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Screen shots were taken from PSP7 and as such copyright belongs to JASC

For this tutorial you will need PSP7 and, yes, we're going to be using vector shapes and node editing :o) For this tutorial you will need a good general knowledge of vector shapes. The page may take a while to load as I have included many screenshots, so please be patient.

I came across a brilliant site offering a tutorial for a birdhouse, having made the birdhouse I then had to make a bird so this tutorial sprang from that. Angie kindly gave me permission to use my results from her tutorial to display the bird. Please take the time to visit Angie, she has such a creative site with some gorgeous tutorials - Kentucky Creations

1. Open a new image, I used 400x300, with a transparent background. Null the foreground and set the background to black, check the lock box to lock the palette. With the preset shapes tool set to ellipse, antialias and vector checked, draw an ellipse for the head, always work from left to right. This will be positioned to the top right of your image. Rotate it up to the right slightly. Draw another narrow ellipse going down. Click on the object selection tool right click the second ellipse that you have just drawn, choose node edit from the pop up menu. Hold the mouse over the line to the left of the top node, hold Ctrl and click to add a new node. Now move the nodes, adjusting the control arms as necessary to get the required shape.

Convert to raster layer and rename to head.

2. Change the background colour to white. Draw another smaller ellipse over the first, using the object selector right click the ellipse and choose node edit, pull up the outer two nodes slightly and adjust the control arm of the top middle node as in the screen shot below.

Convert to raster layer and rename to cheek.

3. Change the background to a light grey, I used #DBDBDB, Draw a small ellipse for the beak. Convert to raster and rename to beak.

4. Change the background to a yellow, I used #D4BC34, in the layer palette click layer1 to make active, draw another larger ellipse for the body, rotate up to the right, lining up the edge with the right edge of the head.

Convert to raster and rename to body.

5. Change the background to a green, I used #7A7734, draw an ellipse for the wing. Rotate the wing matching the angle of the body. Using the node edit move the nodes, adjusting the control arms, to match the screen shot below. 

Convert to raster layer and rename to wing.

6. Click on layer1 to make active. With the preset shapes tool set to rounded rectangle, change the background to a light grey, I used #C0C0C0, draw a long thin rectangle, don't worry to much about the size or placing, were going to play with the shape a tad.

While holding Ctrl click on the middle bottom node and drag the bottom to the right.

Hold Ctrl, click the bottom left node and push in the node, making the left end narrower.

Rotate the shape and place as the tail.

Using the object selector right click the tail shape and choose node edit. The first image below shows the original placing of the nodes, the second shows where I moved them to, try to follow to make the same shape.

Convert to raster and rename to tail.

7. Click on the wing layer to make active, stay with the grey colour but change the shape to triangle. Draw a triangle and rotate slightly.

With the object selector tool, right click the triangle and node edit. Click one of the nodes, it will turn black, click Ctrl+1 then Crtl+2, this will curve before and after, click the next node and repeat, then again for the last one. By following the image below. move the nodes and pull the control arms to adjust and make the curves until you are happy with the shape.

Convert to raster and rename to wing tip.

8.Click on the head layer to make active. It may be worth lowering the opacity of this layer so that you can see what you are doing. Create a new layer naming it eye.  Change the background to black, preset shape tool set to ellipse, antialias checked, vector unchecked, Draw an eye. Effects/3D effects/Inner bevel, apply the round preset. Effects/3D effects/drop shadow at these settings, vertical 0, horizontal 1, opacity 60, blur 2.5, colour white.

OK, we've got all the shapes we need, now for the arty bit. We will be using the retouch tool and a bit of paint. When it comes to using the retouch tool, I much prefer to stay with the layers until I'm nearly done. You may very well have your own way, do what suits you rather than what suits me, we all have our own style of working.

9. Click on the beak layer to make active. With the retouch tool, darken RGB at these settings

Darken the edge of the beak (the opacity is set fairly low so to darken will take several sweeps, this is my preference as it is easier to gradually build up the shading).

Set the foreground colour to black, with the paint tool at these settings

Paint in the mouth, I know this isn't the word but how else can I word it *s*, it may be an idea to click the padlock in the layer palette to lock the transparency of the beak, if you paint too far it will not go over the edge.

10. Click on the cheek layer to make active, with the retouch tool at the same settings shade the cheek.

Change the retouch tool to smudge at these settings

Smudge the edge of the cheek. I did this by dragging out in places and following the contour in others.

11.  Make the head layer active and with the retouch tool set to smudge, smudge the lower half of the head and breast, again following the contour and pulling out in places.

12. Make the body layer active, with the retouch tool set to darken RGB, darken and shade the body, remember you can change the settings to suit your way of working.

Change the retouch tool to smudge and smudge the body, I pulled some feathers out to make a shape to add a leg later.

13. On the wing layer, use the retouch tool on darken RGB to shade it.

14. Make the wing tip layer active, click the padlock to lock the transparency. With the paint brush tool at the previous setting but changing the size to 4, swapping from black, white and a touch of dark grey paint in some detail.

With the retouch tool set to smudge at the same settings, smudge the detail, remember to unlock the transparency, pull the edge of the wing tip so that it merges with the wing.

15. Make the tail layer active, working with the darken RGB, shade the tail.

16. Ok, now for the legs. Click on layer1 to make active, create a new layer naming it leg. Set the foreground colour to dark grey, I used #2B2B2B, with the draw tool , single line, width 4, #1 solid, antialias checked draw a diagonal line, and then go back again bringing the top out a tad, this will give a narrowing look to the leg.

On the same layer, use the paint tool at these settings

draw in the claws

Duplicate the layer and with the deformation tool rotate and move the duplicated layer slightly.

And there you have your bird. The colouring of this one is based on the Great Tit but it could be changed to anything you desire, with some rethinking you could make it into a Robin. 

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