Back Ground ??

[DJM]

I am working on a Lilly bud,leaves behind the bud,leaves vary in green hue,deepest green would be my background. Hears the thing, after using select tool on all the leaves I created a new layer, filled it with deep green, dragged it behind the other layers,but did not get what I expected.I got white hard edge select lines.My ? is this, should I have done the background layer first then on a new layer do the selection tool ? My other ? . How do I fade one colour into the other and avoid a sharp transition edge? Thank you

[Someonesane]

So... If I'm understanding what you've done correctly, you have painted the flower bud, leaves and background all on a single layer. You then opted to move the bud to another layer, so that it would be separate, allowing you color on the background without interfering with the bud?

Did you use the Fill tool when filling the area around the bud, because I'm guessing that the white border is likely an issue of the fill not reaching far enough over the transparent pixels at the edges of the cutout. Be sure you're filling in the background color on it's own, separate layer, located beneath the bud layer (at least at first; you can always merge the two afterwards). If you're going to use the Fill tool to fill the area, be sure that's its option for "Currently Layer Only" is checked on, otherwise it will only reach the edges again.

[D Akey]

Yes, that's pretty much how it's done as SomeoneSane mentions. Imagine having your real flower placed on top of a sheet of green construction paper.

It's a similar idea how to approach layers (or in this context anyway).

The paper or background is independent of the flower. The advantage of having the background in place is that when you paint the flower on a higher layer, you can see exactly what's happening. White lines will show up readily. And if they do, you can [Undo] and try something not so problematic.

White lines on white canvas virtually makes them invisible at that moment. White lines on green you can see easily. . . as you can well see now.

I don't know how deep you are into the painting yet, but more than a few times I've had to erase something out like those problem lines. Learn as you go. We all do. It gets easier as you develop your working method.

[DJM]

So... If I'm understanding what you've done correctly, you have painted the flower bud, leaves and background all on a single layer. You then opted to move the bud to another layer, so that it would be separate, allowing you color on the background without interfering with the bud?

Did you use the Fill tool when filling the area around the bud, because I'm guessing that the white border is likely an issue of the fill not reaching far enough over the transparent pixels at the edges of the cutout. Be sure you're filling in the background color on it's own, separate layer, located beneath the bud layer (at least at first; you can always merge the two afterwards). If you're going to use the Fill tool to fill the area, be sure that's its option for "Currently Layer Only" is checked on, otherwise it will only reach the edges again.

There where several layers used. Then, my thought was, select a new layer,use fill tool and fill that layer in dark green, then drag it down just above the pencil sketch.I thought all layers above would show through,then I could do the bud last.So far, the paintings not bad but not to my standards.My other thought was, I should do background fist then proceed with other layers. Fading is another problem,I want a soft edge not hard when blending one colour beside another. Thanks for the ideas.

[HannahRage]

It does sound like the 'Current Layer Only' option is the problem!

For the soft edge, you might want to look at the Selection tool and the 'Feather' setting (depending which edition of ArtRage you have). You could select the area around the flowers, invert it, then delete the filled space behind the flowers to get a softer edge effect.

[DJM]

My latest effort was interesting, I merged all layers after clearing the sketch layer,then, created a new layer named background, filled it with dark green, dragged it below the other layer and waited for the processing and then to my surprise there it was, green background bud on top, done. Not really :<( I deleted the painting,I could not go back after merging,and I did not like what I had,so, it was gone. Now I start over.I will read up on your suggestion Hanna, thanks PS just bought 4.5.10 64 bit