Bases....my way...

Well, today I'm going to show you how I make bases. I use Paintshop Pro 7, but any program using layers is fine. As long as you know your program, you should be fine. ;)

I am going to make a base using the following picture. I don't know where this picture originally came from, as I got it from a friend. As soon as I know who has the copyright to it, I will say so here.



Now, I will resize the picture to the size I want the base to be. I want this to be a medium sized base this time. Go to "Image/Resize" or press shift+s. I will go for a 75% of the original, with "Maintain aspect ratio" checked. The resize type should be set to "Smart size". When you're done, hit OK.



It's time to start drawing the outline. Make a NEW layer, and pick a color. I'm going to use a bright color that will be very visible on the picture, like bright red. Don't worry, I will change the color later. :D

Ok, choose your paintbrush, size 1 pixel, and start drawing wherever you feel comfortable. You should zoom in for this job. I try to make clean lines from the start. That way I don't have to correct that much when the outline is done. ;) You may have to guess where the lines should go some places. Just try to imagine how it would look like. Also, make sure you don't have any "holes" in the outline. You will be using the "magic wand" and flood fill later.... The most difficult places I know, are the feet, hands and shoulder area.

This is mine now. I have zoomed in so that you will see more clearly what I've done.



Now, make a new layer and flood fill it with white (or another very light color). Then move this layer under the outline layer by dragging it on the layer palette.

I want to change a couple of things now, to make the base look nicer and more tidy. Problem areas are the arm/wrist and the curve of the hip. I'm not very happy about that.

This is what I have now...



The next step is finding nice skin colors. Here's the palette I'm using. I have numbered the colors to easier to pick them later.



First off, I want to change the bright red to the darkest color in the palette, #1. I'm going to use the "color replacer" for that. Second, I'm going to give this poor body a head. I have a pre-made head that will fit just fine. You can also draw your own head if you like. You can delete the layer with the picture now.

I hide the layer with the white background, and merge the head and the outline, like this:



Floodfill inside the outline
Take your magic wand and select inside the outline. Make sure you get everything selected, except the outline itself. Make a new layer, with the selection intact. I will use this layer for the shading. Pick color #3 and flood fill inside the selection. Then I'm going to use the "Air brush" to shade the base. These are my settings:



I pick the #2 color, and air brushes where I believe the darker areas will be. (under the chin, breasts, inner thigh and so on) Basically anywhere you want shadow. My result is below:



Now it's time to add some light....First, pick color #4, and with the same settings to the air brush, start adding some depth to the base. Try to imagine where the light will fall on the body. Then take the lightest color, #5, and add highlights. Reduce the size of the air brush for this. Size 3 should do it. It doesn't matter if the result is not perfect. If there's anything you're not happy with, hit the UNDO button, or airbrush with the main skin color, #3. This is mine with all the shading done.



Now...the fun part LOL Go to "Effects/User defined" (this will probably only work in PSP7...but you can use Gaussian blur instead if you don't have this one) The only effect in there (at least in my program) is "Sample blur". Just click "Apply". You can do that once, twice or as many times you want, until you have the result you want for your base. I usually do this once, then I add some more highlight (color #5) and then use the "Sample blur" again. This is mine now....

     



Now, deselect the shading layer, and hide the white background. Merge the shading and outline layer (merge visible). This is the finished result.



Now all I have to do, is put my copyright symbol on it, and make a transparent background. :D Now she's ready to join the other girls on my medium base page. LOL Save the base as a gif or psp-file, with an appropriate name.

There's still things you can do, tho...like change the skin color. I always use "Colors/Adjust/Brightness-Contrast" for that. Just play around with it until you are happy with it.

Well, that's it....thank you for staying with me!

*Kath*