Paint Shop Pro. I used version 7.04 but if you are familiar with PSP, you should be able to convert the tutorial without problems. You can download the latest PSP version demo here.

My selection files. Place them in your PSP selections folder (or any location of your choice - just remember where you place them). You can download them here.

A quick word before we start. I always work with a lot of layers. It keeps me organized and allows me to go back and change things later if I make a mistake or simply want to change a color or an effect. It's just my personal preference of how to work. I also save often as I work, and I always save a master psp file when done, with all layers intact (often, I'll save several of these, at various steps along the way).

Ok, ready? Let's go.

Step 1. Open up a new image 450 x 350, background color of your choice.

Step 2. Add a new layer. Load selection 1 (go to selections>load from disk> and navigate to the location you placed your selection files). Flood fill with #D1D6D8. Keep selected.

Step 3. Add a new layer. Set your foreground color to #AC9FBB. Choose your airbrush, with the following settings, and spray some lines similar to mine.

 

Change the foreground color to white. Increase your brush size to about 5 and spray some white on the end, like this.

Step 4. Choose your retouch tool, smudge brush, with these settings. Smudge the colors until you get something similar to this (you can spray on more color if you need to).

 

When you like the effect you've achieved, hide the background layer and merge visible (go to layers>merge visible). Name this layer "1." Turn your background layer back on.

Step 5. Make layer 1 active and copy/paste as a new layer twice. Make one of the new layers active (just click on it on your layers pallete). Mirror it (go to image>mirror). Then rotate it left 10 degrees (go to image>rotate). Name this layer "2."

Step 6. Now make the other copied layer active. Mirror it and then rotate left 160 degrees. Name this layer "3."

Step 7. Add a new layer. Name it "petal." Load selection 2. Flood fill with #D1D6D8.

Step 8. Add a new layer. Set your foreground color to #AC9FBB. Choose your airbrush, same settings as before (screenshot), but change the brush size to anywhere between 2-5. Spray on color similar to this.

Step 9. Change your foreground color to white and spray a line down the center, like this.

Then go back and even it all out a bit. Be sure to make the white a bit heavier at the bottom. When done, you should have something similar to mine (it won't be exact).

 

Step11. Hide all layers except the petal and shading you've just been working on, and merge visible layers. Name this layer "4." Make other layers visible again.

Step12. Copy layer 4 and paste it as a new layer. Mirror it. Name it "5."

Step 13. Move layer 3 on top of layer 5.

Now you're going to work on the dark purple part of the flower. This one has the most shading because of all the color variations, so you'll be using several layers. Don't let that scare you! You'll just put each color on a new layer so you can adjust it if you need to. So, take a deep breath, and onward!

Step 14. Add a new layer. Load selection 3. Flood fill with #962F66. You will keep it selected through all the following shading steps (note: you're doing this so your shading won't go outside the edges).

Step 15. Add a new layer. Set your foreground color to a darker purple #6F234A. Choose your airbrush, same settings as before (see screenshot), except change the brush size to about 5. Spray color similar to mine. When you spray the bit at the top of this petal, change the airbrush size down to about 2-3. Note: it's important to draw the bit at the top as close to the way mine looks as you can.

Step 16. Choose your smudge brush, same settings as before (see screenshot) except change size to about 10. Smudge the colors around, similar to mine.

Step 17. Add a new layer. Change your foreground color to #AC9FBB. With your airbrush (change size to about 3), spray a little bit in the center top like mine.

Step 18. Choose your smudge brush (change size to about 5) and smudge it around a bit.

Step 19. Add a new layer. Set your foreground color to #DEB45A. Choose your airbrush and change line size to anywhere between 1 and 3. Spray a few lines on the top. Choose your smudge brush, size 1-2 and smudge.

 

Step 20. Add a new layer. Keep the same color. With your airbrush (change size to around 10), spray some color similar to mine. With smudge brush (size around 10), smudge.

 

Step 21. Set your airbrush to size 2 and pull a few wispy bits out. Start inside and pull outward.

Step 22. Add a new layer. Change your color to #9A5632. Set your airbrush size to about 10. Spray a small bit in the center. Smudge with smudge brush (size about 10).

Then change your smudge brush size to 2 and pull some wispy bits out from inside toward edges.

 

Step 23. Add a new layer. Change your airbrush size to about 1-3, and use same color as previous step. Spray some vertical lines. Smudge (change brush size to 2-3).

 

Step 24. I repeated step 23, but used an orange color #DF8B59 (this is optional). Now go back and freshen up, fix any of the shading that you are not happy with. Add more color if you need to. When done, you should have something similar to this - it will not be exact (I can't even create it the same twice ).

Save a master psp file with all layers intact. Hide the background layer and merge all visible layers.

Optional: before I merged the layers, I added a drop shadow to the dark purple bit. To do that, hide all the layers except the dark purple layer and its shading layers and then merge visible. Add a drop shadow of your choice (my settings are this: horizontal 3, vertical 3, opacity about 35, blur 5). I then merged the lighter lavendar bits and applied a drop shadow to that as well. When done, this is what I have.

Step 25. Now to make some leaves for your orchid. Hide all layers except your background (go to layers>view>none). Add a new layer. Load selection 4. Flood fill with #3A893D. Keep selected.

Step 26. Add a new layer. Set your foreground color to #1F5523. Choose your airbrush, same settings as before but change size to around 10. Spray color similar to mine. Choose your smudge brush (size around 10-15), and smudge like below.

 

Hide the background layer and merge all visible layers. Copy and paste as a new image. Save as a psp file.

Now you can add the leaves to your orchid, as it pleases you. Here's my final product.

Whew! If you've made it this far, congratulations!!!! This orchid was a challenge but I love the results, and hope you've enjoyed the process as much as I did. If you experience any problems, just let me know.