1. Open a the graphic from which you'd like to make a brush.
2. Clean up the background and edges of the graphic.
3. Resize the graphic to 255px x 255px or less.
4. Click on the background with the magic wand tool then hold down the shift key and click on all the little 'bits' between the edges of the graphic

Click Selections/invert
5. Click on your paint brush, (10th tool down on the left)
6. click on the tools options
7. click on the little brush to the right (brush types)
8. click on Custom

9. Click on Create (a black and white thumbnail of your new brush will appear in the box)
10. click on Ok
Now you're ready to use your brush.

The brush I've enclosed in the zip file (and used in this tutorial) was taken from a site on the net. I don't recall the name of the site, or the lady who made the graphic into a brush, only wish I could, she has some lovely graphics that she's turned into brushes... Download the zip, open it, and save the brush file to your brushes folder (it's inside the PSP6 folder) Your new brushes will show up in PSP6 when you click the buttons mentioned below.


1. Open a new background strip 1024px x 350px
2. choose a light colour for the background, flood fill using the bucket tool.
3. Click on your paintbrush (10th tool down on the left).
4. In tools options click on the 3rd tab and check Show Brush Outlines.

5. Click on the 1st tab, then on the little paint brush (brush types)

and click on Custom Brush find the fish in the box that appears

and click OK.
6. click on Layers/New Raster Layer (default settings) (you won't see anything happen, the layer is transparent, though you should now have background and layer one in your layers pallette)

7. Choose a complimentary colour for the fish, I've used mint for the background and a darker shade of green for the fish.
7. On the new layer position your brush to the left of the strip, leaving a nice surrounding area around the graphic.

8. Click on the background layer and add some texture or a very subtle shading effect (or both).
9. Crop the strip to the required size.



That's it.

I hope you've found this tutorial helpful, there are more available on my homepage

Sue C - SJC Designs