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Marble Room Part 1
Created by: CarolUK
This tutorial will show you a simple way to make a marble room, with steps, pillars and windows. You can vary the number and position of all the elements in it, to make your own individual room.
First, you need to choose the marble for your room. The color you choose is totally up to you.  I chose a nice marble from the many types at http://www.grsites.com  Be creative, use the colors that suit you best.  This tutorial is written for version 6.  Version 5 users should use the file above for their background layer, as their is no Summer Field gradient available in version 5

1.  Open a new image, 400x300, 72dpi, transparent background. You can make a bigger image, of course, but I am using this size to keep the tutorial images a reasonable size.

Click the flood fill tool, null the background style and both foreground and background Textures and set the foreground style to gradient, and choose the Summer Field gradient, using these settings:

Horizontal: 30
Vertical: 25
Angle: 0
Repeats: 0
Style: Linear (first choice)
Click OK.

 Left click in your image to fill it with the gradient. That will give you a nice sky in the top half of your image. Don't worry about the green area at the bottom - we shall be covering that up.

2.  Add a new layer to your image and name it 'back wall'. Click on this layer to make it active.

Now use the selection tool,  and in the tool options palette set:

Selection type: Rectangle
Feather: 0
Antialias: Unchecked

Now put your cursor in the top left corner of the image. Check in the status bar that it is at position 0,0. Click and drag to select an area the whole width of the image and just into the green, below the light colored line. The selection should be 400x188 and the status bar figures will look like this: (0, 0) -> (400, 188) = (400, 188) [2.128]

 

You Should now a selection like this one

3.  Make sure that your marble image (that you downloaded, or you can use any marble texture you like) is open in PSP. Set your background style to texture, (the dots on the fly-out that appears when you click on the triangle in the corner of the style).

Click on the texture that appears in the style and you will get the small box in the center of the image. Click on the arrow to the right of the displayed texture, and the display on the left will appear. Scroll to the top and you will see your marble displayed, as mine is here. Click on it and OK the box. Your marble will now show as the background fill.

Now click inside your selection to fill it with your selected marble texture.  You should now have something like this:

 

We need to darken the back wall, because we'll be using the original shade of the marble for the floor and the top of the steps, so keeping your marble wall selected, use Colors || Adjust || Gamma Correction. In the Gamma Correction box, make sure that all the sliders are showing the same figure. If they are not, uncheck Link, move them till they are all the same, and check Link again. With Link checked, draw one slider to 0.66. The others will follow to the same figure. OK that, and your wall will be darker. Release the selection (use Selection || Select none).

Use the selection tool, still set at rectangle as before, and place your cursor at 50,40. (use the status bar to make sure it is in the right place. Drag down and right till the second pair of figures in the status bar show 89,136.

Make sure you are still working on the back wall layer, and now hit the delete key. A hole will appear in your marble wall, with the sky showing through it. Release the selection. This rectangular window is OK, but it would be nicer with a rounded top, so keep the selection tool as the current tool, but change the selection type to circle. Place your cursor at 69,40 and drag left till it shows (50, 21) -> (88, 59) = (39 x 39) [1.000]. Your window area will now look like the image on the right. Hit the delete key again, and you have a nicely shaped window.

Release the selection, and then click inside the window with the magic wand tool.  Only the window should be selected. If any of the marble area is selected, undo the selection, and lower the tolerance figure on the tool options palette to 4 and try again.

Now select the mover tool. Right click inside your selected window and drag the selection over to the right, leaving about half a centimeter of marble between the window and the selection. The distance apart is not critical, but make sure that you keep the selection level with the window. Hit the delete key, and you have another window. Repeat this until you have a row of windows all across the wall - as many as you want. I made six altogether. Release the selection.  Your image should look something like this.

Now we have to give our windows some depth. Use Layers || Duplicate. A new layer called 'copy of back wall' will be created. Once again use Colors || Adjust || Gamma correction, still set at 0.66, which will darken this new layer even more. (You may want to darken it a little bit more based on your preference, and the color of your marble pattern.)

Still using the mover tool,  drag this new layer down and to the right, till its top left corner is at 12,12. There is now a bit of it below the level of the back wall layer, which we must cut off. Use the selection tool,  set the selection type to rectangle, and select a rectangle at the bottom of the copy of back wall layer, which takes in all the bit which is below the back wall level, and a little bit more. Hit the delete key.

Now on the layer palette, take the copy of back wall layer below the back wall, so that your layers look like this.

Your windows will look like the picture left. You can adjust the depth of the window if it does not look quite right to you by using the mover tool,  placing it on the rebate part of the window and moving it till it looks right to you. If you do this, check that a bit of copy of back wall layer has not become visible at the bottom right of the back wall. Select and delete it if it has.