©Cathy's Corner - Pixel Painting Love Birds Tutorial

Well, all it took was completing my first
"pixel painting" tutorial and I was hooked.
This is my second tutorial.

(Click on the above graphic for an explanation of the FBN skill ratings.)

This tutorial written by Cathy on December 16, 2003.
Written using Paint Shop Pro Version 8.1, but should
work fine with earlier versions.

*** PREPARATION ***

For this tutorial you will need:

Paint Shop Pro, which you can get at the Jasc site.

My color swatch below, although I will give you the html code for the colors used. Right click to save this swatch. Then open in PSP.

The best advice I can give you is to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE!!! There's not much worse than losing all your hard work due to a program or computer lock up or melt down!!! So...save your work often...I will be putting reminders throughout the tutorial:

Save

This tutorial relies mostly on screenshots. I've included the number of pixels where necessary, but you will have to rely on the screenshots for the smaller number of pixels. As with any of my tutorials, please feel free to use any colors you like to create you own unique image.

Okay, let's get started...

*** PAINTING OUR BIRDS ***

1. Open a new image 200x150 pixels. Save this image as "my_lovebirds" in psp format.

2. Rename your Raster 1 layer "pixels". (In earlier versions rename Layer1 to "pixels".

3. Click on your Paintbrush Tool, using the following settings:

4. Set your foreground color to black and paint the following:

TIP: My screenshots for pixel placement will all be zoomed in at 400%, so the width/height of each gray and white square is 4 pixels.

Save

5. Use your mover tool to place this bird in the lower left corner of your canvas (I have placed guides to help your) as shown below:

6. Continue painting as follows (previously painted pixels have been changed to red):

Save

7. Continue painting as follows (previously painted pixels have been changed to red):

Save

8. Continue painting as follows (previously painted pixels have been changed to red):

Save

9. Continue painting as follows (previously painted pixels have been changed to red):

Remember: each square is 4 pixels.
Use this information to figure out the blank spaces.

You should now have this:

Save

*** COLORING OUR BIRDS ***

1. Change your foreground color to #FF0000.

2. Using your Magic Wand AND holding down your shift key, click inside each of your three hearts.

3. Flood fill with your foreground color.

Save

4. Change your foreground color to #FEFCC6.

5. Using your Magic Wand AND holding down your shift key, click inside both beaks.

6. Flood fill with your foreground color.

7. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

8. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 1
Horizontal: 1
Opacity: 100
Blur: 3
Color: #FEA416

9. Reapply your cutout, changing the Vertical and Horizontal settings to: -1.

10. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

11. Using your Magic Wand AND holding down your shift key, click inside the four feet.

12. Flood fill with your foreground color.

13. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

14. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 1
Horizontal: 1
Opacity: 100
Blur: 3
Color: #FEA416

15. Reapply your cutout, changing the Vertical and Horizontal settings to: -1.

16. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

You should now have this:

Save

17. Change your foreground color to #F8D7BE.

18. Using your Magic Wand AND holding down your shift key, click inside all the areas of the branch (don't forget the one pixel between the feet on both sides).

19. Flood fill with your foreground color.

20. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

21. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 1
Horizontal: 1
Opacity: 50
Blur: 3
Color: #BD6423

22. Reapply your cutout, changing the Vertical and Horizontal settings to: -1.

23. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

Save

24. Change your foreground color to #ECF4FE.

25. Using your Magic Wand AND holding down your shift key, click inside both eyes.

26. Flood fill with your foreground color.

27. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

28. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 1
Horizontal: 1
Opacity: 100
Blur: 3
Color: #A0BFE2

29. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

Save

30. Change your foreground color to #F959B7.

31. Using your paintbrush place 5 or 6 pixels to close the end of the wing on your left bird:

(I added the white background for clarity only.)

32. Change your foreground color to #FDE7F4.

33. Using your Magic Wand click inside the wing of your left bird.

34. Flood fill with your foreground color.

35. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

36. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 1
Horizontal: 1
Opacity: 100
Blur: 5
Color: #F959B7

37. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

38. Using your Magic Wand click inside the body of your left bird.

39. Flood fill with your foreground color.

40. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

41. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 1
Horizontal: 1
Opacity: 100
Blur: 5
Color: #F959B7

42. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

Save

43. Change your foreground color to #49D5A5.

44. Using your paintbrush place 5 or 6 pixels to close the end of the wing on your right bird.

45. Change your foreground color to #ECFEF8.

46. Using your Magic Wand click inside the wing of your right bird.

47. Flood fill with your foreground color.

48. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

49. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 1
Horizontal: -1
Opacity: 100
Blur: 5
Color: #49D5A5

50. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

51. Using your Magic Wand click inside the body of your right bird.

52. Flood fill with your foreground color.

53. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

54. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 1
Horizontal: -1
Opacity: 100
Blur: 5
Color: #49D5A5

55. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

Save

You're done...and should now have this:

You can save as a jpg, export as a picture tube, or both.