Vector Workshop 2025 - PaintShop Pro

[Susan Ewart]

6 hours ago, Jeni Simpson said:

Your photography is exquisite, Susan, the word wrap is amazing! 

Thank you so much Jeni.  I've loved photography since I was 16 yrs old but never have I felt a passion for it as I do now.  It means the world to me that you enjoyed the photo.  Finding a good quote is key too.  I'm grateful for the internet.  

[Susan Ewart]

6 hours ago, Jeni Simpson said:

Day 4
I am well behind. I had difficulty with the mug, I think my eyes are causing me trouble,  so I added a tube to my image.

I love the whole feel of this layout.  The tube is spectacular how it goes from small to large to small.  That girl is sassy, I wish I had her confidence!

[Sue Thomas]

3 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

I will give that a try.  I have another thing I'll try, first saving the full sized pspimage as a jpg then reduce the jpg.  I lose a bit of resolution that way.  Lately I have being saving the original pspimage, then merging the layers and saving and naming with with MERG on the end.  then I use that to do the full-sized jpg and to do the resize for 600 copy(from the MERG pspimage file).  I know, sounds like more work, but I compared the various ways and resizing from the jpg loses resolution more than resizing from the bigger file of a merged psp file.  I get that everyone goes on about less clicks and working faster.  That's great if you are a production output company selling your work.  In fact for years I was a production artist where time was money where I'd be getting up a 2 or 3 or 4am just to take stuff out of my kiln to put more stuff back in.  I got too burnt out, now I like to take my time and make one-off pieces and enjoy the process.  I dont have to hurry anymore, it's so much more relaxing and enjoyable.

Once I have saved the completed psp version,  I then  merge all flatten,  resize, then save as a jpeg. 

[Sue Thomas]

3 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

I will give that a try.  I have another thing I'll try, first saving the full sized pspimage as a jpg then reduce the jpg.  I lose a bit of resolution that way.  Lately I have being saving the original pspimage, then merging the layers and saving and naming with with MERG on the end.  then I use that to do the full-sized jpg and to do the resize for 600 copy(from the MERG pspimage file).  I know, sounds like more work, but I compared the various ways and resizing from the jpg loses resolution more than resizing from the bigger file of a merged psp file.  I get that everyone goes on about less clicks and working faster.  That's great if you are a production output company selling your work.  In fact for years I was a production artist where time was money where I'd be getting up a 2 or 3 or 4am just to take stuff out of my kiln to put more stuff back in.  I got too burnt out, now I like to take my time and make one-off pieces and enjoy the process.  I dont have to hurry anymore, it's so much more relaxing and enjoyable.

Once I have saved the completed psp version,  I then  merge all flatten,  resize, then save as a jpeg. 

[Susan Ewart]

55 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

Day 6  For the flower image I used the technique used in the masterclass, as I used a vector circle and not the pen tool, to cut it out.  For those that may not know for the word AUTUMN I changed the word  to character shapes. That way I am able to edit each letter individually, whilst still  retaining  it as a vector, even  applying the vector tube script to create the  various colours. Instead of  writing each letter on its own layer.  

 

Love these! the interlinking on the word Autumn really elevates it.  the gold tag is so beautiful, like I could reach into my screen and touch it.

[Susan Ewart]

56 minutes ago, Jeni Simpson said:

Finally, on to Day 5, and it is after 2 am, but when playing with text on a path, one cannot stop and go to bed!
I had created a denim background earlier in the day, so I thought I might use it as a background here.
The quote I used looked dreadful on a curvy path, so after trying many fonts and sizes,
I created an ellipse and made it more of a logotype, changing the colour of the flower to match her jeans.

I had the same issue with the fonts, some just dont look good on a circle.  Fabulous background. 

[Susan Ewart]

8 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

Once I have saved the completed psp version,  I then  merge all flatten,  resize, then save as a jpeg. 

Yes, that's awesome, i have just started doing that only in the last 6 months.  At first I thought it was my eyes, so I started comparing files.  Ideally if I was to print a file I'd want to use tff file as it's lossless, but some places dont print tffs or you can't upload them because the file is so big.  When I posted what I do I thought people would think I was nuts for doing the extra work.

[Susan Ewart]

19 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

I would say that serif and san serif tend to work well on  circles or ovals. It depends on the script font, but generally I feel they  don't  give the impact of the serif fonts.  Of course it depends on the topic of your  page, as  there are script fonts which work.  Personally I tend to go with  the serif, as legibility is paramount. You are the creator, and it's what you are happy with.

I totally agree.  I also found if I'm using all upper case then it looks good on a  basic shape such as circle, triangle etc.  when I've tried using small letters on basic shapes the descenders (ones that go below the baseline ie. g, j, p,y etc) make it look weird and unbalance.  I chose a serif caps version for my oval.  But for the uneven wavy line I think that's a place where using a script with mixed upper and lower case can work.  And you are so right, legibility is the main factor of font choice.  I noticed on bottom of my oval one I should have kerned a bit more on some of the letters, they are too close.

[Sue Thomas]

10 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

I totally agree.  I also found if I'm using all upper case then it looks good on a  basic shape such as circle, triangle etc.  when I've tried using small letters on basic shapes the descenders (ones that go below the baseline ie. g, j, p,y etc) make it look weird and unbalance.  I chose a serif caps version for my oval.  But for the uneven wavy line I think that's a place where using a script with mixed upper and lower case can work.  And you are so right, legibility is the main factor of font choice.  I noticed on bottom of my oval one I should have kerned a bit more on some of the letters, they are too close.

You can always go back to edit it. lol As always  your work is profesionally executed.

[Sue Thomas]

Day 6, last one.  

[Harmony Birch]

And here we go with day 2, After lots of playing with symmetric shapes I ended up with this cheery little sun. 

[Sue Thomas]

1 hour ago, Susan Ewart said:

Yes, that's awesome, i have just started doing that only in the last 6 months.  At first I thought it was my eyes, so I started comparing files.  Ideally if I was to print a file I'd want to use tff file as it's lossless, but some places dont print tffs or you can't upload them because the file is so big.  When I posted what I do I thought people would think I was nuts for doing the extra work.

I use those steps only to compress and resize for the campus.  Printing I use png, otherwise I use jpeg.

[Sue Thomas]

15 minutes ago, Harmony Birch said:

And here we go with day 2, After lots of playing with symmetric shapes I ended up with this cheery little sun. 

Love it!

[Donna Sillia]

2 hours ago, Jacques said:

A pot of lessons from Cassel: My 3rd grandson (already 5 months old):

 

What a cutie!

[Donna Sillia]

Day 6 - I love using the Vectortube script. I used a presetshape and the offset cutout for the flower, and created the tulip some time ago and added some of Carole's seed beads.

[Corrie Kinkel]

2 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

I will give that a try.  I have another thing I'll try, first saving the full sized pspimage as a jpg then reduce the jpg.  I lose a bit of resolution that way.  Lately I have being saving the original pspimage, then merging the layers and saving and naming with with MERG on the end.  then I use that to do the full-sized jpg and to do the resize for 600 copy(from the MERG pspimage file).  I know, sounds like more work, but I compared the various ways and resizing from the jpg loses resolution more than resizing from the bigger file of a merged psp file.  I get that everyone goes on about less clicks and working faster.  That's great if you are a production output company selling your work.  In fact for years I was a production artist where time was money where I'd be getting up a 2 or 3 or 4am just to take stuff out of my kiln to put more stuff back in.  I got too burnt out, now I like to take my time and make one-off pieces and enjoy the process.  I dont have to hurry anymore, it's so much more relaxing and enjoyable.

Susan, maybe a dumb question but why don't you save your work first as a full size pspimage, second as a full sized png and third resize to 600 and save as a jpg. I admit the png file is bigger but it keeps a higher resolution.

[Gerry Landreth]

Day 6 - Both of the tubes are from the store. 

@Cassel Carol, I ran into problems with the earlier lesson because I was working from memory. I would forget a step or do it out of order. It's akin to trying to remember a recipe you haven't used in a while. There's always an ingredient you forget or a spice you didn't remember to buy. 

Edited May 24 by Gerry Landreth

[Corrie Kinkel]

15 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

I was clumsy.  Actually at the end of a very good workout I decided to work on some balance stuff (I do it at the end normally).  But, Wednesday when i worked out I decided to up the ante for balance and what i used to make it more unstable wasnt solid enough and it sheared sideways and over I went twisting my foot laterally.  I'm just able to walk today, with a wrap on the foot.  Missed 3 days of work but got lots of rest, ice, compression and elevation for 48 hours and now heating it.  the top of my foot (I think it's a mid foot sprain or one or more tendons is very unhappy) swelled up and looked like a big potato.  But all the ice-ing I did helped to not get a horrific bruise, it's very light.  I am doing much better than the last two days.   I'm a dummy and should know better, clearly I don't.

Thanks for updating me and I hope it will get a little bit better every day! Clumsy or not accidents happen 🫢

[Corrie Kinkel]

15 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Lesson 5 

Weirdness has prevailed.  I am enclosing two images.  the first one is a screen shot of the pspimage file which has an 'S' on the end of the last word.  When I resized to 600 it takes out the 's'.  I did not make a large JPG and reduce from there, I resized the original file too 600 and then chose jpg.  Anyway, the pspimage looks fine, it was probably too much compression for the jpg.  Or.....I used up my allotment of font characters for the day 😱. 

the font is Elaina Script.  the photo is mine and first one I came across that I could use.  

Very nice!

[Sue Thomas]

13 minutes ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Susan, maybe a dumb question but why don't you save your work first as a full size pspimage, second as a full sized png and third resize to 600 and save as a jpg. I admit the png file is bigger but it keeps a higher resolution.

I agree, anything to be posted in the campus, I  do last.

[Corrie Kinkel]

Like Cristina, I didn't do this workshop because I knew I had so much to do this week that I had really no free time. Besides that the coming week is this workshop for Affinity and I want to give that one my full attention and it will be difficult time wise as well! 

However I have come here once a day to see what everybody is making and have loved to see all the different pages that are created! 

[gwen jewitt]

Day 5 I was inspired to use this photo that my son sent me on the very day we were asked to do this lesson, he snapped it on his phone while riding his bicyle up to the village hall.

The photo used for the text around a circle was from unsplash by Daniel Lincoln.

[Susan Ewart]

2 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Susan, maybe a dumb question but why don't you save your work first as a full size pspimage, second as a full sized png and third resize to 600 and save as a jpg. I admit the png file is bigger but it keeps a higher resolution.

Thank you Corrie.  I will try that.  I do always save the pspimage full size, as well as a merged pspimage full size, then from that I resize and save as (600)jpg for the campus only.  The reason I was making a separate MERG pspimage at full size was, a couple times I nearly lost everything by clicking on a jpg instead of pspimage and almost lost stuff.  I cant mess up the layered psp if I'm not making jpgs from it.  I"ve lost some and just today I almost lost stuff when my finger hit another button and it was all gone.  thankfully I had just saved it prior and was able to recover it in the auto preserve.  (stoopid fat fingers!).  I like tiff because it's a bigger file and only if I was printing. the jpgs are just for the campus and FB.  I learned about tiffs from some pro photographers that i like.  here's what Adobe says.  I have found PNG not to hold good resolution if I enlarged them too much. 

PS I did not bold that text below, the google AI did.  I'm not yelling at you.  I've compared Tiff to Jpg in photos and you lose detail in jpg in the blacks and shadows.  As I tend to like darker layouts this makes a difference.  I'm always surprised at how much darker the jpg is compared to the pspimage file.  HOpefully soon we will have Heif and we will all rejoice.  All hail the heif image file!  😅

What is the difference between TIFF and PNG files? Both PNGs and TIFFs are excellent choices for displaying complex images. But PNGs tend to be smaller in size, so are potentially better suited for websites. TIFFs, on the other hand, are often the best choice for professional use, scanning, and print options.

[Susan Ewart]

Lesson 6 part 2

playing with fonts ( must not forget to go to the pen tool and convert it).  I love ampersands and wanted to see how it work with the serif, because it's so thin.  And the Ornament frame was from a font that had ornaments (their high-end word for dingbats) that came as a separate .0tf file with the original font.  This is such a fun lesson.  

[Susan Ewart]

Lesson 6 part 1

Such a fun one that I could lose a day just trying stuff out.  I learned a lot like making sure the spacing is far enough on text and that the picture tube isn't too small to lose all it's awesome detail.  these are the ones below that I think don't show the detail well or the word isn't kerned enough.  The leaf like object, was from a previous Vector WS as was the little shape cutout (trying to practice this more).  the yellow tag is also from a prev. Vector WS.  Carole's picture tubes are so detailed look so real.  I'm sorry I didn't do them justice here. 

 

Edited May 24 by Susan Ewart