and use Colours/Adjust/Brightness and Contrast to change the colour of layer 1 to a lighter or darker colour to suit your own requirements. When you switch layer 3 on again the colour of the gold will have changed slightly.
NB. If the image has very thin lines, you may need to apply the Blade Pro Preset more than once, still on Layer 3. For this owl picture I applied the Inlay3 preset 5 times. The first three were the standard settings, the fourth had height raised to 25 and the last had height still at 25 and radius at 50. The picture is still a very delicate one, but to over-thicken the lines in the first place would have lost all the detail in the feathers. As it is, the mouse it is carrying in its beak is barely visible, but without the repeated applications of Blade Pro the chicks were very faint and the colour did not look like gold. With difficult subjects compromises have to be made
This is not the easiest of techniques and the outcome depends very much on the quality of your woodcut pattern, but when you find a suitable picture to start with, beautiful results are possible.
VARIATION - SILVER INLAY
For a silver inlay, follow the directions above, with the following amendments:
Wherever yellow is mentioned, subsitute the pale grey which is in the basic colours (red, green, blue all 192, HTML code #C0C0C0).
Instead of applying the inlay3 Blade Pro preset, use inlaysil preset. Download inlaysil Blade Pro Preset here
After the application of the Blade Pro preset, draw the layer 3 slider to 80 as in the gold inlay image, but then add this one final step.
Set foreground colour to white and background colour to pale grey. Click on Layer 2 in the layer control palette. Use the colour replace tool (red arrow interlocking into blue background) and go all over your image. You will see the silver lighten slightly in colour. If you wish to see exactly what you are doing, switch Layer 3 off while you use the replace tool. The colour of the image on that layer will change from grey to white. Switch layer 3 on again to show the final image.
If you wish to adjust the silver colour to suit your own preference, reload the thick selection from the alpha channel and use Colour/Adjust - experiment with Brightness/Contrast or Hue/Saturation/Lightness. On the horse image below I used Brightness 9, Contrast 26.
© Carol Brooksbank 2003
This tutorial may not be copied to any other website nor distributed in any way. It may be downloaded for personal use only. Links to my tutorials at http://www.caroluk.co.uk/tutindex/ are welcome.
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