EARTH ANGEL

Created March 14, 2002 © Copyright Moon's Designs
Property of Moon's Designs
This is my creation, any similarity to other tutorials on the Internet is unintentional.
Please do not copy or place this tutorial or any graphics to any other place without written permission directly from me. Thank you

 

Earth Day is on April 22nd and what better way to honor this day than with an Earth Angel. I wish I could claim the idea, but once again I saw something similar in a Country Crafts Magazine. I knew I had to try to recreate her. No two angels will look alike, even when done by the same person! LOL Whenever I think about writing a tutorial, I create the image first, writing down what the steps are. I then recreate it, doing screenshots and adding more information to my original notes. My first Earth Angel and my second one are quite different in looks, although they are similar. Here is the first one I did.

While the general appearance is the same, it depends on how large a body and head you make, and also the shape of the head, how much hair you apply, the way the strings are and how you do her face. Remember, YOUR Earth Angel is unique to you.

My tutorials are only guidelines to help you accomplish a certain creation. Please feel free to be inventive and take whatever liberties you would like. I encourage each of you to do your "own thing" and make your creation yours! Your finished creation is yours to do with as you please.

I used Flaming Pear's Lunar Cell plugin for her body and Super Blade Pro for her halo. In PSP we will be using Preset Shapes, Deformation, Line Draw, Air Brush, Gaussian Blur, the Erase tool, Tubes, Drop Shadow, Cutout, and Inner Bevel. We will also be using several layers, so all in all we should get a good work out using PSP in this tutorial.

This tutorial is written in and for PSP Version 7.04 and assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP at an intermediate level. I am sure this can easily be done in Version 6 with a few adjustments in paths but I have only used Version 7 so I can't make promises *S*

FOR THIS TUTORIAL YOU WILL NEED:
JASC's PSP (30 day free trial)- You can get it HERE
Flaming Pear's Lunar Cell ~ You can purchase it or download the demo HERE
Flaming Pear's Super Blade Pro ~ You can purchase it or download the demo HERE
Hood's Hairball Tube ~~ You can download it HERE
My Inner Bevel Presets ~~ You can download it HERE
**unzip into your PSP Presets folder
My Globe Tube ~~ You can download it HERE
**unzip into your PSP Tubes folder. I made the globe tube from the JASC Globe image that comes with the boxed version. Because many people do not have this image, I tubed it for you.
This Rock Pattern. I do not remember where I got it from, I thought it came in PSP, but my tutorial testers don't have it. You can download it HERE and unzip it in your PSP Patterns folder.

 

Step 1:
Open a new image 400x500, 16 million colors, transparent background. Set your foreground color to Null and your background to White. The size is large so we can see what we are doing. You can resize your angel upon completion of the tutorial.

Step 2:
Add a new layer and name it body. Pick up your preset shapes set at Rounded Rectangle, Antialias Checked, Retain style and Create as vector UNchecked.

I used the rounded rectangle to give her body some shape. Draw a long rounded rectangle in the middle of your image. I started at coordinates 112,144 and drew out to 282, 431. If you look at the bottom left of your work area you will see your coordinates.

Step 3:
Activate your deformation tool, . Holding down the control key, push the upper left node in about 20 pixels. When you are happy with your shape, go to your tools option box and press apply.

You could also make your preset shape using vectors, and push in on your nodes that way. I, personally, liked the deformation tool better on this particular image.

Step 4:
Go to Selections-->Select All (Ctrl+A). Selections-->Float (Ctrl+F). Go to Effects-->Plugins-->Flaming Pear-->Lunar Cell. Click on your open button and navigate to your lunar presets folder. I chose April Planet. Click OK.

Step 5:
Go to Effects-->3D-->Inner Bevel and choose the md-earthangel1 preset. Deselect and save.

Step 6:
On your layer palette, activate layer1 and add a new layer called head. Change your background color to #EDC673. Change your preset shapes to Ellipse and draw out her head. Part of her chin area will be under her body, but don't worry about that. We will take care of it later.

Go to Selections-->Select All (Ctrl+A). Selections-->Float (Ctrl+F). Effects-->3D-->Cutout and apply the following settings:

(Vertical & Horizontal Offsets = 4; Opacity =48; Blur = 21.3)

Reapply your cutout, but this time change the Offsets to MINUS 4. Deselect and Save.

Step 7:
Add a new layer, name it cheeks. Change your foreground color to #DE6060. Using your airbrush tool, set at the following settings below, dab on each side of her face.

Go to Effects-->Blur-->Gaussian Blur. I used 8 for the blur, but feel free to use whatever setting you think is best.

Step 8:
Add a new layer, name it mouth. Change your foreground color back to Null, and make your background color a red color. I used #BB1D1D. Using your preset shapes, scroll to one of the heart shapes. I used the one I made from my Horace Hog tutorial. *smiles* Draw out some lips for her. Go to Effects-->3D-->Drop Shadow and apply the following settings:

(Vertical Minus 1, Horizontal Plus 1; Opacity 29; Blur 2.5)

Step 9:
Add a new layer, name it eyes. Change your background color to black. Change your preset shapes to Ellipse and draw out an eye for your angel. Go to Effects-->3D-->Inner Bevel and apply the Round preset that comes with PSP. Go to Edit-->Copy (Ctrl+C). Edit-->Paste-->As New Selection (Ctrl+E) and place your second eye to where you would like it. Deselect and Save.

Step 10:
I didn't give my first angel a nose, but I did on the second one. The choice is up to you. If you would like to give her a nose, add a new layer, name it nose. Change your foreground color to #C5993B and your background color to Null. Using your line draw tool, set at freehand, width = 2, draw an L for her nose. I then applied a Gaussian blur of 1.

Step 11:
When you are satisfied with her face, go to your layer palette and close the body layer and layer 1 by clicking on the eye glasses. You will get a red X on those layers. Make sure you are on one of the open layers, go to Layers-->Merge-->Merge Visible. Rename this layer head. Save! This is how my angel looked at this point.

Step 12:
It's now time to show her chin *grin*. When I was first doing our angel, I didn't like her head completely on top - it just didn't look right after I applied the cutout, yet I wasn't real thrilled with her chin underneath either.This is how I solved the problem. Go to your layer palette and activate the body layer, reduce the opacity to about 40.

You can now see her chin under that part of her body, like this.

Using the eraser tool, set at the following settings - Round, Size =2, Harness=0; Opacity = 100; Step =25; Density = 100; carefully erase the body so her chin shows. Save. Increase the opacity back to 100 and erase any stray pixels.

It's probably time to take a short break, get up and stretch, grab another cup of coffee or a soda. Then go to the next page and we will add her hair, arms, globe, legs, a halo and a something for her to stand on.

CONTINUE TO PAGE 2

 

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