PI6 Painted Lady Victorian House

 

When I lived in San Francisco in the 70's, I fell in love with the city's brightly colored Victorian houses, which are often referred to as "Painted Ladies."

Now you can make your own Painted Lady from this UFO ZIP kit. This is not so much a tutorial as a general guide to how to use the kit.

Since the objects have already been made for you, you can color them any way you like. Go for gaudy colors as I've done here, or use more subtle colors.  

I think this would make a terrific navigation image for a country site.

The kit is quite large. The image above is shown at 65% full size. This project is suitable for PI enthusiasts who already have a good bit of experience working with objects. Give it a try if you already know how to fill objects with colors and gradients, either via the Fill dialog box or the EasyPalette's Fill Gallery. This is not be a good project for a beginner, however.

Right away you'll notice that the UFO ZIP kit objects are all different shades of gray, and that they are all image objects. Click on each one and choose Edit, Fill (or fill from the Fill Gallery). Then use the Airbrush with a slightly darker shade of the same color to paint along the top and/or sides of the boards. For example, here's one of the boards, before and after:

And here's one of the awnings over a window, before and after. It was filled with a top to bottom gradient, starting with brown and ending with black:

Secondly, the pointed roof on the right side of the house will require you to color and shade the boards first, then select them and merge them as a single object.

Then you'll use the Object Paint Eraser, set to Straight Lines, to sculpt the pointed roof. Do one side, then the other, then switch to Freehand with the Eraser and erase the rest of the pointed roof object. Remember to click Trim when you're done using the Eraser.

I've included an upside-down V shape for the top of the pointed roof. You can use it or make your own by using the Line and Arrow tool, if you prefer to do it yourself.

If you look at the windows below, you'll notice that there are several objects making up each one. There is a large rectangle for the window itself, plus an outline frame, and straight line objects to divide the window into panes. Each outline frame window object has a small shadow attached to it to make it stand out better. If you want to remove the shadow, just right click and choose Shadow, then deselect Shadow from the dialog box.

One idea to consider for painting the windows is to make the large rectangle a nice dark color which harmonizes with the rest of the house. I made mine a really dark navy blue. Then choose an effect from the Filter Gallery, or choose Effect, Magic, Light to add some light to the center of the window.

Consider filling the oval window with a stained glass tile, and/or using one of the Fill Gallery's Gradients to fill the window frame.

Here's a little trick for filling with a tiny brick fill. First make a new file 300 X 300 pixels. Choose Edit, Fill and click the Texture tab. Fill with one of the brick fills from the Natural or Magic Textures. I'm using the Magic Texture MT045 fill here.

Choose Format, Dimensions and make the brick tile 20% of its original size.

Copy the small brick fill into the Clipboard. Now you can use it to fill the chimney or roof. Choose Edit, Fill and click the Image tab. Choose to fill with Clipboard contents. Instant tiny brick fill!

When you're all done filling and shading and shadowing your objects, take a good hard look at them. It's likely that some objects are no longer in the correct stacking order. Make any corrections necessary before selecting all objects and merging them as a single object. You might want to add a small 3D Round object for a door handle, too.

If you want to add a window box, make a small 2D rectangle object for the planter. Use the Particle Brush, Leaf preset, color=green, to make shrubbery, then use pink, white or yellow, 75% Transparency, to add little flowers to the greenery. Add some grass, a sky and some trees to your composition, and you're done.

I hope you enjoy making your Painted Lady.

This tutorial uploaded 7/06/01

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