Shading....my way...

Today we're going to give this lovely lady some nice clothes. I am using a different shading technique than I used on my previous tutorial. In fact, I think my other one suck, to be honest. :D I think I have improved since then. I do assume you know how to work with your graphic program. I will not explain HOW to make new raster layers or how to find each of the tools. I will, however, describe the keyboard shortcuts I use. If you work with anything else than Paint Shop Pro (I use PSP7), you will have to find the shortcuts for your program. I use very simple tools for my shading. ;)

Sooo...lets get on with it, shall we?

This is the base I've chosen for this tutorial. You can find her on my page with medium sized bases. I prepare her by making a duplicate of the base (I never ever use the original), and increasing the color depth to 24-bit color and also making the canvas bigger. 100x250 should do for now.



We will start by making a new raster layer. You can name your layers if you want. It makes it a bit easier to see what's on each of them. You can name the new layer "dress outline".

Now for the color....I have a lot of palettes from different sites, and also a few of my own. I have found Xandorra to be a great resource for palettes, and also a lot of other things. She has great tutorials too :D I will, however, use colors I found at my sister Liz's site. I don't think she has them on her site now....Oh well, maybe we'll convince her to put them back up again. I know I use them a lot.

Here's the palette I'm using this time. It's going to be a lovely red dress, by the look of it. ;D



I start with the dress outline, on the brand new layer we created. I'm zooming in for this one. If you have a mouse with a wheel, it's really easy to zoom in and out. One other thing....I always create a new window with the image I'm working on. To do that in PSP, press SHIFT+W. That way you have both the zoomed in version, and one original sized image. What ever you do will show there instantly.

Now, take your paint brush size 1, pick the darkest color in the palette and start drawing the outline. Don't worry about stray pixels, you can use the eraser later to tidy it up. For the long lines from her hips to her feet, I use the draw tool. Set it to single line, 1 pixel wide, antialias and "create as vector" UNCHECKED. No need to create a new vector layer just for these lines ;) You may have to experiment a bit to get the lines the way you want them. I have zoomed in a bit so that you will see better how I do things.



Now, take your magic wand, and select inside the outline. Make sure the outline is "closed" or you will select the entire layer. Make a new layer, and call it "dress fill". Pick the middle color on our 5-color palette, and flood fill it. Then it's time for the shading. Pick the second darkest color (#2 from the left). Then, grab your airbrush (looks like a spray-can) and use these settings:



Use the airbrush to add shadows to the parts that you want to look darker. Under the breasts, along the "edges" and also the folds on the dress. this is how I've done it:



Now for the light colors. Pick the next lightest color, # 4. Use the same settings as with the darker color. You can reduce the size to 3-4 pixels if you want. When you're finished with that, take the lightest color and create hightlights. Reduce the size to 3 pixels for this one. You can always use the fill color to correct anything if you're not happy with it. Here's how mine is looking now.



Now it's time to mix the colors. In your 'Effects' menu, you have something called 'User Defined'. I only have one effect in there, and that is called 'Sample blur'. Thank you to my sister Liz for pointing me in that direction. I've had this program for over a year, and never knew what that thing did. So, you go to 'Effects/User defined' and choose Sample Blur, like this:



You can do this once, twice or as many times you want, until you get the effect you want. Well, mine came out like this:



Well, it could be finished now, if you're happy with it. Unless....you want to make something more out of it. You can add patterns, accessories, ribbons, jewellery....anything. I have found TONS of patterns at Xandorra's site. They're easy to use, and can be colored any way you want. She has a tutorial on how to use them. Let me just show you how this particular dress will look with one of them.



It's a lot nicer now! Have fun experimenting! Play around with effects, colors and patterns. You can give the pattern and dress different colors, or make them match.

Hope you have enjoyed this tutorial, and even learned something. Most of all, have fun with your dolls! If it stops being fun, take a break. I've had to do that from time to time, and it helps. :D

Thank you for staying with me.

*Kath*