To make this Swan Lake picture you will need:

BellBottom.Laser font
The Almathera Filters
Fantastic Machines Paint Engine
Texturizer
Harry's Filters - Version 2
Filters Unlimited - optional
 
 

Some of the filter screenshot you will see here may look a little different to what you see because I'm using the plug-in manager Filters Unlimited which I can highly recommend, but the settings given are what you need to concern yourself with the most.

Please refer to this tutorial should you need help with installing plugins into PhotoImpact.
 

Open a 500 x 400 blank canvas and fill it with a two colour gradient. The one's I used had hex values of 127, 240, 40 and 126, 44, 124.  Ok, at this point we'll forget about doing anything else to the canvas and work on our swan. So using the BellBottom.Laser font set at size 100, colour white and 2d mode, type in an "S". Pretty small isn't it? Go to Format/Dimentions, uncheck the Keep Aspect Ratio box and enter a width of 300 and a height of 270 percent. Be sure that you are applying these new dimentions to Selected Objects before clicking on the OK button. You should have something that resembles the image here.

Next we need to create a wing.  So Using the Path Drawing Tool in white and 2D mode, find custom shape Brush Tip 1 and draw it onto your canvas.  Click on Edit/Rotate & Flip/Rotate Right 90 degrees and resize using the transform tool to fit as you see in the image on the left here.

Using the Path Drawing tool again we need to create a beak for the swan, so with an orange colour, 2D mode, find custom shape Arrow 2 and draw it onto your canvas.  Resize and rotate as necessary to fit into position on your swan.

Being sure that your wing is selected, go to Object/Convert Object Type/From Path to Image and also with the paintbrush loaded with the colour black size 1, go to Effects/Paint on Edges.  Select the main body shape and again go to Object/Convert Object Type but this time choose From Text to Image, DO NOT add the Paint on Edge here.  Use the burn tool on each of these pieces to darken areas a little.  You can get an idea of how much and where from the diagram on the left here.

Now with both the wing and the main body selected, go to Effects/Fantastic Machines/Paint Engine and Enter the values you see here.

Using the paintbrush size one and set on black, paint in a few little lines at the tip of the wing and then use the bristle brush to smear these lines inwards.

Duplicate the wing 3 times.  Rotate and resize as necessary to fit each piece as you see them done here.  Paint a small black eye onto your swan.  Select all objects and merge as a single object.  You swan is now finished but you might want to save it to your Easy Palette for use in other projects.

Now we're going to work on the background scene so click on the space bar to deselect your swan.  Then using the airbrush, round shape, size 100, white in colour and no transparency, soft edge or preset, keep clicking on your mouse button until you have a nice soft round shape at the top lefthand side of your canvas. This is the moon.   Alter the transparancy setting to about 60 and then gently spray your airbrush radiating out from the moon.   Change the transpareny back to 0 and alter the shape size to about 50 and spray lines across where the water will be (they don't have to be straight).  Change the size to about 25 and spray in some more lines.  Change the size to about 10 and spray a few more lines.

Using the lasso tool, make a selection of the bottom half of your picture where the water is.  Don't worry about going over the swan in this selection, it won't matter.  Go to Effect/Almathera/A Puddle and enter the settings as shown here.

Duplicate the water section and bring it down so that the water is just covering the base of the swan.  Left click somewhere towards the top of your canvas, and select All, left click again and choose Convert to object.  Hold down the shift key to select the two water sections and the background.  Go to Effects/Harry's Filters/Harry's Filters, and enter these settings.

Use the bristle brush very lightly to smear the water a little and then merge all.  Use the warp tool if necessary to make the water against the body of the swan look a little more realistic.  Then go to Effect/Texture/Texturizer and enter these settings.

Your picture should now look something like this, but we haven't finished yet!

Go to Format/Frame & Shadow and select the 3D Inward Frame you see here with the gradient fill we originally used for the back ground and a size of 20.  Select a darkish area on you picture with the eyedropper for the canvas colour. Now you call your picture finished if you like, but if you happen to have Filters Unlimited then you may wish to continue on with this tutorial with just one further optional step:

Optional Step: Use Filters Unlimited/Buttons & Frames/Kaleidoscopic Frames (rectangular) and the settings shown here to create another dramatic looking frame.

All you need to do now is to resize your picture to suit your needs and then sharpen it if desired.  Your Swan Lake Picture is now complete and should look similar to this one. Should you wish to add any plants etc., then that part is left to your imagination :-)