title: Creating a transparent portion of a control to see controls underneath it
body: <p>I've modified the <a href="http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/22780/Super-Context-Menu-Strip" rel="nofollow noreferrer">SuperContextMenuStrip</a> found at CodeProject to meet some of my projects needs.  I'm using it as a tooltip for map markers on a <a href="http://greatmaps.codeplex.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">GMap.NET Map Control</a>.  Here is a sample of what it looks like:</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/wL2ei.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
  
  <p>What I would like to do is pretty this up a little by making it look more like a bubble.  Similar to an old Google Maps stytle tooltip:</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RBdmx.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
  
  <p>I've spent some time searching on control transparency and I know this isn't an easy thing.  <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/592538/how-to-create-a-transparent-control-which-works-when-on-top-of-other-controls">This SO question in particular illustrates that.</a></p>
  
  <p>I have considered overriding the <code>OnPaint</code> method of the <code>SuperContextMenuStrip</code> to draw a background of the GMap.NET control that is underneath the <code>SuperContextMenuStrip</code>, but even that would fail in cases where the marker is hanging off the GMap.NET control:</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/WhcCt.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
  
  <p>What is the correct way to create the type of transparency I am looking for?</p>