Tutorial: Using Digital Layered Sketches in Paint Shop Pro (PSP)

I have gotten soooo many questions lately about using the sketches in PSP that I thought it was finally time to post a tutorial.  I had all kinds of hopes and aspirations that I would find a way to save the files that would work for all applications but after downloading PSP tonight it still hasn't happened. I know I can save them as PSD and PSP X users can use them BUT lower versions of PSP can't (I think) and the file size is much bigger and then other applications can't use them at all, SO I'm gonna stick with the tiffs.  If you are desperate for the PSD's instead, email me and I'll send them to you.  But I think this method I'm about to give you will be much easier than using them layered (in psp) anyway.  For PS or PSE users, stick with the layer masks (I will redo that tutorial shortly as well).

Ok here we go!!!

First things first... I recently discovered that the text on the sketches really messes up this method so I won't be including text on them anymore but for those past ones, here's how you can deal with that. 

A sketch with text on it:

See, when we try to select that whole upper part, it doesn't work because that pesky text is there.

We need to get rid of that so you can follow the method.  Use your picker tool to choose the color of the portion of the sketch with the writing on it.  (pretend that arrow is a picker tool, i can't get my screen capture to capture the actual mouse)

Now that you have the right color selected, pick a big brush, settings here aren't too crucial, just something big enough to paint over that text quickly.

Paint over the text! (again, pretend that is the brush tool!)

Keep doing that for all your little pieces of text. 

Ok now that you are done, let's make the layout!!!!  And since I love to confuse you, I of course did this part of the tutorial with a different sketch.  (Sorry, I did this part first and then realized I needed to show you how to get rid of the text and this sketch didn't have any text.  And in case you are getting ready to ask, this sketch is not yet available... it will be once I'm all set up at my new shop!!!! More on that in the next few days :) )

So this is what my sketch looks like when I open it... nice and flat... woohoo...uh-huh...

So I need to start by choosing my magic wand tool.  The really important parts are making sure that Tolerance is set to 0 and Contigous is checked.

Except immedietly after I took that screen shot I realized I wanted you to change that first setting (Mode) to Add. 

Now, click on all the segments that should represent one piece of paper.  I chose a difficult piece for demonstration purposes.  Here are the segments I've selected.  (At this point I bet you are saying, why don't I just uncheck Contiguous, then I won't have to click all these segments... well the reason for that is sometimes I duplicate colors in the sketches and sometimes, that mode likes to select stray pixels.)

Ok, now I have everything selected (no I didn't have everything selected in the image above but I assume you can guess what I'm gonna choose next!) 

Now, if you haven't already, open any papers and photos that you want to use.

Let's now pick our paint bucket tool.

 

We need to click on the foreground color now so we can change what we plan on filling this selection with.

and this awesome window pops up, choose the Pattern tab.

Click on that arrow, you will get a list of default patterns as well as the documents that you have open.  Hopefully you opened your papers like I told you to up there.  ^^^^^  Choose the paper/photo that you want to fill the selection with.

Hey, isn't that paper pretty?  it's from Cindy Simon's new and improved Lisa's Laughter kit!

Ok, now that you have your paper loaded, you need to apply it to all those selections.  You still have your paint bucket tool selected right?  Now start clicking in all of those areas you selected.

Now, just keep repeating those steps for every "layer" of the sketch.  For example, the background paper:

(again, I didn't finish filling all the sections but I'm guessing you can figure out where I go from there.)

If you want, you can fill each selection on a different layer so you can add your own drop shadows.

I hope that helps you PSP users.  If I messed anything up, I apologize, there are probably better ways to do things but I've never used PSP before tonight so this is all I got!

Let me know if you have any questions!