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1. If you haven't already, open & prepare the base that you want to use.
I am using a Mina base for this tutorial. You may find the tutorial easier to follow if you use a similar sized base to begin with. |
2. I have created several colour palettes that you can use, but you are free to use your own colours, or use on of my other palettes. | 3. Create a new layer named Dress by going to Layer/New Raster Layer... or clicking on the new raster layer icon on the Layer Palette. Select the Paint Brush tool & set your Foreground to palette colour 2 using the Dropper. |
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4. Make sure your Paintbrush is 1 pixel in size. Draw in the outline of your dress. Don't worry if it's messy, we'll clean it up in a moment.
I find it helps to Zoom in on the image & use precise cursors for this. |
5. Use the Eraser & Paintbrush to tidy up & streamline the dress. Ensure that it is not more than 1 pixel thick at all points. | 6. Select colour 3 from the palette & Flood Fill the interior of the dress. |
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7. Create a new layer named Back of Dress. Drag it underneath your base layer on the Layer Palette (you base should be on a layer of it's own).
Select palette colour 4 & draw the outline of the back of the dress. |
8. Neaten up the outlines as you did in step 5, then use palette colour 2 & the Paintbrush tool to colour in the back of the dress. |
9. Now we come to the tricky part - the shading! I love the Lighten/Darken tools in PSP8 & use them a lot to shade.
Click on the Lighten/Darken tool. |
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10. On the Tool palette, use roughly the settings shown in the previous step. Then, put a tick in the Swap Mouse Button box, set the size to about 13 & drop the Opacity down to about 16 (again, this will vary according to the size of the doll).
Shade down the sides of the dress a little to add some definition. |
11. Drop the Size down to about 5 & the Opacity down to about 14.
Add some more shading under & around the bust, & where the folds would be on the bottom section of the dress. |
12. If you shading is looking a little patchy, use the Smudge with a Size of about 6 & Opacity of about 60 to even it out. |
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13. Use the Lighten/Darken brush again. Drop the Size down to 1 & the Opacity to about 11. We're going to draw some small folds to add detail. Think about when you were clothes - where are the folds?
I have drawn in green the areas you might want to focus on. |
14. Your doll should be looking something like this by now. |
15. Now, still using the Lighten/Darken tool, take the tick out of the Swap Mouse Button box, but leave the other settings the same.
Add some highlight to the folds you made in the previous step. See how it really make the folds "stand out"? |
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| 16. Still using the Lighten/Darken tool, increase the Size to about 3 & add some general highlight to the dress, as shown above (again, in green to make it easier to see). | 17. Your doll should be looking something like this. |
18. To add a little texture to the dress, we're going to add some noise.
Change the type to Gaussian & the Noise to about 6. |
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19. Create a new layer named Flowers.
To the side of the doll, draw a simple daisy. |
20. Use the Lighten/Darken brush with a Size of 1 & Opacity of about 14 to make a few petals lighter & a few darker. | 21. Use the Eraser tool with a size of 1 & Opacity of about 30 to make a few petals more transparent. |
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| 22. Click on the Selection tool on the toolbar (it doesn't matter which option). Press CTRL+C on your keyboard to copy the daisy, then CTRL+E to paste it as a new selection. Move it into position on the top of the dress. | 23. Continue pressing CTRL+E & arranging the flowers. Erase the original flower which should still be off to one side. | 24. Create a new layer under the Flowers layer named Leaves. Select a shade of green that complements your dress/flowers, & draw a few leaves in. |
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25. Create a new layer called Dress Edging. Using the Dropper select a light shade from your flowers.
Using the Paintbrush, draw over the bottom edge of the dress. Feel free to experiment with the decoration. |
26. Go back to the layer named Dress. Select the Lighten/Darken tool. Set the Size to about 5 & the Opacity to about 20. Shade the dress under the flowers to add some shadow. | 27. Your dress should be looking like this. Just add some wings & hair to complete the look. |
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| Your dress is complete! | ||
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