Di's Delights PSP7 Snowman Tutorial

PSP7 Snowman

By doing this tutorial you agree to my terms of use.

For this tutorial you will need - PSP 7 and a good general knowledge of PSP and vectors, this is not for a novice, and this fill, right click and save as.

Yours will have your own individual look as you will be doing all the drawing. Do not expect to get an exact copy as we all have our own style of drawing.

Feel free to save this image to use as a template for your snowman.

Ok, if you've got everything you need, lets go..................oh yes, for sanity sake remember to save your work as you go, I am not in the habit of making this reminder.

1. If you are using the template, open it in PSP. Shft+D to open a duplicate image and close the original. If not, open a new image 300x400. Create a new vector layer named body. Null the foreground, set the background to white. With the preset shapes tool

ellipse, create as vector and antialias checked, create an oval shape for the body. With the object selector

, right click on your shape and choose node edit from the menu. Place the curser over the line between the top and left node, press Ctrl. The word "add" will appear, click the line to add a node. Add another node on the other side. Bring the side nodes down and play with the control arms to make a rather fat pear shape.

2. Create a new vector layer named head. With the preset shape tool draw an ellipse for the head. Edit the nodes. Add a node each side and bring those nodes in. Play with the placement of the nodes and their control arms until you are happy with the shape.

3. Make the body layer active. Create a new vector layer named arm. With the preset shape tool draw out a long oval. Move the shape so that the top is in line with the top of the body. Edit the nodes. Move the right and left nodes over to the right. Click on the bottom node and bring the control arms round as shown.

4. Layers, duplicate. Move the left arm if you need to.

5. Open the knit-fill.jpg. Select the pattern fill for the background. Click on the pattern fill in your colour palette. In the menu box that opens, click on the drop down arrow to open your pattern palette. Scroll to the top and find and select the knit fill. Set the scale a about 50%, angle 0.

Create a new layer named knot. With the preset shape tool draw out a small circle. Edit the nodes. All I did was to pull out the control arms of the top and bottom nodes.

6. Create a new vector layer named scarf side. With the preset shapes tool, rectangle, draw out a long rectangle to the right of the knot. Edit the nodes. Make it so that the right hand nodes overlap with the side of the knot and the left hand nodes fit the neck. Click each node and press Ctrl+S, this will make the nodes symmetrical giving them a curve.

In the layer palette click the plus sign next to scarf side. Double click rectangle. This will open up the vector properties dialogue box allowing you to change the size and direction of the fill. Click on the pattern fill tab and change the angle of the fill, I changed mine to 70. Layers, duplicate. Image mirror. Move if needed.

7. Make the body layer active. Create a new layer named scarf left. With the preset shape tool draw a long narrow rectangle under the knot. Edit the nodes. Making it so that the top two nodes are fairly close together. Move the bottom left node to the left, Ctrl+S while it is selected. Do the same for the bottom right node. Add a node to each side moving them to the left to give the scarf some shape.

8. Create a new vector layer named scarf right and repeat the steps as above.

9. Make the head layer active. Create a new vector layer named hat. With the preset shape tool, ellipse with knit fill, draw out a circle. Edit the nodes. I simply bought the bottom node up as shown.

10. Create a new vector layer named hat rim. Draw out a wide ellipse. Edit the nodes. Add a node each side of the rim near to the side of the head. Move the bottom middle node up and extend the control arms. Bring the control arms of the added nodes right in.

Ok, that's the basics of our snowman, now we can get creative. either follow on or do your own thing :o)

Go through all the layers converting them to raster.

11. Make the hat rim layer active. Crtl+A, Ctrl+F, Shft+Ctrl+F, this selects, floats and defloats. Effects - Geometric effects - Cylinder vertical at 25%. Ctrl+D.

Now, I am a fussy mare and by applying this effect I had some stray pixels, so I magnified the image and used the eraser, size 2, and got rid of them. This is entirely up to you. This will also have raised the rim slightly so with the mover move it down.

Lock

the transparency of the layer in the layer palette. Effects - 3D Effects - Cutout.

Vertical & Horizontal -3
Opacity 100
Blur 20
Colour Black

Unlock

the transparency. Colours - Colourise, any shade your heart desires. Repeat step 11 for the hat layer. I repeated the cutout for the hat changing the vertical to -12 to give the area between the hat and rim some extra shading. Unlock

the transparency. Colours - Colourise.

12. Make the knot layer active. Repeat step 11, the selection process, geometric, cutout etc. Don't forget to unlock the transparency. Effects - 3D Effects - Drop Shadow

Vertical & Horizontal 1
Opacity 100
Blur 5
Colour Black

13. Make scarf side layer active. Lock the transparency. Apply the cutout, Vertical & Horizontal -2. Unlock the transparency. Colourise. Repeat for the other scarf side.

14. Make the scarf right layer active. Repeat step 13 changing the cutout to Vertical & Horizontal 0. Apply the same drop shadow as for the knot. Repeat for scarf left.

15. Make the head layer active. lock the transparency. Choose a fairly light blue for the foreground, I used #DDDFF5. With the airbrush

Round
Size 239
Hardness 0
Opacity 100
step 25
Density 10

Holding the curser in the middle of the face, click once. Apply a cutout using a darker blue

Vertical 3
Horizontal -3
Opacity 100
Blur 40
Colour #9AA1E2

16. OK, we're going to use the freehand selection tool

, freehand, feather 7, antialias unchecked. Look at the face and imagine his cheeks and the shading of his forehead. With the selection tool draw what you imagine the shading should be.

The screen shot is the selection I made without the feathering to give you a better idea of the selection I made, with the feather it will be bigger.

Set the foreground colour to that of the cutout used in step 15. Flood fill the selection. Has your fill gone over the edge of the face? That's because the transparency of the layer is unlocked. Repeat for his other cheek. I then made another selection to shade the top of his head.

17. Create a new raster layer. Set the foreground to black, background nulled. With the draw tool

, bezier curve, width 2, antialias checked, draw his mouth. Draw from left to right, then click below and towards the left side, a control arm will appear. Move this around until you are happy with the curve. Then click towards the right side to curve the right side.

18. Go back to the head layer. Use the freehand selection tool, feather 5, make small quarter moon selections at the corner of the mouth. Flood fill with the same blue as in step 16. The screen shot show the selection I made without the feather. Ctrl+D. Effects - Noise - Add, 14% uniform.

19. Make the left arm layer active. Lock the transparency. Use the airbrush tool, same settings and colour as in step 15, click once. Apply the same cutout as in step 15 changing the blur to 20. Unlock the transparency. Effects - Noise - Add, same settings as before. Repeat these steps for the other arm and the body, but increase the blur of the cutout to 40 for the body.

20. Create a new layer named eyes. Null the foreground and set the background to black. With the preset shape tool ellipse, antialias checked, draw a small oval for the eye. Effects - 3D Effects - Inner Bevel, use the round preset. Apply a drop shadow -

Vertical & Horizontal 1
Opacity 100
Blur 5
Colour #9AA1E2 (same as cutout in step 15)

Copy, edit - paste as new selection, place the other eye.

21. Set the background colour to orange, I used #D08226. Create a new vector layer named nose. With the preset shape tool, triangle, vector and antialias checked draw a tall triangle. Rotate it. Edit the nodes. Click one of the two end nodes, Ctrl+S and repeat for the other. This will curve the lines giving a rounded appearance. If the edge is too rounded bring in the control arms. Do not do this for the tip.

Convert to raster layer. Apply a cutout using a darker shade of orange, I used #764816

Vertical -2
Horizontal 3
Opacity 100
Blur 10

Using the retouch tool Darken RGB at the setting below, give some depth to the nose/carrot. Start at the bottom and sweep towards the top.

Round
Size 4
Hardness 0
Opacity 14
Step 26
Density 62

There you have your snowman. I hope you enjoyed this tut and if you have any problems don't be afraid to say :o)

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