Awareness Ribbon

A member of my tutorial group asked for an awareness ribbon tutorial.  This tutorial will show you how to make an awareness ribbon using the vector tools in Paint Shop Pro.  The final ribbon can easily be re-colored.  However, the example is pink because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I'm writing this in October.

1.  Open up a new canvas.  Make it rectangular in shape.  Mine is 1400 high by 800 wide.

2.  Use the Preset Shape Tool to draw a Rectangle.  Right-click and select Convert to Path.

3.  Select the Object Selection Tool (or Pick Tool).  Press the Shift key.  When the Shift key is depressed and the mouse is over the object, the shear image (a parallelogram will be visible).  While holding down the Shift key, slide the middle of the bottom of the rectangle to the right.  Continue to hold down the Shift key and slide the middle of the top of the rectangle to the left.  Now you should have a parallelogram.

4.  Select the Pen Tool.  Choose the node on the top left of the parallelogram.  Slide the node down and to the left.

5.  Slide the top right node up and to the left.

6.  Move the bottom right node up.

7.  Move the bottom left node to the right.

8.  Select the bottom right node.  Change the Node Type to Curve Before.  Drag the handle slightly to the left to curve the ribbon toward the center.

9.  Select the top right node.  Change the Node Type to Curve After.  Drag the handle slightly to the left.

10.  Select the top left node.  Change the Node Type to Curve Before.  Drag the handle slightly to the left to curve the ribbon outward.  Change the Node Type to Curve After and Smooth.  This eliminates the possibility of an ugly bump.

11.  Select the bottom left node.  Change the Node type to Curve After.  Drag the handle slightly to the left.

12.  Duplicate the layer (Layers > Duplicate) and mirror the image (Ctrl + M).  This creates the two overlapping pieces of the ribbon.

9.  Create a new vector layer (Layers > New Vector Layer).

10.  Select None (Ctrl + D).

11.  Use the rectangle preset shape and draw out a rectangle across the tops of the two long ribbons.

12.  Right-click and select Convert to Path.

13.  Select the top left node and change the node type to Curve After by right-clicking the node, then choosing Node Type from the menu.  Pull the handle up to create an upwards curve.

14.  Repeat for the top right node except change the node type to Curve Before.

15.  Select the bottom right node and change the node type to Curve After.  Pull the handle up to create an upwards curve.

16.  Repeat for the bottom left node except change the node type to Curve Before.

17.  Move the current layer under the two ribbon layers.

The basic ribbon shape is now complete.  You can provide shading to make the ribbon look more three-dimensional.  I used a pink gradient to give my ribbon more depth. 

Here is my gradient and how I applied the gradient to the layers.

Foreground Color = Dark Pink
Background Color = Light Pink
Layer - Copy of Vector 1 = Foreground - Background Gradient
Layer - Vector 1 = Foreground - Background Gradient Inverted (meaning with Invert box checked)
Layer - Vector 2 = Foreground - Background Gradient

I am making my final ribbon available as a grayscale image.  It is still in vector format, so that the colors can easily be changed.  It is in PSPimage format.  I am trying out SkyDrive for this download just to see how it works.  Like it?  Hate it? Let me know what you think.

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