Graphic Goodness Exercises 1: Day 9

Hello friends! Sorry for the absence.... I got sick and had difficult time staying for sometime in front of the computer ... learned something, though, next time I will use the scheduled post so there will be no interruption :-)

Download PSD file Day 9

So, before we start, I'd like to make sure that by now you have followed the tutorials and must be familiar with:

• copy and paste the digital papers to the working board
• rectangular and elliptical marquee tools
• move tool
• lasso tools
• duplicate layer
• type tool (including coloring and changing sizes)

And from week 2:

• arrange layers

If  you missed the Graphic Goodness Exercises 1 -  Week 1, go here.

Today we are going to learn about using more tools and functions that I mentioned in the previous post:

• transform tools
• more select and copy/cut functions

And tomorrow, using the same image as today's, we are going to talk about:

• group or merge layers
• simple drop shadow tool

Ok, let's start!

First, we are going to make a doll / girl image. On the step by step below, you will learn about transform tools and some variations on select tools. You will also use a lot of 'arrange layers' function so it's a good repetition from what you learned in the previous post. Anyway, you will always have to repeat most or all of the steps, which means you will get a lot of practice along the way :o)

• create a working board. Here I have the 640 x 480 pixels as usual, and copy-pasted the light blue paper
• make an ellips from the light-beige paper, for the head
• make three yellow ellips and arrange them around the bottom of the head. The light-beige head might be place under the yellow ellips, so put it forward using "arrange layer" function (see tutorial Day 8)
• make a purple ellips and put it under the yellows
• make a long dark blue ellips as shown here, for the dress

Second, to make a bell-shaped dress, use elliptical marquee tool on the dark blue ellips. Since you want to erase the outer area of the marquee, click "select" on the menu at the top, then click "inverse". When the inverse area is selected, push the "delete" button (on the keyboard) and then you will get the bell-shaped dark blue - as shown in the pictures below. Note: make sure that you work on the right layer (check with the layers list on the right).

Third, now we are going to start using the transform tools.

I want to make the sleeves which have the same shape as the dress, only smaller. So:

• make a duplicate of the blue dress
• on the menu at the top, click "edit" then "free transform"
• hold and drag your mouse to make the image smaller

Now I want the sleeve I just created to rotate a bit. So repeat the steps "edit" -> "free transform" and you'll see once again the blue sleeve is 'wrapped' by a box with 7 transform points as shown above. Place the cursor outside the transform box until the rotating cursor appears, then hold the mouse and rotate the sleeve. Apply the transformation.

Note: when you do the transformation, make sure that you are on the "move tool"

You now get the sleeve image...

• make a duplicate
• click "edit" -> "transform" -> "flip horizontal" ... and voila you've got two blue sleeves one for the right, one for the left side of the dress
•  use move tool to place them on the top-sides of the blue dress.

Fourth, now we are going to make the legs and shoes.

• using rectangular marquee tool, make the legs from the light-beige digital paper
• make a duplicate then place them behind the dress
• using elliptical marquee tool, make a small blue ellips
• almost similar to step two (on how to make the bell-shaped blue dress) - create a selection area with elliptical tool on the small blue ellips (check with the layer list that you are working on the right layer)
• press "delete" button and you'll get a half moon image. duplicate the image, then place them on top of the legs

Fifth, to create the hands

• I made a duplicate of the leg
• I wanted to make the image thinner, so I clicked on free transform tool (which means "edit" -> "free transform") and place the cursor to one of the middle-side points, and once the transform arrow cursor appear, hold and drag the mouse inward, to create a thinner rectangle. Apply the transformation.
• Now I wanted to rotate the image to suit the sleeve image. Repeat step 3 on how to rotate the image. Hints: free transform tool -> rotate
• Make a duplicate, click "edit" -> "transform" -> "flip horizontal"
• Using move tool and arrange-layer, place them behind the sleeves
• Make a small ellips from the light beige paper. Make a duplicate then place them on the hands

Sixth, to create the hair and the face

• repeat steps 2 on how to make the bell shaped dress, now with the black digital paper. Use free transform tool if you want to make it bigger or smaller
• place it behind the light beige head
• using elliptical marquee tool make an ellips from black paper. By now you know how to make it bigger or smaller :-) then use once again the free transform tool to rotate it. Place it on top of the head to make a side bang. Duplicate, flip horizontally, then place them on top of each other.
• make two tiny black ellips for the eyes
• repeat steps 4 on how to make the half moon images for the shoes, only now use a red paper

Voila! The girl graphics is done and now you are ready to add some more details as you like. Here you see I added hair ribbon (by now you know how to make them :-)) and the decorative bubbles and text.

Tomorrow we'll continue with dropping shadow to give a cutout and 3D-like effect to the image.

In the meantime, have a graphic goodness today! :o)