How to Vector Draw a Balloon and then Paint It - Part 2.

                                                               
This tutorial was done using PSP X (but can be easily done in other PSP versions) and will show you how to digitally paint the balloon you drew in part 1 of this tutorial, without the use of filters to give it depth and shine. It is intended to serve as a learning tool. I encourage you to make it uniquely your own creation. The images on this page are reduced for space. You will need:

* A good working knowledge of PSP's tools/materials palettes and understanding of layers.

Getting started
* If you have closed your balloon file, please open it.

* Lets talk first about shadows and highlights. Light sources can come from many directions and will cause reflection highlights from angles depending on where that light source falls on an object. And of course shadows will show where there is perhaps a lack of light source or another object standing in the way of the light source. I will try to keep this simple and explain where I feel my light source and shadows would fall on the balloon we drew in part one of this tutorial. So with all of that in mind, lets paint!

Lets Paint

* On your layer palette, left click on Raster 1 to activate it.
* Click on your selection tool and select "Selection Type" at the top, then select "Rectangle"


* Draw a rectangle around the balloon which will show marching ants around it.
* Place  your curser on the balloon and left click once. The marching ants should now be surrounding the balloon only.

* At the top, click on "Layer" then "New Raster Layer".  This will put our paint layer above the balloon layer so that we can paint and blend the highlights and not disturb the original balloon layer color. I find that when you paint all on one layer and then try to blend, the colors become "muddy" looking. So to keep each color crisp, paint all colors on a separate layer and then merge when done.

Ok we are ready to start painting :)

* Set your foreground color to white #ffffff. NOTE: your default paint brushes only use the foreground color.
* On your paint brush tool bar select your "Round 10 Paint Brush" at 100% opacity. Paint 2 streaks of white on each side as shown Below.



* Do NOT unselect your balloon.
* Select your Smudge brush and ( using my settings below), gently run your brush over each one until you get a nice shiny effect.


* Do NOT unselect your balloon. Yep most of you know me. I need more depth! So I am gonna add a darker color on a different layer underneath the white raster 3 layer to get it! Ya ready?

* On your layer palette, left click on your "Floating Selection" layer to select it.
* At the top, click on "Layer" then "New Raster Layer".  This will make a new layer below the white and above the balloon.
* Set your foreground color to #c61f04 if you are using the red color we started out with, or select a darker shade of the color you made your balloon with.
* On your paint brush tool bar, left mouse click once on the drop down menu and select your airbrush using the settings show below.

* On the lower right hand side of your balloon gently left mouse click and add a small amount of color.



* Now select you smudge tool and using the settings shown below, gently smudge the darker color.


You should have a balloon similar to the one shown above. Remember, if you don't like the way you smudged it, just undo your command until you get the look you want.

* At the top select "Selections", "Select None".
* Now delete the background layer on the layers palette.
* Select "Layers", "Merge", "Merge Visible".
* Now select "File", "Export", "Picture Tube" and give it a unique name.

You now have a balloon tube which you will be able change to any color you like, if you click on "Adjust", "Hue and Saturation", "Colorize" and keeping the "Saturation" at 255 for the greatest contrast, then adjust the "Hue" to the color you like. If you use black as the string color and white for the shine, it will remain black and white only the balloon color will change. Colors of black and white (which are not really colors) will never change. But that is another story with filters so lets not go there today :) 

                                                                               
This tutorial is a very basic way of doing this. You can get as complicated as you would like if you explore. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it stimulated your creative juices. If you have any questions or problems, don't hesitate to email me.