Pracken's Paint Shop Pro Tutorials:
Reindeer
I had a lot of fun creating this
little reindeer. It's not Rudolph, but I decided to give it a red nose
just the same. And I drew its horns a bit different, so they're probably not really reindeer horns, but I wanted em this way lol. Also, I couldn't decide whether to make it a he or a she,
so you can decide which yours will be.
This tutorial uses selections, and I've also done a bit of shading, which is optional.
For this tutorial, you will need the following:
Paint Shop Pro. I used version 7.04 but if you are familiar with PSP, you should be able to convert the tutorial without problems. You can download the latest PSP version demo here.
My selections files. Place these in your PSP selections folder or a location of your choice.
You may download them
here.
Optional: Wreath. Download it here.
Optional (for the wreath): Super Blade Pro and my SBP silver sparkle preset. You may download the preset here.
To make it easier to keep things
straight, I've numbered the selections in the order that you'll load
them.
Step 1. Open up a new image 400 x 500, background color
of your choice.
Step 2. Add a new layer. Load
selection 1. Flood fill with black. Repeat this for selections 2, 3,
and 4.
Step 3. Load selections 5, 6, 7, and 8 (put each on a new
layer). For each, flood fill with black, contract by 2, and then flood
fill with brown #836D55, EXCEPT, on selection 6, flood fill with a darker
brown, #574B3F.
Step 4. Add a new layer. Load
selection 9. Flood fill with black, contract by 2. Flood
fill with
white.
Step 5. Add a new
layer. Load selection 10. Flood fill with black.
Contract by 2. Flood fill with
brown #836D55.
Step 6. Add a new layer. Load selection 11.
Flood fill with black, contract by 2. Flood fill with
#836D55.
Step 7. Add a new
layer. Load selection 12. Flood fill with black. Contract by
2. Flood fill with the darker brown,
#574B3F.
Step 8. Add a new layer. Load selection
13. Flood fill with black. Contract by 2. Flood fill
with the darker brown
#574B3F.
Step 9. Add a new
layer. With your selection tool set on circle, draw a small circle for the
eye. Flood fill with black, contract by 2. Flood fill with
white.
Step 10. Add a new layer. With your selection tool
again, draw a smaller circle to go inside the eye. Flood fill with black,
contract by 2. Flood fill with whatever color you want the eye to
be. I chose a blue, #108ED6. Arrange the blue eye in whatever
position you
want.
Step 11. Add a new layer.
With your selection tool set to circle, draw a small circle for the nose.
Flood fill with black. Contract by 2. Flood fill with color of your
choice. I chose
red.
Step 12. Add a new layer. With your draw tool set
to freehand line (line width 1, foreground color black, background color null,
antialias checked), add some defining lines. I added lines on the
ears, tail, and hind leg. I also drew some
eyelashes.
Step 13. Make one of the horn layers active. With
your selection tool (any shape), draw all around the horn and then click gently
on the horn to select it. Contract the selection by 2 (you're doing this
so you won't affect the black outline). Apply the blinds filter (go to
effects>texture effects>blinds), and use these settings: width 4, opacity
21, horizontal checked, light from left/top checked, color #99826B. Repeat
to the other horn.
Step 14. If you want to
add shading to your graphic, do it now. This step is optional, but I think it
adds a bit of depth and texture (which I like). If you don't want to add
shading, then skip to step #16.
I will do the shading on one area (the
body) to show you how I do it. You'll use the exact same procedure for
each area you wish to shade. Shading isn't an exact science and it
isn't easy to explain exactly how to do it. A lot of it is trial and error
and getting a "feel" for your own preferences. Experiment!
The
basic shading technique I use is 2 colors - a darker one on the outside and in
areas where a shadow would normally be, and a lighter color inside and where
highlights would be. For the darker color, I've used
#413529. For the lighter color, I've used #E0D9D2. (Hint: set one
for your foreground and one for your background and it's easier to switch back
and forth between the two).
I use the airbrush to apply the
shading. The following settings are general guidelines. You can
adjust the size and opacity up/down as you wish: Shape-round, size-30,
hardness-50, opacity-40, density-40.
- Ok, make the body layer
active. With your selection tool, draw around it, then click on the body
to select it (you'll see marching ants).
- Add a new
layer. You can do the shading on the body layer itself if you prefer, but
I find it's easier (and you get different effects) to do it on a separate
layer. Your choice though.
- With your airbrush, spray the
darker color around the edges, and the lighter color inside. Here's a
screenshot of how mine looks after doing
this.
- Now you just smudge the colors around a
bit. Use the retouch tool/smudge, with these settings:
Shape-round, size-20, hardness-25, step-25, density-100. These are just
guidelines. Adjust the settings as you wish. Here's the result I got
after smudging the body layer
- I shaded the
body, both legs, both ears, and the mouth. When doing the body and ears,
be careful to not spray inside the defining lines you drew earlier. Here's
my result after shading all the body
parts.
Step 15. Now you can
spray some white inside the areas that you drew earlier. Choose the
layer you drew them on and with your selection tool, draw all the way around -
then click on the lines your drew to select them (you'll see marching
ants). Add a new layer. With your airbrush (set to size about 5),
spray white inside the line areas.
Step 16. I added an inner bevel to the horns, mouth,
feet, eye and nose. If you skipped the shading step above and want some
extra depth to your reindeer, you could also apply an inner bevel to the other
body parts.
I used the following settings for the horns and
mouth:
Step 17. For the feet,
just change the depth to 9. For the eye and nose, change the depth to
2.
Step 18. This next step is optional. I added a
wreath around the reindeer's neck. If you want to do this step, then open
up the transparent psp wreath file you downloaded. Copy it and paste as a
new layer onto your reindeer. Resize by about 70%, and
sharpen.
Step 19. With your
selection tool (any shape), draw all around the outside of your wreath, then
click inside on it. You'll see marching ants. Apply SBP
silversparkle filter (open SBP, navigate the the filter, click
ok).
Step 20. Erase bits from the front of the wreath so it
appears to be going around the reindeer's
neck.
And that's
it. All done! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and I'd love to see
what you create with it. As always, please let me know if you experience
any problems.
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