How to add mulch to your design with the Texture Fill Tool


Step 1: Open your photograph JPEG file in Photo Paint 12.
   NOTE: We have added grass and a walk to our image previously, as shown in Caption 1


Step 2: There are 2 methods for painting in mulch. One way is a freehand style manual paintbrush by using the Clone from Fill tool. In this tutorial we will be using the Texture Fill tool. We will start out by creating a new object layer by clicking on the New Object button within the Object Docker(See arrow in Caption 2). This layer will automatically become highlighted in blue showing that it's selected.


Step 3: We want to put in mulch along both sides of this walk way. So the first step is to select the Freehand Mask tool from the toolbar. Click on the Mask tool, then on Freehand Mask (3rd tool in). You can also hit the K key on the keyboard to select this tool. If you notice the 3rd Caption you will see several red dots. This is where we clicked each time with the mouse to begin drawing the outline around the area we want to fill with mulch. And to complete the selection we double click the mouse when we get back to where we started clicking. Then the selected area will have a black & white mask line moving around it. (See Caption 4).


Step 4: Next we need to select the mulch texture we will use to fill this selected area. Double-click on the Fill box located near the bottom of the toolbar. This will open up a Select Fill menu, as shown in Caption 5. You must have the texture boox chosen. If the pink and purple mosaic tile button is not selected clik on it. If the mulch pattern is not already loaded click on the Edit button, which will load the Bitmap Fill menu as shown in Caption 6. Click on the thumbnail image to see the other preloaded texture fills. Select a mulch texture, then click OK. This takes you back to the Select Fill menu where you click OK again.


Step 5: The new object layer we created should still be selected and your mask line should still be active. To fill this area with mulch we have to select the Texture Fill toolon the tool bar(teal paint bucket). Then simply left click with this tool inside the masked mulch area and the texture will fill in. The results are shown in Caption 7.
   NOTE: The nice part about having the mulch on its own seperate object layer is now we can erase from the mulch beds and not affect the background photo. So by using the eraser tool we can remove unwanted mulch as shown in Caption 8


Step 6: Repeating the same steps from above we created another mulch bed on the other side of the walk by masking the area to be filled with mulch and filled the area using the texture fill tool. Note that we added the mulch to the same new object layer that we originally created the first mulch bed on. This way all mulch is on the same layer and we can easily manipulate all of the mulch as one piece as well as make it invisible.


ADDITIONAL FEATURE: If we click on the new object layer that our mulch resides on the mulch will have a blue and white line moving around it showing that it is now an object and it is selected. If we wanted to change the color of this mulch to make it darker or lighter we could manipulate just the mulch. With the mulch selected, click on Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation/Lightness(Or Ctrl+Shift+U). This will open up the window shown in Caption 11. Adjusting the Hue changes the tint or color balance of the object; Saturation will adjust the amount of color in the object; and Lightness adjusts the brightness/darkness. You will see we changed the Hue and dropped the lightness to make the mulch a darker red color. The results are shown in Caption 12.


FINAL PRODUCT: The final product is shown in Caption 13. We added flowers and trees for a more complete look but you can see how it is quite easy to adjust the mulch to your liking whether it be color, brightness or texture of the mulch. We hope this helps you use the texture tools more effectively and please us know if this helped you!
Click images to enlarge
Caption 1 Caption 1

Caption 2 Caption 2

Caption 3 Caption 3

Caption 4 Caption 4

Caption 5 Caption 5

Caption 6 Caption 6

Caption 7 Caption 7

Caption 8 Caption 8

Caption 9 Caption 9

Caption 10 Caption 10

Caption 11 Caption 11

Caption 12 Caption 12

Caption 13 Caption 13