Pattern Tutorial
So you want to use a pattern in Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop do you?Ok, for the purpose of this tutorial I'm using PSP (9), but you can easily follow it in PS (and possibly The Gimp?).
Step one: Open up your graphic you want to use your pattern on.
Here's mine, nice isn't it? Very friendly.
Step two: Download a pattern from a site that offers them (mine are here if you didn't know). Another site that has some is Sugary Sweet. I'll be using one of my own for convenience and advertising. This one:
Step three: Open your pattern in your graphics program. In the "materials" palette (usually to the right-hand side of your screen), click your foreground colour for the "material properties" box to pop up. Click the "pattern" tab and you should be face with your default pattern (leopard print or similar). Click that pattern and another box will pop up showing you all your available patterns. The one you want to use should be on there, so click it. Make sure the angle is set to 0 and scale is 100.
Step four: Create a new layer on your image you want to apply the pattern to. Then select the paint bucket tool and click on the image. It should now be filled with your pattern and look somewhat like this:
Step five: Obviously you don't want your graphic to look like this, so choose a "blend mode" in the layer properties. Find a property you like and apply it. I've chosen two to show you. The first is "burn" and the second "soft light", both 100% opacity.
And that's it. Play around with different blend modes and change the opacity to suit what you want.
