©Wrought Iron Rack

Wrought-Iron Rack

(Special thanks to my dear friend Deebs, for her inspiration and encouragement in writing this tutorial.)

This tutorial uses only PSP7 with the exception of blade pro, if you wish, on the frame.

You'll need my zip which contains my decorator molds and my curlyQ's, in case don't want to try your hand at drawing them. Download them here.

*Remember to save as you go along.*

Open a new image, 300 X 550 transparent background. You can size this down after you're done, if you like.

Add a new layer. Using the draw tool, draw a black single line, width of 4, about 4 inches long, on the left side of your canvas.

Now, on a new layer, draw a small curly Q, using the draw tool, freehand line, width of 4, and set the curve tracking 16 by clicking on the 2nd tab of the tool options box, make it black, as below: It may take a few tries to get it just the right curl.

Now line up your straight line and the curlyQ, using the mover tool, so that they join exactly. Use your magnify tool, if necessary to be sure they are perfect.

Turn off your layer one, which will be your background layer. Merge visible layers. Select the curlyQ using the rectangle selection tool. Copy and paste as a new selection.

Flip the bottom curlyQ, - go to image/flip and move it to the bottom, joining the straight line section exactly again. Select none (ctrl d).

Now apply my wrought iron inner bevel preset........(Effects/3D Effects/inner bevel). You can save these settings and call it "wrought iron" so you will be able to use them again in the future.

Copy/paste as a selection and mirror. Move it into position so that it matches the left side exactly......leaving about an inch of space between the bars, as below: Deselect (ctrl d).

Apply a drop shadow offsets at 1,2. opacity 57, blur 5.9.

Alright, now time to add the decorative molds or plates. I have made some molds, which are in the zip file above. You can resize them if necessary to fit properly on your rack. Make a new layer just above the double bar layer. Copy and paste 3 or 4 molds or plates each on it's own new layer, above the merged bars layer, so you can move them around to place them one by one. Add a small drop shadow to each plate layer: offsets at 1,2, opacity 50, Blur 7. With your layer 1 still turned off, merge visible layers.

Now, to make the curlyQ holding bar.....(I guess that's what we'll call it!) This is what holds the decorator molds or plates in place. Open a new image, 200X200, transparent. Using the freehand line, width of 3 this time, curve tracking at 5, draw a small curlyQ as below...

You may have to cut off a bit of the joining end of the line, in order to have it match up properly in the next step.

Copy and paste as a new selection, flip and mirror it, move into position to join the left side of the curl. Deselect (ctrl d).

Apply my wrought iron inner bevel preset again as you did in step 7 above. Add the same drop shadow as the molds above to the holding bar to give it more depth. Copy and paste as a new layer into your rack image. Move it on top of your mold layer.

Copy and paste this holding bar on top of your each of the molds or plates.

Merge all visible layers, with the blank background layer 1 turned off.

Copy/paste as a new image if you want to save it as a tube or .psp file.

With your merged layer active, apply a drop shadow.

Fill your layer 1 with the background color or texture of your choice. I applied Fantastic Machines Paint Engine to my background, added a border of 3, blade pro and cutouts.

Here is the final creation:

And another........

This one is with plates I made from a tutorial you'll find here.

I hope you've had fun! Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments :)

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