©Cathy's Corner - Pixel Painting Pledge of Allegience

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

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

This tutorial written by Cathy on December 23, 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 flag which you can get by clicking here and choosing to save. (This file is compatible with PSP5)

My color swatch below, although I will give you the html code for the colors used. Right click to save this swatch. Open in PSP for quick color changing with your Dropper Tool.

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 HEAD ***

1. Open a new image 150x275 pixels. Save this image as "my_pledge" 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. 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):

You should now have this:

Save

*** PAINTING OUR TORSO ***

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

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

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

REMEMBER: 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

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

Save

You should now have this:

Save

*** PAINTING OUR LEGS ***

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

REMEMBER: 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.

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

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

Save

You should now have this:

Save

*** COLORING OUR IMAGE ***

1. Change your foreground color to #FFE0C4.

2. Using your Magic Wand click inside the face area.

3. Flood fill with your foreground color.

4. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

5. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 1
Horizontal: 1
Opacity: 100
Blur: 3
Color: #CAA78E

6. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

7. Using your Magic Wand click inside the neck area.

8. Flood fill with your foreground color.

9. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

10. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 2
Horizontal: 1
Opacity: 100
Blur: 4
Color: #CAA78E

11. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

12. Using your Magic Wand AND holding down your shift key, click inside both hands.

13. Flood fill with your foreground color.

14. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

15. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 1
Horizontal: 1
Opacity: 100
Blur: 3
Color: #CAA78E

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

17. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

Save

18. Change your foreground color to #FBDF95.

19. Using your Magic Wand click inside the hair area.

20. Flood fill with your foreground color.

21. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

22. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 1
Horizontal: 1
Opacity: 50
Blur: 10
Color: #DF7769

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

24. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

You should now have this:

Save

25. Change your foreground color to white.

26. Using your Magic Wand click inside your shirt.

27. Flood fill with your foreground color.

28. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

29. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 2
Horizontal: 2
Opacity: 50
Blur: 15
Color: #E27AA4

30. Reapply your cutout, changing the Vertical and Horizontal settings to: -2.

31. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

Save

32. Change your foreground color to #D6E4F4.

33. Using your Magic Wand click inside your pants.

34. Flood fill with your foreground color.

35. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

36. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 2
Horizontal: 2
Opacity: 50
Blur: 15
Color: #4C7098

37. Reapply your cutout, changing the Vertical and Horizontal settings to: -2.

38. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

Save

39. Change your foreground color to white.

40. Using your Magic Wand AND holding down your shift key, click inside both shoes.

41. Flood fill with your foreground color.

42. Float your selection. (Selections/Float)

43. Apply a cutout with the following settings:

Vertical: 1
Horizontal: 1
Opacity: 50
Blur: 15
Color: black

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

45. Select none. (Selections/Select None)

You should now have this:

Save

*** FINISHING OUR FACE ***

1. Click on your Paintbrush tool and use the same settings as previously used.

2. Change your foreground color to #662626.

3. Using your Magic Wand click inside your mouth.

4. Flood fill with your foreground color:

5. Using white and the light and dark blue from the color chart paint the following pixels in both eyes:

(background color added for clarity; eye and mouth colors will look different in screenshot due to gif optimizer settings)

You should now have this:

Save

*** ADDING THE FLAG ***

1. Click on Image/Canvas Size and change your canvas size to:

Width: 290
Height: 275 (no change)
(We want to add the 140 pixels to the left side of our canvas - so make the necessary adjustments for your version of PSP)

2. Open the image "cc_flag.psp" which you downloaded earlier.

3. Copy the flag image (Ctrl+C).

4. Make your "my_pledge.psp" image active and paste your flag as a new layer (Ctrl+L).

5. Rename this new layer "flag"

6. Move your "flag" layer beneath your "pixel" layer.

You should now have this:

Save

*** SAVING OUR IMAGE ***

If you'd like to use your image as a Picture Tube, use the following steps:

1. Merge visible layers (Layers/Merge Visible)
2. Click File/Export/Picture Tube

Your image is now available for use with your Picture Tube tool.

Close your original (answer "NO" to saving changes) and your psp file will remain intact from your last save point.

If you'd like to save as a jpg image as I used in my header graphics, use the following steps:

1. Make your "flag" layer active and apply a Drop Shadow with the following settings:

Vertical: 5
Horizontal: 5
Opacity: 50
Blur: 10
Color: black

2. Apply a Drop Shadow with the following settings:

Vertical: -1
Horizontal: -1
Opacity: 50
Blur: 5
Color: black

3. Make your "pixels" layer active and apply a Drop Shadow with the following settings:

Vertical: 5
Horizontal: 5
Opacity: 50
Blur: 10
Color: black

4. You can add any message on a new layer.

5. Merge all layers (Layers/Merge All).

6. Save to your hard drive as a jpg image with a unique name.

Close your original (answer "NO" to saving changes) and your psp file will remain intact from your last save point.