Using the Magic Wand tool

By now you should have an idea of the size of PSP and all of the things that are available to you.  If you aren't sure of anything in PSP, and you haven't already, take a look at this tutorial for an overview of everything that is available in the programme.  

This tutorial is going to show you how to use the Magic Wand tool to select a part of your image so that you can change just that part of the image.

This is the result I got from following this tutorial, although depending which settings you choose, yours may look different:

You will need:

A copy of PaintShop Pro - you can download a 30 day trial version from here

This image - right click and save to your hard drive:

Fire up PSP, then open up the image you've just saved (file, open, highlight the filename, then click OK)

In the Colour Palette on the right hand side, you will notice that you only have one colour available - black.  

We want our picture to be a bit more colourful than just black and white, so we need to tell PSP that we want more colours.  To do this, go to the "Colours" menu, scroll down to the "Increase Colour Depth" option and then choose "16 Million Colours".

 

You should now have all the colours back in the Colour Palette

Now we're going to start using the Magic Wand tool to help us to colour in our image.  

Select your Magic Wand tool

Go over to your image and click inside the very first circle - you will now have the marching ants pacing around inside the circle

Now we need to put a colour in the circle you've just selected.

Select your Flood Fill tool

Go over to your Colour Palette, and in the "Styles and Textures" block, click and hold your mouse on the first box in the "Styles" section so that a pop-out list comes up

Choose the colour, gradient or pattern of your choice - I'm going to use a solid colour for this part, so I'm going to click on the paintbrush in this box.  

You will notice that a colour/gradient/pattern has appeared in the box now.  Single left click on the box and the Colour/Gradient/Pattern dialogue box will pop up - choose your colour/gradient/pattern in here and click on "OK".  I'm going to use bright yellow.

Go over to the marching ants inside the circle and single left click - the circle will now be filled with the colour/gradient/pattern you chose.

We've finished with that circle now so we need to get rid of the marching ants.  To deselect the circle, go to the "Selections" menu and choose "Select None".  A quicker way to do this is to use the keyboard shortcut - hold down the Control (Ctrl) key and press D.

Woohoo!  You've just selected and used a part of your image!!  See if you can do the same with the next circle - try and remember what you've just done and go as far as you can without looking at these steps... if you get stuck, just come back here and follow the tutorial.  Try using something totally different this time.  I'm going to use a gradient for this circle.  This is what my image looks like now:

Take a break from the screen for a few minutes now - go and grab a drink or go for a walk around the room or something... you've learnt the basics and you deserve a little break!  :o)