This tutorial involves a lot of steps and some freehand drawing and shading. For that reason, I have provided a lot of screenshots to guide you along the way. But don't let it scare you off! Remember to save often, and that the "undo" function in PSP is one of your best friends!

My selection files. Place these in your PSP selections folder, or another location of your choice. You may download them here.

(Optional) Eye Candy 4000. You can do this tutorial without this).

There are 7 parts to this tutorial. I'll show you how to make each part in order. You'll save all the individual parts in psp format and then we'll assemble the flower at the end. (You could choose not to make all of the flower parts, just choose the ones you want). Be sure to save your work often!

Step 1. Open a new image 200 x 200, background color of your choice.

Step 2. Add a new layer. Load selection 1 (go to selections>load from disk, and then navigate to the folder where you placed your selections). Flood fill with blue, #2B4290.

Step 3. Keep it selected. Add a new layer. Set your airbrush settings as in the screenshot.

Spray a pattern similar to what I've done. when you spray the dark in the middle, change the size of the brush down to about 10.

Use these colors: #1849D4 and #ACBFF6 inside and then #273769 around edges and down the center.

 

Step 4. Select your retouch tool, smudge brush, using the settings in the screenshot below.

Smudge the colors around:

Start at the outside and work around the dark areas in a circular motion.

Do the inside light colors starting inside and working out.

Do the dark inside, working in a circular motion. If you need to, spray some more color on.

You may need to practice a bit to get the hang of this, but don't give up! When done, you should have something like this. Yours will not be exactly like mine, but don't worry about that.

 

Step 5. Add a new layer. With your airbrush (change size to around 2), draw some lines and use the smudge brush to soften them out (change the brush size down to about 5).

 

Step 6. Add a new layer. Load selection 2. Flood fill with pink #6A3553. Keep selected.

Add a new layer. Choose your airbrush again, same settings as before except change size down to about 3-4. Spray a darker color and a lighter color (I've used #3A2331 and #CF95BA). Spray color pattern similar to mine.

Step 7. Smudge the colors around in a circular motion. When done, you should have something similar to this:

Step 8. Add a new layer. Load selection 3. Flood fill with blue #2B4290. Keep it selected.

Step 9. Choose your airbrush, same settings as before except change the size to around 4. Spray the same colors as in Step 3 above.

Choose your retouch tool/smudge brush and smudge the colors around.

 

Step 10. Add a new layer. Choose your draw tool, freehand line, line size 1. Set your foreground color to #D6B416 and your background color to #574905. Draw a small elliptical shape (I've enlarged it below). Copy and paste a couple of these and arrange them on top of the pink layer.

 

Flower I is now done. Save it as a master psp file with all layers intact (you'll need this in a minute).

Then, hide the background layer and merge all visible layers. Copy and paste this merged layer as a new image. Save as a psp file. You'll need this later but you can close it for now if you wish.

Flower II is exactly the same as flower I except the center is white instead of pink. If you've saved all your layers intact, it's a breeze to make the change.

Step 1. Open up the master psp file you saved (of all layers). Make the pink layer active. Hide the pink shading layer. Choose your selection tool (any shape) and draw all around the outside of the pink area. Then gently click inside it to select (you'll see marking ants around it).

Step 2. Add a new layer. Flood fill with white.

Step 3. Add a new layer. Choose your airbrush, size about 6-7 and spray color #92B096.

Choose your smudge brush (set brush size to about 10), smudge colors.

 

Flower II is now complete. Save this master file with all layers intact.

Hide the background layer and merge all visible layers. Copy and paste the merged layer as a new image. Save as a psp file. You can close it for now.

Step 1. Open a new image 200 x 200. Add a new layer. Load selection 4. Flood fill with #2B4290. Keep selected.

Step 2. Add a new layer. Choose your airbrush and spray the same colors the same as you did before (#1849D4, #ACBFF6, #273769). Spray the darker color around the center and make some lines outward from the center. Choose your smudge brush (same settings as before, and smudge colors. You should have something similar to this.

Step 3. Add a new layer. Load selection 5. Flood fill with 6A3553. Keep selected.

Step 4. Choose your airbrush (same settings - adjust the brush downwards as necessary). Spray the same colors as you used before for the pink shading (#3A2331, #CF95BA). Smudge same as before. You should have something similar to this:

Step 5. Add a new layer. Load selection 6. Flood fill with 2B4290. Spray colors as before and shade as in Step 2 above. (Be sure to spray some of the dark color on the right bottom,similar to mine - this is where the pieces join).

Step 6. Add a new layer. With your draw tool, freehand line, same colors as before (foreground color to #D6B416, background color to #574905), draw some elliptical shapes on top of the pink layer. Copy and paste a couple of times.

Step 7. Choose your draw tool, freehand line, line width set to 1. Set your foreground color to #3A5645 and your background color to null.

Add a new layer and put it underneath all of the other layers, but on top of the background. Draw a small green bit at the bottom.

Flower II is now complete. Save all the layers as a master psp file (you'll need them in a minute).

Hide the background layer and then merge all visible layers. Copy the merged layer and paste as a new image. Save this as a psp file. You can close the file for now if you wish.

Step 1. Flower IV is the same as flower III except the pink bit is white.

Step 2. Make the pink layer active. Hide the pink shading layer. With your selection tool (any shape), draw all around the outside of the pink image and then gently click inside on it. You'll see marching ants around.

Step 3. Add a new layer. Flood fill with white.

Step 4. With airbrush, spray same color as before on the white area, and smudge.

This flower is now complete. Save all layers as a master psp file.

Hide the background layer and merge visible layers. Copy this merged layer and paste as a new image. Save as a psp file and close for now.

Step 1. Open a new image 200 x 200, background color of your choice.

Step 2. Add a new layer. Load selection 7. Flood fill with #587ACF. Keep selected.

Step 3. Add a new layer. With airbrush (same settings as before - adjust brush size as needed), spray color #BBD4F1. Smudge up and down.

This flower is now done. Hide background and merge visible layers. Copy the merged layer and paste as a new image. Save as a psp file and close for now.

Almost done! This is the last flower bit you'll make.

Step 1. Open a new image 200 x 200, background color of your choice.

Step 2. Add a new layer. Load selection 8. Flood fill with #E9E9DF. Keep selected.

Step 3. Add a new layer. Choose your airbrush (same settings as before, adjust brush size as needed). Spray a dark color around the outside (I used #BBB89F), and #EBF3C1 inside.

Step 4. Choose your airbrush (same settings as before - adjust brush size as needed), and smudge the colors.

The flower is now done. Hide your background layer and merge all visible layers. Copy the merged layer and paste as a new image. Save as a psp file and close for now.

Step 1. Open a new image 200 x 200, background color of your choice.

Step 2. Load selection 9. Flood fill with #608446.

Step 3. Copy and paste 4 times. Rotate and place into a shape similar to mine. Hide the background layer and merge all visible layers.

Step 4. Choose your selection tool (any shape) and draw all around the leaves. Gently click inside on the leaves to select - you'll see marching ants.

Step 5. Add a new layer. Choose your airbrush (same settings as before, brush size around 10. Spray color #424F37 around the outside edges and then spray color #BED5AB inside. Smudge.

 

Hide the background layer. Merge all visible layers. Copy the merged layer and paste as a new image. Same as a psp file. Keep it open, you'll need it now

Step 1. Open up a new image 400 x 500, white background.

Step 2. Add a new layer. Select your draw tool, freehand line, size 10. Set your foreground color to #4D643A and your background color to null. Draw a main stalk for your flower. You can add more later, just do something to get started now.

Now all you'll do is copy and paste your saved flower parts onto this stalk. You'll need to resize them by about 40-50% and rotate them. (Hint: open up all the pieces and copy/paste them one at a time onto your graphic. Resize as you do so. Then close everything except this 400x500 image. It saves opening a new file each and every time.

Step 3. When you've got things in place the way you want them, use your draw tool, freehand line (size 5 - 3) to draw stems. Make the size smaller as you go up the stalk.

Step 4. (optional). I added Eye Candy glass to the white bits at the top. If you want to do this, use the glass tubing setting and the button bevel profile. All other settings are default except change the bevel width to 3. Also, I changed the glass color on some of them to #9F9DF and left the others white for some variation.

If you don't have Eye Candy, you could use an inner bevel if you wish, or you can leave them as they are.

Once your flower looks the way you want, hide the background layer and merge all visible layers. I added a drop shadow to mine... Save it as a psp file and you're done. WHEW!!!

I know this was a long tutorial, and if you've made it this far, my hat's off to ya! Thanks for trying it, and as always, feel free to contact me if you experience any difficulties.