LOPSY

Paint a Naive Folk Art Cheese Label

Design a round goat-cheese label in naive folk art style in Lopsy with radial-symmetry scallops, a painted farm scene, a custom grass brush and text on a path.

  • Intermediate
  • 120 min
  • 36 steps

Published

The finished Merry Goat Creamery label, a round scalloped cobalt sticker on red gingham, with a white spotted goat, red barn, tulips and daisies under an arched MERRY GOAT title and a yellow Fresh Chèvre ribbon

Naive folk painters such as Maud Lewis paint the countryside the way a child remembers it:

  • bright flat colours with no shading
  • simple rounded shapes, the same dark outline round everything
  • tulips, daisies and a cheerful sun wherever there's room

Those rules suit a product label very well, because a label has to read from across a shop. In this tutorial you'll make one for an invented goat-cheese dairy, Merry Goat Creamery. It's a round, scalloped sticker with a painted farm inside, an arched title, a curved ribbon and a little gingham tablecloth to show it on.

Along the way you'll use:

  • Define Pattern and Fill with Pattern
  • the Brush's Radial Symmetry, plus a custom brush made with Define Brush
  • Sunburst, Fibers and Add Noise
  • copy, paste, scale and rotate
  • a group mask, plus add, subtract and intersect selections
  • the Stroke and Drop Shadow effects
  • the Pen tool with text on a path

The palette is a set of folk brights on cream:

  • Cobalt
  • Tomato red
  • Cream
  • Sunflower
  • Sky
  • Greens
  • Sun orange
  • Barn roof
  • lane
  • Outline ink
  • Gingham

  1. Make a gingham tile

    Open Lopsy. In the New Document dialog, set Width and Height to 1800, leave Background on White and click Create.

    Click the top ruler at 900 and the left ruler at 900 to add a vertical and a horizontal guide through the centre. Then double-click Layer 1 and rename it Gingham Tile.

    Press M for the Rectangular Marquee and click once on the canvas without dragging. A Rectangular Selection dialog opens, so you can type exact corners. Make four selections, filling each one with Edit → Fill after setting the foreground colour in the Color panel's hex field:

    1. From 300, 300 to 420, 420: fill white .
    2. From 300, 300 to 360, 420: fill pale red .
    3. From 300, 300 to 420, 360: fill pale red again.
    4. From 300, 300 to 360, 360: fill dark red .

    Where the two pale bands cross you get the dark square, just like woven gingham.

    A 120 pixel gingham tile, one dark red square, two pale red squares and one white square, with a selection around it at high zoom

  2. Turn the tile into a tablecloth

    Select the whole tile again (from 300, 300 to 420, 420) and choose Edit → Define Pattern.

    Click Add Layer at the bottom of the Layers panel and rename the new layer Tablecloth. Press Cmd+D to deselect, then choose Edit → Fill with Pattern…. Your tile is already picked, so leave Scale at 100 and click Apply.

    Select the Gingham Tile layer and delete it with the trash button in the Layers panel.

    The Pattern Fill dialog showing the gingham tile as Pattern 1 at 120 by 120, Scale 100, with the tile on the canvas behind

  3. Soften the cloth

    The cloth is only a backdrop, so it shouldn't shout. Select Tablecloth and:

    1. Choose Filter → Hue/Saturation…, set Saturation to -40 and click Apply.
    2. Choose Filter → Gaussian Blur…, set Radius to 2, and click Apply. It now reads like a cloth slightly out of focus behind the label.

    Now add a weave. Add a layer named Cloth Weave and choose Filter → Fibers… with Variance 20 and Strength 40. Fibers uses the foreground colour, which is still the dark red. Open the layer's effects drawer with the ✦ button on its row, set Blend to Overlay, and lower the layer's opacity to 30%.

    Fibers only runs one way. To get crossing threads:

    1. Choose Layer → Duplicate Layer, click the copy's row and rename it Cloth Weft.
    2. Press V for the Move tool and click Rotate 90° CW in the options bar.
    A close-up of the muted red gingham with a soft blur and a fine woven texture of crossing threads

  4. Stamp the scalloped edge

    Make sure Cloth Weft is selected, click New Group and rename the group Label. Add a layer inside it named Label Base.

    Choose the Elliptical Marquee and click once without dragging. In the Elliptical Selection dialog, enter From 170, 170 and To 1630, 1630. That's a circle of radius 730 around the centre. Fill it with cobalt and deselect.

    Now for the scallops. Press B for the Brush and set Size 150 and Hardness 100. Click Radial Symmetry in the options bar and set Segments to 32. The symmetry centre starts in the middle of the canvas. Click once on the top edge of the disc, where it meets the vertical guide: one click paints 32 evenly spaced scallops.

    A cobalt disc with 32 round scallops around its edge on the gingham, the radial symmetry centre marked in the middle

  5. Add stitches and the cream ring

    Add a layer named Stitches. Set the foreground to cream , set the brush Size to 22 and click once in the upper half of the top scallop. The symmetry puts a dot in every scallop. Click Radial Symmetry again to turn it off.

    Add a layer named Label Ring. Make an exact elliptical selection from 200, 200 to 1600, 1600 and fill it with cream.

    For the thin rule:

    1. Add a layer named Inner Rule.
    2. Make an exact elliptical selection from 216, 216 to 1584, 1584 and fill it with cobalt.
    3. Choose Select → Shrink, enter 6 and click Apply.
    4. Press Delete, then Cmd+D.

    You're left with a crisp 6 px ring.

    The finished label frame: cobalt scallops with a cream stitch dot in each, a wide cream circle and a thin cobalt rule just inside its edge

  6. Paint the sky

    Collapse the Label group, select its row and click New Group. Rename it Scene, then add a layer inside named Sky.

    Make an exact elliptical selection from 394, 394 to 1406, 1406. Choose the Gradient tool, open Advanced… and set two stops, and . Drag from the top of the circle down to the horizontal guide, then press Cmd+D.

    A circular selection inside the cream ring filled with a blue gradient that fades from deep blue at the top to pale blue at the horizon

  7. Make a folk sun with Sunburst

    Add a layer named Sun Rays and set the foreground to orange . Choose Filter → Sunburst… and set:

    • Rays 10
    • Length 6.5
    • Width 55
    • Taper 100
    • Fade, Softness, Rotation and Jitter all 0
    • Center X 37 and Center Y 33

    Click Apply. Then switch the foreground to yellow , open Sunburst again and change only Rotation to 18. The second set of rays lands in the gaps, so the colours alternate.

    Add a layer named Sun. Make an exact elliptical selection from 604, 532 to 728, 656 and fill it with to cover the middle, then deselect.

    The Sunburst dialog with 10 rays, Length 6.5, Width 55, Taper 100 and Rotation 18, previewing yellow rays between orange ones

  8. Build the clouds from ellipses

    Add a layer named Clouds. With the Elliptical Marquee, drag a wide oval for the base of the cloud, then hold Shift and drag three or four rounder ovals across its top to add bumps. Fill the joined selection with white. Make a second, smaller cloud lower down and to the right the same way.

    Several overlapping elliptical marquees joined into one puffy cloud-shaped selection in the sky

  9. Lasso the far hills

    Add a layer named Far Hills. With the Lasso (L), trace a slow rolling ridge across the circle, just above the horizontal guide. Close it well below the guide. Don't worry about the parts outside the circle: the group mask will hide them later. Fill with .

    A lasso selection tracing a rolling ridge line across the sky circle, with the sun and clouds above it

  10. Paint one tree, then paste copies

    Add a layer named Tree. On the left of the ridge, draw the trunk with the brush:

    1. Set Size 14 and colour .
    2. Click at the top of the trunk, then Shift-click about 70 px below it.

    Then select a circle about 80 px across over the top of the trunk and fill it with .

    Draw a rectangle round the tree and press Cmd+C, then Cmd+V. The copy is pasted in place on a new layer. Rename it Tree 2. Draw a marquee tightly round it, switch to the Move tool, and hold Cmd (it keeps the tree's proportions) while you drag the bottom-right handle in, until the tree is about three-quarters of its size. Press Cmd+D, then drag it just right of the first tree and a little lower, so it looks further away.

    A pasted copy of the lollipop tree on top of the first tree, selected with transform handles while being scaled down

  11. Tilt a third tree

    Paste again, rename the layer Tree 3, scale it to about 80% and drag it to the right end of the ridge. Naive painters rarely stand everything straight, so give it a lean:

    1. Draw a marquee round it.
    2. With the Move tool, hover just outside the top-right corner until the cursor turns into a curved arrow.
    3. Drag up a little to rotate it about 7° to the left.
    4. Press Cmd+D.
    A third pasted tree on the right edge of the ridge inside a slightly rotated marquee

  12. Plough the fields along the hills

    Add a layer named Mid Hills. Lasso one wide band in front of the ridge whose top rises into two round hills, the right one taller. Fill with .

    Add a layer named Fields. Cmd-click the Mid Hills thumbnail to select its shape, then click the Fields row. Set the brush Size to 16. Paint rows that follow the hill tops:

    1. Drag a wavy line that follows the hilltop, about a brush-width below it, in .
    2. Paint the next row the same gap lower in .
    3. Keep alternating the two greens all the way down.

    The selection keeps every stroke inside the hills. Press Cmd+D when you're done.

    Two big green hills in front of the ridge, covered in wavy rows of light and dark green that follow the hilltops

  13. Build the barn

    Add a layer named Barn and build it on the right hilltop:

    • Silo: a rectangle about 40 × 120 px in pale grey , with a dark red oval on top.
    • Barn: a rectangle about 120 × 90 px in red beside it.
    • Roof: lasso a triangle over the barn and fill it with .
    • Door and loft window: a cream rectangle for the door, and a small cream oval in the gable.
    • Trim: with a Size 5 brush, click one door corner and Shift-click the opposite one, then do the same with the other pair of corners to make a red X. Do the same in cream for a trim line down each side of the barn.
    A red barn with a dark red roof, cream door with a red X, a round loft window and a pale grey silo on the right hilltop

  14. Bring a tree to the front

    Paste the tree one more time and rename the layer Tree 4. This one is closest to us, so it should be the biggest tree in the picture. Draw a marquee round it, then with the Move tool Cmd-drag a corner handle outwards until it's a little larger than the first tree. Then place it in front of the left hill, between the far trees and the middle of the scene.

    A pasted tree being scaled up past its original size with the Move tool, in front of the ploughed hills

  15. Add the meadow and the lane

    Add a layer named Meadow. Lasso a gentle front hill that covers the bottom half of the circle, and fill it with .

    Add a layer named Lane above it. Lasso a path that starts as a thin line at the barn door and widens as it winds down to the lower right, then fill it with pale tan .

    A lasso selection shaped like a winding lane from the barn door widening down to the lower right, over a bright green meadow

  16. Clip the scene to a circle with a group mask

    The hills and sky spill past the circle, so mask the whole group at once:

    1. Select the Scene group row and click Add Mask.
    2. Click the new mask thumbnail next to the Scene row to edit the mask.
    3. Make an exact elliptical selection from 400, 400 to 1400, 1400, then choose Select → Inverse.
    4. Set the foreground to black and choose Edit → Fill.
    5. Deselect, then click the Scene row to leave mask editing.

    Everything in the group, including layers you add later, is now clipped to a 1000 px circle.

    The Scene group with a mask in edit mode and an inverted circular selection around the painted scene

  17. Lasso the goat's silhouette

    Select the Lane row and click New Group. Rename the group Goat. Add a layer named Horns and lasso two long curved horns sweeping back from where the head will be. Fill them with .

    Add a layer named Goat Body. Build the white silhouette from simple pieces with the Lasso, holding Shift for each piece after the first so they add together:

    • a big oval for the body
    • a thick neck rising to the right
    • a wedge-shaped head pointing down and right
    • four straight legs
    • a little tuft of tail
    • a beard under the chin

    Fill with white.

    A joined lasso selection in the shape of a goat with an oval body, neck, wedge-shaped head, four legs and a tail tuft

  18. Add spots, ear, collar and face

    Add three more layers:

    • Goat Spots: two soft brown ovals on the body.
    • Goat Trim:
    • a drooping leaf-shaped ear in pink
    • a red collar band across the neck
    • a small yellow circle for the bell, hanging at the throat
    • Goat Face:
    • an almond eye and four hooves in ink
    • a pink nose
    • one click of a Size 4 white brush for the glint in the eye

    If the neck and body leave a notch at the chest, lasso a small wedge on Goat Body and fill it white to smooth it.

    The flat white goat with brown spots, a pink drooping ear, a red collar with a yellow bell, a dark eye and hooves

  19. Trim the collar to the neck

    The collar's front end pokes out past the neck. To trim exactly that bit:

    1. Select Goat Trim and Cmd-click the Goat Body thumbnail.
    2. Choose Select → Inverse, so everything outside the goat is selected.
    3. Hold Shift+Alt and drag a rectangle round the front end of the collar. This keeps only where the two selections overlap.
    4. Press Delete and Cmd+D.

    The bell isn't touched because it's outside the rectangle.

    An intersect selection limited to the part of the collar that sticks out past the front of the neck

  20. Plant the tulips

    Collapse Goat, select its row and click New Group. Rename the group Flowers, then add a layer named Tulips Left.

    For each of four tulips:

    1. Paint a stem with a Size 9 brush in . Click the base, then Shift-click the top.
    2. Lasso two narrow leaves in .
    3. Lasso a crown-shaped head with three points in red , pink or yellow .

    Vary the heights. Then select the Goat group's row, add a Tulips Right layer and plant four more tulips on the other side of the goat. Use different heights and a different colour order, so the clusters don't look mirrored.

    Two clusters of red, pink and yellow tulips of different heights on long green stems on either side of the goat

  21. Paint daisies with radial symmetry

    Add a layer named Daisies. Set the brush to white at Size 13, turn Radial Symmetry back on and set Segments to 8.

    For each daisy:

    1. Cmd-click where the daisy's centre should be. This moves the symmetry centre there.
    2. Click once just above it. Eight petals appear.

    Make five or six daisies around the goat's legs. Then switch to at Size 10 and do the same again, but click right on each centre for the yellow middle. Turn Radial Symmetry off when you're done.

    A white eight-petal daisy painted with a single click, the radial symmetry centre marker on its middle

  22. Make a grass tuft brush

    Grass is the one place a custom brush pays off. Add a temporary layer named Tuft Tip and find an empty patch of sky:

    1. With a black Size 6 brush, click a point.
    2. Shift-click about 35 px above it and a little to the left.
    3. Click the first point again and Shift-click straight up.
    4. Repeat once more up and to the right.

    You now have a three-blade tuft. Draw a rectangle round it and choose Edit → Define Brush…. Name it Grass Tuft. The new tip becomes the active brush. Delete the temporary layer.

    Three short black strokes fanning out from one point, selected with a marquee at high zoom

  23. Scatter the tufts

    Click the brush-tip thumbnail at the left of the options bar to open the Brushes modal:

    • On the Shape tab, set Size 30 and Spacing 170.
    • On the Dynamics tab, set Scatter 90, Size Jitter 45 and Angle Jitter 6.

    The preview strip at the bottom shows tufts of different sizes, leaning slightly, spread along the stroke. Close the modal.

    Now select the Lane row and add a layer named Grass. It goes between the lane and the goat, so the goat's hooves stand in the grass.

    The Brushes modal on the Dynamics tab with Scatter 90, Size Jitter 45 and Angle Jitter 6, previewing scattered grass tufts

  24. Keep the grass off the lane

    With Grass selected, Cmd-click the Meadow thumbnail, then click the Grass row again. Hold Alt and lasso round the lower part of the lane to subtract it from the selection.

    The meadow selected with marching ants, with a notch cut out of it where the lane runs

  25. Paint the grass

    Set the foreground to and drag slow wavy strokes across the meadow from left to right, a hand's width apart, from the top of the meadow to the bottom. Switch to the darker and do a second set of strokes in between. Press Cmd+D.

    The meadow covered in small three-blade grass tufts in two greens, with the lane left clear

  26. Spray dots into the tree tops

    Spray paints with the Brush's current tip, so switch back first: open the Brushes modal and click Hard Round on the Presets tab.

    Select Tree 4 and add a layer named Leaf Dots. Draw an elliptical marquee just inside each canopy, holding Shift after the first to add the rest. Then:

    1. Choose the Spray tool and set Size 120, Density 10, Opacity 100 and Softness 0.
    2. Set the foreground to .
    3. Zig-zag once over each canopy.

    The dots look like dabbed foliage, and they stay inside the canopies.

    Three of the tree canopies selected with elliptical marquees and speckled with lighter green spray dots

  27. Outline everything

    The dark outline is what makes this look like naive folk painting. For each layer below, open its effects drawer with the ✦ button on the layer's row, tick Stroke, set the colour to and set the Width:

    • 5: Goat Body
    • 4: Sun, Clouds, the four Tree layers, Barn, Horns
    • 3: Sun Rays, Far Hills, Mid Hills, Meadow, Goat Trim, both tulip layers
    • 2: Daisies

    Leave Sky, Fields, Lane, Grass, Leaf Dots and Goat Spots unoutlined. They're textures and details, not shapes.

    The scene with a dark brown outline around the sun, clouds, hills, trees, barn, goat, tulips and daisies

  28. Hang a ribbon across the meadow

    Collapse Scene, select its row, click New Group and rename it Lettering.

    First add a layer named Scene Frame for a ring round the picture. Make an exact elliptical selection from 388, 388 to 1412, 1412, fill it with cobalt, choose Select → Shrink with 12, press Delete and deselect.

    Then build the ribbon:

    1. Add a layer named Ribbon Tails and lasso a swallowtail end on each side, reaching out over the cream ring. Fill them with .
    2. Lasso a small triangle on Ribbon Tails at the inner corner of each tail and fill it with , where it folds behind the banner.
    3. Add a layer named Ribbon and lasso a curved band that smiles: the ends higher than the middle, following the bottom of the circle. Fill it with .
    4. Give Ribbon and Ribbon Tails a 4 px Stroke in .
    A yellow curved ribbon banner with orange swallowtail ends and darker folds across the bottom of the scene, outlined in dark brown

  29. Set the ribbon text and draw its path

    First set the text straight:

    1. Select the Ribbon row, a plain picture layer. If a text layer were active, changing the font would restyle that layer instead.
    2. Press T, choose Oregano at size 78, and set the colour to .
    3. Click in an empty corner of the canvas and type Fresh Chèvre.
    4. Press Tab to commit, and rename the layer Ribbon Text.

    Text on a path starts at the first anchor, so begin the path where you want the first letter. With the Pen tool (P):

    1. Press a little below the ribbon's centre line (letters sit on top of their path), a little in from its left end, and drag a short handle along the curve.
    2. Do the same at the middle of the ribbon, dragging along the curve to the right.
    3. Do the same just past where the text should end.
    4. Click the ✓ (Commit path) button.
    A pen path with three anchors curving along the middle of the yellow ribbon

  30. Put the text on the path

    Select Ribbon Text and, with the Text tool active, choose the new path in the Path menu of the options bar. The script bends along the ribbon.

    Check it sits in the middle of the band. The tops of the capitals and the baseline should have about the same gap to the ribbon's edges. If they don't, undo and draw the path a little higher or lower.

    The words Fresh Chèvre in red script following the curve of the yellow ribbon

  31. Arch the title

    Select the Ribbon row again. Then:

    1. Set the type to Kavoon at 140 in , type MERRY GOAT in an empty corner, and rename the layer Title.
    2. With the Pen tool, draw an arc across the top of the cream ring from left to right, about 30 px outside the blue frame ring. Use four anchors with handles dragged along the curve.
    3. Commit the path, select Title and pick the path in the Path menu.

    Let the arc span about 45° either side of the vertical guide. You'll match that span for the bottom line.

    Because the path runs left to right over the top, the letters stand upright, leaning outwards.

    MERRY GOAT in red Kavoon letters arched over the top of the cream ring, following a pen path

  32. Curve the bottom line

    Select the Ribbon row again, then do the same for the bottom line, this time in Kavoon 58, cobalt :

    1. Type HANDMADE IN VERMONT • 150 GRAMS and rename the layer Bottom Line.
    2. Draw the arc along the bottom of the cream ring, about 60 px inside the thin cobalt rule (Inner Rule), again from left to right. This way the letters stand upright with their tops towards the centre.
    3. Bind the text to the new path.

    Use the same span as the title, so the two lines balance each other.

    HANDMADE IN VERMONT • 150 GRAMS in blue Kavoon letters following an arc along the bottom of the cream ring

  33. Add folk hearts

    Add a layer named Hearts. Lasso a heart about 80 px wide on the cream ring at nine o'clock and another at three o'clock, and fill them with . Then:

    • Click once with a Size 9 cream brush near the top left of each heart for a highlight.
    • Give the layer a 3 px Stroke in .
    A red heart with a small cream highlight and a dark outline sitting on the cream ring at the nine o'clock position

  34. Add a printed-paper speckle

    Select Hearts and add a layer above it named Paper Speckle. Then:

    1. Expand the Label group and Cmd-click the Label Base thumbnail.
    2. Click the Paper Speckle row and fill the selection with mid grey .
    3. Choose Filter → Add Noise…, pick Mono and Gaussian, set Amount 40 and click Apply.
    4. Choose Filter → Gaussian Blur… with Radius 1.
    5. Deselect, set the layer's Blend to Overlay, and lower its opacity to 22%.

    Grey disappears in Overlay, so only a fine, even tooth is left, like ink on paper.

    The Add Noise dialog set to Amount 40, Mono and Gaussian over a grey fill in the shape of the label

  35. Lift the label off the cloth

    Select Label Base and open its effects drawer. Tick Drop Shadow and set:

    • colour
    • Offset X 10 and Offset Y 16
    • Blur 26
    • Opacity 50

    A warm shadow looks better on red cloth than grey or black.

    The Drop Shadow effect on Label Base with a dark red colour, Offset X 10, Offset Y 16, Blur 26 and Opacity 50, casting a soft shadow onto the gingham

  36. Fix the tangencies and export

    Zoom in and look for places where two shapes just touch. On a flat, outlined picture they look like mistakes:

    • Near tree: if its trunk lands on the goat's back, select Tree 4 with the Move tool and nudge it up with Shift+Up until there's hill between the trunk and the goat. Draw a marquee round its canopy on Leaf Dots and nudge the dots up the same amount.
    • Collar: if it stops short of the back of the neck, lasso a short extension on Goat Trim and trim it with the same intersect trick you used on the front.
    • Tulips: if a tulip head touches the goat, nudge Tulips Left a couple of Shift+Left presses away.

    Choose File → Quick Export PNG for the image and File → Save Project to keep every layer, path and effect editable.

    To make a whole range, swap the ribbon text and the tulip colours for each cheese. For example, "Herbed Chèvre" with purple flowers.

    A close-up after the final nudges: the near tree raised clear of the goat's back, the collar wrapping to the back of the neck, and the tulips clear of the goat
Lopsy showing the finished Yodel of the Uplands zine cover, with a red woodtype title, a painted mountain medallion framed by crossed alphorns, tulip and edelweiss vines, and a red swallowtail ribbon inside a dotted red border

Design a Folk Art Zine Cover

Make an alpine folk art zine cover in Lopsy with radial-symmetry sunbursts, crossed alphorns, a painted medallion, woodtype titles and halftone.

  • Intermediate
  • 60 min