HAND DRAWING


Having trouble with color shading? Here's an easy way of shading colors using a feature of Retouch Tool called LIGHTNESS UP and LIGHTNESS DOWN.

REQUIREMENTS: PSP7, a little imagination, and this transparent line drawing "HAND".

For the purpose of this tutorial, layers are named for reference.

1. Open the Hand.png file. Let's call this LINE Layer.

2. Add New Raster Layer and name it COLOR. Go to LAYER > Arrange > Move Down.

3. Click on POINT to POINT Selector and follow the setting below:

      FEATHER=1     ANTIALIAS=Checked

Make a selection by following the outer line of the hand.

4. Flood FILL the selected area with your base skin color (something flesh).

Keep the Marquee active from here onward...

PROGRESS CHECK: The LINE Layer should remain visible and unchanged. If not, check your layer arrangement. If everything is OK so far, proceed...
5. Click on RETOUCH Tool and follow the setting on the picture.

I mentioned "a little imagination" in the requirement... now, imagine a light coming from the bottom left of the hand... areas which catch the light will be bright and the areas hidden from light will be dark.

Using the LIGHTNESS DOWN feature, tone down the color and work along the areas which you imagined would be dark (see picture on the right for example).

Switch to SMUDGE feature from time to time to smoothen the area (see the setting in the picture below).

This technique might seem hard at first but becomes easy as you get used to it. Take time to practice and polish this and you'll see... :)
6. Keep working some more until you're satisfied with it...

Keep the color balanced. Make sure prominent areas like ridges, veins, creases, etc. are defined and maintained when you use SMUDGE. See the "brush path" in the picture for guide.

When you're done with it, proceed...
7. Change active layer to LINE layer.

8. Go to SELECTION Menu > Invert.

    Go to EDIT Menu > Cut.

    Go to SELECTION Menu again > Invert.
9. Click on Retouch Tool, select SMUDGE again and follow the setting in the picture.

Work on the Line Drawing by "pushing" it against the Marquee until it smoothens and blends to the COLOR Layer. For areas where the LINE is surrounded by color other than the Marquee (see areas encircled), reduce your Brush SIZE to 5 and carefully drag the brush over the LINE following the direction of the line itself. See "brush paths" for guide.

NOTE: Zooming In will definitely make working on small areas easier. :)

10. Once you've blended the LINE and the COLOR Layers, go to LAYER Menu > Merge Visible.

11. Add New Raster Layer again. Let's call this one HUE Layer.
12. Flood FILL the HUE Layer with another flesh tone color preferably, lighter than the base color you used in the beginning of this tutorial. You can use SOLID or GRADIENT Colors for this... both of which have interesting effect.

Now's also the time to DE-select the Marquee...

13. Go to LAYER Menu > Properties > (select HUE) and leave the rest of the setting as is.

Merge the layers again...
14. You're DONE!

You can now add Background to it, use it for your project, or save it as PSP TUBE for future use.


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