Ballgown Tutorial

Please note: These are just my ways of doing things in Paint. I don't use it very much, so there may be easier/quicker ways to do what I am doing, feel free to play around!

1. You will need a base to work with. If you don't already have one, go to my bases section and save one onto your PC. You may want to complete my preparing your base tutorial before we start.	2. Feel free to use you own colours, but I have made some palettes to make it a little easier for you - you will find them at the bottom of the page. Alternatively, have a go at making your own. To use the palette, go to Edit/Paste From and locate the colour palettes from where you saved them on your PC. This will open them into the same document as your doll. For this tutorial, you will need the black palette & a coloured palette.	3. Once in Paint, click on the Brush tool and choose the smallest brush size. You could use the Pencil tool instead, if you want, but I always find the Brush easier as you just have the "cross-hair" cursor and thins makes it much easier to see what you are actually doing.

4. Use the Pick Color tool to select colour 1 from the black palette and draw in the outline of the bodice.	5. Use the Pick Color tool again to select colour 2 from the black palette and draw in darkest areas of shading.	6. Repeat this process with color 3...

7. ... colour 4 ...	7. ... colour 5 ...	9. ... & colour 6

10. Now we are ready to start on the skirt. Select colour 1 from the colour palette you are using and draw the outline of the skirt. You may find it easier to zoom in a little to do this. You can do this as many times as you need to - it can be a little tricky to get the right shape. Just remember - you can only undo 3 moves! TIP: Press CTRL+Z to Undo and F4 to Redo - it's much quicker!	11. Don't worry of the edges are a little messy. Just use white to tidy up the edges so that it is 1 pixel think at all points and has a nice, smooth curve. TIP: Drawing with the Right Mouse Button will draw in the background colour.	12. Select colour 6 from the palette and colour in the interior of the skirt - it may be slightly quicker if you use the Fill tool for the large, blank areas & then set you brush size larger for large areas with many different colours, e.g. the legs.

13. Select colour 2 and draw in the darkest areas of shading. We want it to look like the front part of the skirt is more forward than the rest, so by drawing dark shading to either side, it will look like it's casting a shadow "back" on the rest of the skirt.	14. Select colour 3 and extend the shading on the left and right sections, but leave the middle section. Also use this colour to line the outer edge of the skirt.	15. Select colour 4 and continue the shading on the left and right sections. This time, add a little shading to the middle section. Add a second layer of shading to the outer edge of the skirt.

16. Repeat this process with colour 5, gradually building up the shading. You may find it helps to zoom out every now and again just to make sure it still looks ok. You can alsways go back & add or remove some of the other shading if it doesn't look quite right. This tutorial is just a guide, feel free to experiment.	17. With colour 7 draw on the area's of highlight on the centre of the skirt and a little on the left & right sections.	18. Continue adding the highlight with palette colour 8...

19. ...& 9. Remember, If you feel you are happy with the effect after, say, colour 7, feel free to stop at that point.	20. Your doll should be looking something like this.	21. Now we're going to add a little decoration to make it more interesting. Using the Pick Colour tool, select colour number 4 from the black palette. Draw along the bottom edge of the dress.

22. Repeat this to make the line 2 pixels thick.	23. Draw a 1 pixel thick line 2 pixels above the edging you just drew.	24. Using the Pick Colour tool again, select the darkest colour from the black palette. Go over the black edging where the areas of shadow would be, as shown above.

25. Using the Pick Colour tool again, select the lightest colour from the black palette. Go over the black edging where dress "goes out" to add a bit of hightlight. Your doll should look something like this.	26. Now select the darkest colour from the palette you used for the skirt. Draw some edging along the top of the bodice.	27. Use a medium and light shade to add some shading.

Your dress is finished. Now you just need to add the face, some hair & accessories.
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