There was an Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe

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For this tutorial you will need - PSP 7 and a knowledge of vector shapes.

I have never attempted to make a person for a tutorial so this is my first attempt. It's not as good as many I have seen but is the best I can do :o)

 

Remember to save you work often. I am not in the habit of giving this reminder in my tutorials, this is something you should do automatically :o) Say's she who is always getting caught by a dreaded PSP freeze. When saving you must make sure you save in PSP7 format otherwise it will not save the vector layer. To make sure you are in PSP7 mode, click save as, click the options box, check save as PSP7 compatible file.

1. Open a new image with a transparent background, 400x500. This may seem a bit big but I like a lot of elbow room and like to see what I'm doing :o) Null the background and set the foreground to a pattern fill set to the pine preset at a scale of 50%, angle 0. Create a new vector layer naming it rocker. With the draw tool set to bezier curve, width 10, #1 solid, antialias and vector checked. Draw a line at the bottom of your canvas. If you are not familiar or comfortable with the bezier curve all you need to do is draw the line, then place the curser in the center but below the line and click twice. How far below you click will affect the roundness of the curve. Objects/Align/Horz.Center in Canvas.

 
2. Create a new vector layer naming it seat. Change the width if the bezier curve to 15. Draw a shorter curve for the seat. Objects/Align/Horz.Center in Canvas. Create a new layer naming it arm. Change the width of the bezier curve to  12. Draw a slightly longer curve above the seat. Objects/Align/Horz.Center in Canvas.

 

 

 

3. Make layer1 active, this is your base layer that PSP automatically has when you open a new image. Create a new vector layer naming it leg r. Change the draw tool to single line, width 10. Change the angle of the pattern fill to approx 287. Draw the right leg. Create a new vector layer naming it leg l, change the angle of the pattern fill to approx 68 and draw the left leg.

 

If you are unhappy with the angle of the pattern fill you can easily remedy this. Go to the layer palette, click the plus sign on the layer you want to change, double click line or what ever shape you used.

This will open up the vector properties box, click the stroke box to open the fill properties box and alter the angle there. You can even alter the width, line style etc.

 
4. Create a new vector layer naming it arm front. Change the width of the line to 10 and the angle of the pattern fill to approx 276. Draw the front support of the chair. Create a new vector layer naming it back. Change the width of the line tool to 13, angle of the fill to approx 80. Draw the back of the chair.

If you are happy with your chair convert all layers to raster.

Apply an inner bevel to all the layers, these is the setting I used -

I changed the angle to 342 for the arm, seat and rocker layers. I then used the retouch tool, darken RGB to give some shading to the legs, arm front and back. When you are happy with your chair, merge all visible and rename the layer chair.

 

How you make the lady is entirely up to you. I chose to use vector shapes for the simple reason I have problems keeping my paintbrush on a straight, even line :o)

 

5. Null the foreground and set the background to a solid colour, This can be anything you like or even a pattern, I used #5D735B. Create a new vector layer naming it arm. With the preset shapes tool, ellipse, antialias and vector checked, width 1, #1 solid, draw a thin ellipse starting above the top of the chair back down to the seat. I then rotated it slightly to fit the angle of the back of the chair.

 

 

 

With the object selector right click your ellipse and node edit. Click the bottom node, Ctrl+S, this will make the node symmetrical. Pull the control arms out and the left one down. You don't have to do this but we are going to move this node and doing this somehow makes it a tad easier to see what's going on.

 

 

Move the node so that it sits above the arm about a quarter from the end. Then click on the node that will be the elbow, no need to change it's properties, just play with the angle and length of the control arms. Do the same for the node that will be the crook of the arm. Make the right control arm of the shoulder node a tad longer. 

 

 

Hold the curser above the right hand node, on the line, hold Ctrl, you should see the word add appear, click to add a node. While this node is selected, Ctrl+L, this will convert to a line. Do the same for other node to make the end of the sleeve. You may find you need to move these nodes a tad. 

 

 

6. Create a new vector layer naming it dress. In the layer palette drag it down so that it is below the chair. With the preset shapes tool draw an ellipse. I moved and added nodes to make the dress shape. I didn't change any of the properties just played with the angle and length of the control arms. The red nodes shown are the original ones so you can see where new nodes were added.

 
7. Click on the chair layer to make active. Create a new vector layer naming it hand. Change the background to a pink color, I used #E4C2B0. By moving and playing with the control arms make a hand shape as shown.

 
8. Create a new vector layer naming it head. In the layer palette drag it down so that it is below the dress layer. Draw an ellipse for the head. Staying on the same layer, change the shape to a rectangle and on the same layer draw a rectangle for the neck. Change the shape to a triangle and draw the nose, go into node edit to move the nodes as needed.

 
9. Create a vector layer naming it hair. Change the background colour to #808080. Draw an ellipse for the hair. Add a node as shown and move that node to make the fringe. 

 

 

 

Create a new vector layer naming it bun. Make another ellipse and rotate it slightly for the bun in her hair.

 

 

 

10. Create a new vector layer naming it shoe. Change the background colour to black and draw an ellipse for the shoe, rotating slightly to give the shape of the shoe. In my image the dress is fairly long, covering most of the shoe so shape is not that important.

 

If you are happy with your lady, convert all layers to raster.

 

11. Make the bun layer active. Lock the transparency of the layer. Effects/3D effects/Cutout at the settings shown. Unlock the transparency. Effects/Noise/Add at 5% uniform. Make the hair layer active. Lock transparency. Apply the cutout but change the blur to 38.8. Repeat add noise. Unlock the transparency. I wasn't happy with her hair so I used the darken RGB with a custom brush, same settings as below, changing the opacity to 60, and went over her hair using a stroke motion. 

 

Cutout Setting
Vertical - -5
Horizontal - 5
Opacity - 71
Blur - 20

12. Make the arm layer active. Lock transparency. Apply the cutout changing the blur to 30. Add noise as before. Unlock the transparency. Make the dress layer active. Lock the transparency and apply the cutout changing the blur to 70.  Unlock the transparency. Using the lighten, and darken RGB, changing the size of the brush to approx 6 for the finer detail, add some shape.

Add noise. 

 

Darken & Lighten RGB Setting
Shape - Round
Size - 17
Hardness - 1
Opacity - 40
Step - 25
Density - 50

13. Make the hand layer active. Lock the transparency. Apply the cutout using #C9835D, vertical -3, horizontal 1, opacity 70, blur 15. Unlock the transparency.

 

14. Make the head layer active. Lock the transparency. Apply the cutout but change the blur to 30. Unlock the transparency. Create a new layer naming it detail. Null the background and set the foreground to black. Use the draw tool, freehand, #1 solid, width 1, antialias checked. Draw her eye. Change the colour to a reddish pink, I used #C7503D, change the line width to 2 and draw her lips. 

 

 

Merge all layers visible, resize, I resized to 40%, Effects/Sharpen/Unsharp mask with a radius of 1.00, strength 70, clipping 0. She is now ready to be tubed and used with the shoe.

I'm not even going to attempt to make some children, people, as you can see by this tut, are just not my thing :o) but I do hope you enjoyed this tut.

 

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