Here's a technique (or a couple!) for making freeform butterflies (and angel fish) using a number of Paint Shop Pro tools, and some Blade Pro presets....

This project was inspired by the endlessly entertaining Invisabull , who's thinking "outside the box" results in the most whimsical things....

This project was done with PSP 6.  I will include a teardrop shape in GIF format for those needing to do this with PSP 5, in the zip file with the presets, etc. you need for this image.

(The image above uses my Rainbowmosaic preset, over a purple glass pattern fill.)

For our first trick -

A vector teardrop shape! 

Begin by opening a new image, 400x400, white background, 16.7 million colors.   Give yourself plenty of room to work!  You will give this image 4 layers.  Click on the layer palette bar, you should see one layer named "Background."   Right click on this layer title,  you will get a menu, select Duplicate."   Right click on the new layer which is called Copy of Background, click on Properties, and rename it to "teardrop."  (This is to give this layer the same properties as the background layer, in this case the white background color.   There are other ways to do this, this just gives you practice with the tools!)    Click on the "double page" icon under the title bar.  This adds a new layer, call it "wing."  Click on that icon again, add another layer called "shadow."   Your layer palette should now look like this -

Click on the draw tool

Use the above settings, with a dark  color in the foreground

Left click ONCE at approximately the center of the top of the image.  Do not hold down the button.  Go to the bottom of the image, left of center, left click again.  Move the mouse straight across the bottom,left click on last time (you will have formed a triangle with the 3 click points, but you won't have held the mouse button down while dragging.) 

Walla!!!!!

You will now see that you have added yet another layer, this one a vector layer, rename this one vector tear.  (Save a copy of this image at this point, you never know when you might need a good vector teardrop!  Save it as a .psp file with layers intact.)

Since this is a vector object, you can make it fatter, or skinnier, move it around to suit your wishes. Click on any of the little square nodes and move the shape as you wish.

Move this little darlin' to one side of your 400x400 image, Edit, Copy, Paste as New Vector Selection.  Move the second tear-drop to the other side of the image.  They don't have to be perfectly lined up, but the deformation effect will work better if they are closer to the outside edges of the image.  I have also edited the second tear drop because I want 2 different shapes to play with.

Go to Selections, Select None (or CTRL D, my second favorite keyboard shortcut, right after CTRL Z!)  Then CTRL A for Select All, and go to Edit, Copy.   Activate the "teardrop" layer, go to  Edit, Paste into Selection.    Turn off the "vector teardrop" layer by clicking on the "eyeglasses."  A red X should appear on that layer.

Make sure that the "teardrop" layer is active and that the two teardrops are selected within the layer.  Go to Image, Deformations, Circle and apply the deformation.

You will now have a layer called "Floating Selection" in your layer palette. Right click on this layer, promote it to a layer and rename it "shapes."  Make sure the "vector tear" and "teardrop" layers are turned off (little red X's on the eyeglasses, remember?) and save a copy of this as a .psp file with layers intact.  (This will come in handy again sometime too!)

Use the rectangular selection tool to draw a rectangle around the "wing" shape you like the best. Double click inside the rectangle, and WALLA yet again, the selection "snaps to" the shape.   Neato, huh????    Flood fill this shape with the color or pattern of your choice. 

Hit CTRL C to copy this selection.  Turn off the shapes layer by clicking on the "eyeglasses." Activate the wing layer by clicking on it's name in the layer palette.   Hit CTRL E to paste the filled shape into the wing layer.  Position it to the right side of the layer.  Defloat this if necessary by hitting SHIFT CTRL F.  Hit CTRL E to paste a second copy of the shape into this layer. Go to Image, Mirror and this shape should reverse itself, which you can now position on the left side of the first image.  Defloat this if necessary (SHIFT CTRL F.)

Deselect everything on the layer by hitting CTRL D.  Make sure the only visible layers are "background" and "wing."  Go to Image, Flip if you think the butterfly would look better in that direction!

Okay, this seems like a lot of work so far BUT you have a teardrop vector object saved, and some wing shapes saved, and this current butterfly on which we will now work our Blade Pro magic...

Save a copy of this whole image as a .psp file with all layers intact.  Now you can delete the extra layers in the remaining image, just right click on the "shapes," "teardrop," and "vector tear" layers and delete them.  You will have the background, wing and dropshadow layers remaining.  Click on the wing layer to make it active. 

With the magic wand selected, click on the background outside the butterfly shape.    Go to Selections, Invert, so that the entire butterfly is selected.   Apply the Blade Pro preset of your choice!  Or more than one!  Go mad!

While the butterfly shape is still selected, activate the drop shadow layer.   Apply a drop shadow to this layer.  (This will allow you to change the shadow later if you want to without losing all your other work!)

Save a copy of this image as a .psp file with layers intact.  You will be able to change the background, drop shadow or recolor the butterfly at will!

Instead of filtering the wings with Blade Pro, you can floodfill with a pattern, or apply any of the Paint Shop Pro effects.  Also, moving the teardrop shape in the image before applying the circle deformation, or adding other deformations such as "ripple" will result in interesting wing shapes. 

The image above uses the SBL-Gorgeous preset over aqua color fill.

The butterfly above uses SBL-Gorgeous preset over white.

You can also use your butterfly to make a tube... which I used to make these buttons.

I have included a teardrop image for those without PSP 6, and some of my presets I have used here, as well as .jpgs of the glass I have used for the backgrounds here.

You can make angelfish by varying the shape and orientation of the deformation.  The following fishies use some standard Blade Pro presets.

The graphics and text on this site are copyrighted by me, unless otherwise noted.  Please do not take any images or text, without my written permission, unless it is specifically made available within this site for download.

  © 1999 dizteq