Pixel Shaded Glass Orb

Please note: These are just my ways of pixel shading. I readily admit that I'm not the world best pixeller, so there may be easier/quicker ways to do what I am doing, feel free to play around! This tutorial is not written for any particular application. It can be followed in MS Paint, Ultimate Paint, PhotoPlus, PhotoShop, Paint Shop Pro or any other paint application you may use. It does assume that you are familiar with your chosen applications basic tools.

1. Glass orb's are a great accessory to add to your fantasy doll. I'm addicted to them & use them a lot! Fortunately, they are really easy to make! This technique also works well on shiny gems.	2. One of the most important parts about making these orbs is getting the colours right. A nice gentle gradient just doesn't work! There has to be a large distinction between the lighter and darker ends of the palette. You can use a smaller range of colours, but I've used a slightly large palette to give a smooth blend between the shades. Feel free to use these or create your own.	3. With the darkest colour, draw in the outline of your orb. This may take some practice - square pixels are quite tricky to make look round!

4. With the lightest colour, add some highlight in the bottom right corner - we are assuming the light is coming from the top left. By adding highlight in the bottom right, it looks like the light is shining through the orb, giving it the glassy look.	5. With a slightly darker shade, start building up the shading on the orb. See how the shading has a slight curve to where the pixels are placed? This helps give the feeling of "roundness".	6. Carry on building up the shading with each darker shade...

7. Like this...	8. & this...	9. Until the darkest colour... Add some bright white highlight to your orb. Experiment with the size of the highlight to see how it changes the appearance of the orb.

Your Orb is complete!
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