Red ochre

Use Edit/Invert selection first? https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/SelectionTools.html

Hi MJW - have you tried using Shapemaker for your method of working? I suggest copying your image to the clipboard, open and maximise Shapemaker. Select cubic spline (2nd blue icon), snap to grid off and deselect path before starting another. (Other curves are available 😉) I recommend saving the shape but the 'draw on canvas' function is much better now than it was. Just a work-around if Rick's 'to do' list is too long!

The cursor position is shown at the bottom right for both the lasso select and the rectangle select? (Just after canvas size). Zooming-in helps when accurately starting a selection and the keyboard up/down left/right arrows give more fine control over cursor position. Ellipse select is more complex but all the relevant info is shown at the bottom of the window.

Layers/Import from file (choose 'details' in the top right of the pane then click on the field title to sort)... or more generally minimise paint.net and open file explorer.

In Windows 10 file explorer click on the 'view tab' at the top and select 'Sort by' and choose the relevant field. Click it again and it will reverse the order. If you select 'choose columns' (at the bottom of the sort by list) you should be able to find a useful way to sort your images. Probably best to name your image layers in a logical, easy to sort way... 1,2,3, etc. Hope that helps and not patronising!😉

Camera lens distortion

If you use my Selection2 clear plugin it would save having to reselect your "eraser" shape each time. In my pack - link in Sig below. Unfortunately deleting selections tends to leave a 'pixelated' edge, so I avoid it when possible. Personally I would use the Furblur plugin to soften the edge of the grass but you could also explore using the Brush factory plugin. (You can easily create your own grass brush)

It's good to see your gallery progressing. Echoing @Pixey, clever layout to the gallery too!

Clever use of the Callicolour plugin and always interesting to see how you have manipulated your plant images too. Good work!

Thanks @lynxster4, @Pixey and @barbieq25 for commenting. I'm glad you can finally see the new images!

Thanks @Ladybug and @Pixey!

Some new patterns added to page one. Thanks for commenting @JulioCoolio and @Seerose... hope you're ok Seerose?

Cool work with E.E.R's orgasmatron! 😉

Love the leaves on the rose! Well done for getting your gallery started... it is difficult and confusing... well, I still find it so! As for finding sites and 'threads' you've uploaded images to - try to get used to using 'bookmarks'/'favourites' in your internet browser to get back to those 'pages'. It seems complicated and frustrating now but you'll pick it up!

This may help Tone Gradient Magnitude Reduce background opacity and if needed you can subsequently adjust the opacity of the remaining lines using Alpha-threshold

Congratulations to all that entered! I didn't vote because I like all the entries... too hard (for me) to judge. Thanks all, for giving this effect a go. I'm pleased you all understood the eccentric two stage way of using the effect. I can see the thought and time that has gone into these and even those with fewer votes look good to me. Many thanks to lynxster4, all those that participated and all those that voted.

Hello misdirect, welcome to the forum. One way would be to install my 'Compogrids' plugin and run it on a transparent layer above the active layer.

Hello again Cakie67! The Render plugin you mention with light beams and sea urchins is probably my 'Highlight' effect. It is in my plugin pack - as is 'Furblur'. You seem to be having problems installing my plugin pack. Please tell me if you are running the free version of paint.net OR did you pay for it via the Microsoft store? (The pack installer won't work on the MS store version).

An alternative way to Pixey's, using the plugin Paste From Clipboard (by MJW) Edit/Select all , Copy , New layer , Deselect - make new elliptical selection , Run Paste from clipboard, Deselect. Outline the object and draw the arrow however you like. No select all emoji/icon? 🙄

@Cakie67 If you cannot find the 'Furblur.dll' on your computer you can always download the separate zipped effect '.dlls' by clicking the GREY button here. Then find the downloaded zipped folder in your downloads folder and right-click on it and choose 'Extract All'. Then open the unzipped folder and copy/paste the 'Furblur.dll' into the 'Documents/paint.net App Files/Effects' folder you have just created... then restart paint.net. It sounds more complicated than it really is! 😉

@Cakie67 Please read through how to instal plugins HERE The free version of paint.net and the Microsoft store version keep the plugins in different places. Perhaps it is in the wrong folder? If you have the file 'Furblur.dll' in the correct folder and have re-started paint.net then it should be listed under Effects/Blurs/Furblur when paint.net is running. ... Good luck!

Many thanks for taking a look @Null54. Perhaps they were bad example files to choose. I have others in full (24 bit) colour with (8 bit) transparency saved with standard Paint.net .png that also show with a black background in Windows explorer .. and yet others that show a white background? I have even known the thumbnail background to change from black to white when changing thumbnail size or refreshing the Windows explorer view. However it is files with black images on a transparent background that are most problematic for me, so will stick with saving as Optipng for those. I've just read a little about .pngs here I'm currently opening the .png files in Notepad + as 'normal text files' - is there a way to show the numbers or are the byte values always displayed as strange ASC11 characters (I assume)?... I'm new to this! Many thanks (Hope I haven't hijacked your thread @MJW, sorry)

No, just the pixel values measured with the ink dropper tool. I have no idea about how the information is stored within the png file. I'm happy to upload I have now uploaded both files to my site if you wish to investigate why the Optipng version displays correctly and the standard png, created by Pdn, doesn't. The files can downloaded here: plain png version and the Optipng version I can't find the bKGD chunk when searching through either file in Notepad+.

In the 'white stripes' thread, I would think @ZerTerO would do better to use non anti-aliased selections as E.E.R suggests. My 'Selection2clear' plugin fills the selection with transparent white (and maintains the selection). My 'Object2colour' can easily change the colour of zero alpha areas (select 'clean clear' from the preset options for transparent white)... it was partly written to fix the problem encountered by @Doughty - here (I subsequently rewrote Gradients Galore and it no longer suffers from this problem.) I believe @Boltbait favours keeping the colours of erased areas in case the user wants to recover them by increasing the alpha. New layers are currently created transparent white...hence I use that convention. @MJW would prefer transparent black... completely logical but it may have unintended consequences. I don't really mind what decision is reached I just wish Windows would display thumbnails predictably!🙄 New transparent white layers with areas of transparent black (from erasing) seems to be worst choice of all.🤪 The colour value of a fully transparent pixel should not really be used when blending pixels values but I can't guarantee that I have not done that on older effects. I note using the standard Gaussian blur on an object currently changes transparent white to transparent black regardless of the size of blur, so perhaps the decision has already been made?😉

I initially thought it may cause issues with anti-aliasing around objects on some early plugins, however, I cannot find any examples...so hopefully not an issue. Would it create problems with old Pdn files where semi-transparent layers are using blend modes? What is the advantage of changing, other than mathematical 'neatness'? Would file sizes be smaller? The main problem I have is with the way Windows file explorer displays transparency in thumbnails. Sometimes black sometimes white, regardless of the actual values within the png and often changing when the thumbnail display size is changed! - all beyond Paint.net's control. Very frustrating when using black shadows or text on a transparent background and the thumbnail just shows a black square. Curiously 'Optipng' seems to display transparency consistently as white in the Windows thumbnails? From a screenshot of my 'objects' folder:- (Ps. both files have a background of BGRA = 0,0,0,0)