Woven Mermaid

What you will need for this tutorial.

Paint Shop Pro. I used X2 but this should be possible with any version.

Tube of choice. I am using the gorgeous work of Carlos Cartagena. Carlos's work is licensed through MPT and you must obtain both a license and tubes through them to use his work.

Shape of choice. The one I used is from a set called Not More Shapes

Font of choice. I used GradoGradoo.


Let's get started

Open a new Image 600 x 250 pixels at 72 dpi. Flood fill with white.

Add a new Raster Layer, then go to your selection tool, and create a custom selection.

Flood fill the selection with a medium colour from your tube. Do not de-select.

Go to Effects, Textures, Weave and apply with the following settings:-

Expand the selection by 3, and add a New raster Layer, drop this layer below the weave layer and flood fill with black. Selections none.

Add a new raster layer at the top of your image. With your selection tool set to circle, start at a point 450,125, and draw out a circle so that it is slightly taller than your rectangle:-

Flood fill this with a light colour from your tube. Go to Effects, Textures, Blinds and apply with the following settings:-

Now copy and paste your tube and position so that the part you want in the circle sits nicely. Resize as necessary. Invert the selection and hit delete to get rid of the excess tube. Select none. Merge the Circle and Tube layers together, then apply weave again with the following settings:-

Duplicate the merged layer, and on the original add a Gaussian Blur of 20.00.

Copy and paste your main tube above the coloured weave layer and resize and position to your liking. Duplicate this and give the original the same gaussian Blur as before. Now go to Effects, Textures, Mosaic Antique and apply with the following:-

Now make your coloured weave layer active, and with your preset shape set to your shape of choice, foreground nil, background a gradient to suit your colour scheme, draw out your shape so that it stretches from the left to just behind your circles.


Change the blend mode of this layer to Multiply.

With your shape layer active, select your text tool and your GradoGradoo Font, foreground colour nil, background the lighter colour you used for your circle, type out your name as a vector layer and stretch it out to your liking. Add an Inner Bevel:-

Duplicate the text layer, and on the original apply the Gaussian Blue, and Mosaic Antique settings as before. Change the Blend Mode of the copy text to Luminance (L).

Now add your copyright, license number if appropriate, and taggers mark if used.

You tag is now complete. Save it as a psp image so you can use it again, and also so that you can create your matching avatar. You can now either merge All Layers and save as a jpeg, with a white background, or delete the background layer, merge layers visible and save as a png with no background.

To create your avatar to match this signature tag. Close off all your layers apart from the two circle layers. Copy Merged and paste as a new image . select your crop tool, and use the Snap Crop Rectangle Tool:-

Resize the image so that it is 150x 150 pixels. Duplicate the layer and change the blend mode of the copy to Multiply. Merge Visible.

Add your initial or name in the same font as you used for the tag, but using the dark colour you selected for your weave layer. Apply the same inner bevel.Now add the copyright and your license number if needed.

Merge layers visible and save as a png.

This Tutorial was written in April 2009.
And the concept of the tutorial is copyrighted.
Please feel free to LINK to the tutorial and/or print it out for your personal use,
but please do not copy it in any way to put online, pass out or re-write without permission.
The image you create using this tutorial is for you to do what you wish except for monetary gains or for merchandising.
© Peachies Designs and Tutorials. Any Resemblance to another tutorial is purely coincidental.