Easy Topiary

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This tutorial was written as a companion to the Easy Leaf Tube tutorial, a guide for making your own custom Picture Tube in Paint Shop Pro. We will use the simple leaf created in that tutorial to create this topiary, but, if you prefer, you could use another leaf tube. This is a quick & easy, beginner level tutorial.


Supplies needed to create the topiary are Paint Shop Pro (v.5, 6 or 7), a leaf tube, and a flower pot image.

A leaf tube can be created here: Leaf Tube tutorial
A clay flower pot can be created here: Clay Pots tutorial

Open new image

Select transparent background or a color that matches your webpage. Size 200x200 and 16 mil colors.

We'll be creating a new layer for each step. Create a new layer by clicking the layer icon on your layer palette and selecting new raster layer. Name each layer as you go. It's a good habit to get into!

Layer 1, Background

Your original background layer, either transparent or fill color of your choice.

Layer 2, Pot

Make a clay pot using the clay pots tutorial or use flower pot clip art. Copy & paste pot into layer 2.

Layer 3, Stick

Make a new layer for the topiary 'stem'. Select linear gradient for stroke style using the foreground-background gradient with angle at 90. Select a light brown for stroke color and dark brown for fill color (styles box for fill should be set to null, texture styles should both be set to null).

Using Line tool, type solid, size 12, draw a vertical line to represent a branch or stick and place it in the pot. Hold shift key down for a perfectly straight line.

Zoom in on the image to erase the bottom of the stick where it overlaps the front edge of your pot...make it look like it is sitting IN the pot. You don't have to be too careful with this....we'll fill the pot with some leaves as the last step!

Layer 4, Guideline

Create a new layer to draw a guideline for placement of leaves as shown in screenshot above-right. Set your stroke color to any color and your fill color to null.
Using preset shapes tool, draw a circle (ellipse) outline at the top of the stick as a guideline for the top of the topiary. Set shapes tool to line width 2, antialias checked, vector UNchecked. Hold shift key down as you draw to get a perfect circle rather than an oval.

Layer 5, Leaves

Create a new layer to add some leaves. Fill in the top of the topiary using the Tube tool and your leaf tube. You may want to adjust the scale of the tube to fit the size of your topiary. The screen shots shown are using 75% scale for the leaf created in the Easy Leaf tutorial.

First place leaves following the circle guideline...doing the edges first. After the edges are done, turn off the visibility for the Layer 4 guideline and finish filling in the "ball" of leaves for your topiary top.

Layer 6, Ribbon

Dress up the topiary by adding a ribbon. Create a new layer for ribbon. Use Line Tool with type set to freehand, line size 4, antialias ON, vector OFF. To give some shading to the ribbon, I used a linear gradient with 2 shades of pink for stoke & fill colors (styles box for fill should be set to null). I changed the gradient direction to 0 and checked the reverse gradient box. Use your own color choices for gradient or use a solid color. With Line Tool, draw some diagonal lines across the stick...don't worry about the alignment or width at this point, just make a series of diagonal "stripes" that cross over the stick.

Layer 7, Bow

Add a new layer. Using same settings you used for ribbon, loosely draw a bow and some streamers as shown in screenshot above-right. These are easiest to draw using separate movements. First draw 2 short free-form lines below base of leaf ball (streamers); then draw the right hand loop; then the left hand loop. Zoom in, if necessary, to see what you're doing. Lastly, zoom in very close and draw a very short line between the loops for the knot.

Layer 8, Fill Pot

Using the tube tool and leaf tube, fill in the top of the pot, at the base of the stick, with some more leaves as shown in this screenshot.

Save & Optimize

Delete layer 4, guideline. Merge all layers (Layers > Merge All) and export/save as gif (File > Export > GIF Optimizer).

In the GIF Optimizer dialog box, you can preview the image as you select transparency, method of color reduction and other format options from each of the tabbed pages. You can also click the "Use Wizard" button and let PSP guide you through the optimization process.

To see how the different methods of color reduction effect the colors in your image, zoom in on the preview box and compare the 2 images very closely. Some optimization choices will create an uneven, undesirable, colorization. If this happens, adjust the settings on each tab until you reach the best compromise between image quality and optimized file size. View the "Download Times" tab to estimate the speed with which your file will display on web. The GIF, JPEG or PNG Optimizer should be used for every image you save for use on the web. When I'm undecided about which format will give me the smallest file size, I will try each Optimizer and compare size/quality of image for each file format before saving.

Have you tried the Easy Tree tutorial? It uses the same leaf tube. Go here to view.