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This tutorial was written for Paint Shop Pro version 7. We'll use the preset shapes in PSP7 to build a garden cart to fill with all your favorite flower tubes! This drawing is fairly easy to create and suitable for beginners to PSP7.

Note: Screenshots do not always represent exact image, for faster loading they have been resized smaller and colors reduced, sometimes to 36 colors or less.

We'll be using this 'old wood' seamless tile to create the garden cart. Right click to download this tile.

First thing we need to do is make the wheel for the cart. PSP 7 includes a wheel in the Preset Shapes, but I didn't think it's style suited the garden cart. Instructions for a simple wheel are below, however, you can use PSP's wheel Preset Shape if you prefer.

Creating the Wheel...

Open new image 100x100, 16 mil colors, transparent background. Also open the 'old wood' tile.

Use the Line Tool, line width 2, antialias OFF, color black. Draw a straight line from upper left corner of your canvas to lower right. Draw another line from upper right to lower left. Draw third line down the center. These lines will become the spokes.

Next, create a new layer. Turn on your grid guidelines to assist in centering objects. Set grid spacing to 10.
view>>change grid & guide properties>> vertical & horizontal spacing 10x10

Use Preset Shapes, ellipse, line width 2, color black, antialias on, vector off. Draw an 85x85 circle. If circle is not in center of image, move it until it is centered on the "spokes". Look at the bottom left corner of your workspace as you draw to see the dimensions of the shape you are making.

Line style: solid
Styles boxes: stroke: solid; fill: null(off); textures: null(off)

Tool Tip: Hold Ctrl key down while drawing an ellipse to get a perfect circle.

Create new layer. Use Preset Shapes, ellipse, line width 3, antialias on, vector off. Use the eyedropper to pick a dark gray from the pattern tile for the stroke color. Draw a 91x91 circle. Move this grey circle until it is centered over the black circle.

Use the Magic Wand with tolerance set to zero (no feather) and select the inside of the grey circle. Make the layer with the "spokes" active. INVERT selection and CUT.

Turn off visibility for background layer and Merge Visible so that all parts of spokes are on the same layer. Rotate spokes a little so they're not exactly straight up and down.
image>>rotate>>right 20

Save file and set the wheel aside for now. We'll start a new file to make the cart.

Building the Garden Cart...

Open new image 500x300, transparent background, 16 mil colors.

Create new layer (name it FILL) and flood fill with white for background. Having this additional layer not only covers the transparent checkerboard while working, it gives you the option of creating a finished image with either a solid or a transparent background.

Create another layer (name it WHEEL) Copy the wheel from the file that you've set aside and paste on this layer.

Create another new layer (name it CART)

First we'll make all the little pieces that make up the cart, then we'll assemble those pieces into a garden cart. Every preset shape used in the following steps will be created with anti-alias on and filled with the 'old wood' pattern, no outline. Vectors may be used but are not necessary, it's your choice....if you're familiar with using vectors, go ahead and create vector shapes.

PSP 7 Styles: stroke...null fill...wood pattern tile textures...both null
PSP 6: create with solid fill, then flood fill with 'old wood' pattern.

As you create each shape, place it anywhere on the canvas. We'll move them around later. We'll also place each shape on a layer of it's own, which will make moving the parts around much easier and quicker.

1. Working on the CART layer and using Preset Shapes, draw a rounded rectangle in center of canvas filled with 'old wood' pattern. Rectangle should be about 200 x 100

2. Next piece to make is the arm/handle. Create new layer called ARM.
Draw preset shape rectangle (not rounded) that is about 400w x 20h.

3. Now we need 2 upright shapes. Create new layer called REAR LEG.
Draw preset shape rectangle that is about 15w x 150h.

4. Create another new layer and name it FRONT BOARD
Draw preset shape rectangle that is about 15w x 100h.

<--- Select the CART layer. We want only the upper left corner of this cart rectangle to be rounded... the other corners should be squared off. So well just cut off portions of the cart!! Use the selection tool set to rectangle (antialias OFF, no feather) and cut a 20 pixel wide section off the right side of the rectangle and a similar section off the bottom....see screenshot.

You should now have all the parts and all the layers as shown in this screenshot --->

Next we're going to give the left end of the handle a slight curve. Make the ARM layer active. Position the 'arm' at 50 left with the top of arm at 50.

Change selection tool to ellipse, antialias ON. Position your cursor at 50,120 to begin the selection (look at the bottom left of your workspace for coordinates). Extend the ellipse as shown in the screenshot. CUT the selection.

<--- Add some shaping to the handle using Drop Shadow with these settings.
effects>>3D effects>>drop shadow>> Vertical=2; Horizontal=1; Opacity=100; Blur=0
Color=Select one of the darkest grays from the 'old wood' pattern but also make it a little darker to use as shadow color. In the Drop Shadow dialog box, click the color swatch and then, with the dropper, pick the darkest gray from the wood pattern. Before saying OK, select a slightly darker version of the same color from the color wheel or use the lighter-darker selector. Now hit OK.

Add some highlights using Drop Shadow with these settings:
effects>>3D effects>>drop shadow>> vertical= minus 3; horizontal=0; opacity=100; blur=0

Color=Select one of the lightest grays from the 'old wood' pattern but also make it a little lighter to use as hilite color. In the Drop Shadow dialog box, click the color swatch and then, with the dropper, pick a light gray from the wood pattern. Before saying OK, select a slightly lighter version of the same color from the color wheel or use the lighter-darker selector. Now hit OK.

Make REAR LEG the active layer and add a highlight with the same light gray and the same settings as above except:
vertical= minus 2; horizontal = minus 2

Make FRONT BOARD the active layer and add a highlight with the same light gray and the same settings except:
vertical= minus 2; horizontal = minus 2

With FRONT BOARD still the active layer, add a drop shadow with the same dark gray used above and these settings:
vertical= 0; horizontal = 3; opacity 100; blur 0; color=dark gray

Make REAR LEG the active layer and add a drop shadow with the same color and settings as FRONT BOARD.

Almost time to assemble! First rotate the object in each layer except WHEEL layer...rotate the cart, arm, front board and rear leg....as follows:

image>>rotate>>right>>free 7
'All layers' UNchecked.

Assemble the pieces...

Turn on view grid to use grid as a horizon line to assist in positioning the wheel and the rear leg on 'level ground'. Assemble the cart as shown in the screenshot below.

If any parts of the cart are too long or too short, use the Deformation Tool to stretch or shrink that layer.

A few more details...

Create a new layer for details:

Nails: Use black, brush size 2, and paint some nailheads (total of 6) where leg, board & arm attach to cart. Brush settings should be 100% opacity, 100% density, round. (see final image below).

Hub: Use black, brush size 5, and place a dot where hub attaches to arm.

Brace: Use black, line tool, size 2, and draw a line from front of cart to hub. Place a 'nailhead' at top end of brace. (adjust location of wheel so it aligns with hub)

Add a rear leg and arm...

First, turn off any background layer and merge visible the cart layers (or duplicate file first, then merge visible). Use your lasso tool and lasso the rear of the cart to include the leg and the arm. Most of the piece we'll be copying will be hidden by the front part of the cart....so just get the leg and arm...whatever else comes along is not important. Copy your selection.

Now create a new layer for the rear leg beneath the merged layer and paste the copied leg onto the new layer. Move the rear leg around some until it looks like it's in the correct position (see finished cart).

Make another new layer beneath the cart layers and use the grass tube that comes with PSP 7 to plant some grass under your cart. Add some shadows, too.

Now, for the fun part!! Go 'dig' out your flower tubes and plant them in the cart!! Same layer as grass or a new layer.

When done, crop your image to its smallest possible size, merge layers and export as optimized GIF, JPEG or PNG, whichever has the best combo of small file size & image quality.
Merge visible if you want a transparent GIF and are still working with the transparent (checkerboard) background layer.
If you are using a background layer that matches the color of your webpage or JPEG format, merge all and set transparency to that color or leave solid.