pixznscraps

Hi I guess if you are on this page you are looking for some tips on colouring and glittering some pics :) I use two programs.. photoshop7 for the colouring and image ready for the glittering….so anything mentioned here will be for those programs ..sorry I am tooo thick to learn any other proggy but I am sure the basics are almost all the same.
First things first choose the pic you want to colour , it can be almost anything but a good sharp outline is a great start.
The first thing I do is heighten the contrast this deepens the black outline and makes it easier to remove any unwanted white background.. so yes remove the white background so all that is left is the part of picky you want see item A.. then duplicate this layer..so you will have two layers and you will work between the two but only colouring the top layer.. the reason for this is when you begin to colour you will need a reference for the magic wand tool and it is so much easier to keep going to this bottom layer and clicking on the areas to colour then using your top layer as your main colouring piece...am i making any sense ???? there is proberly an easier way of doing it but no matter this is how I DO IT :)

Want to know how to create this?

Now the fun starts you begin to block colour your picky..:) choose your colours remembering that you will highlight and shadow later.. see item B

I really didn’t like the eyes on the original so here I have altered them to how I want them ….see item C

Now go to the bottom layer and click your magic wand on the places you want to work on..go back to the top layer and you will see the moving edge has followed you .. it is good practise to keep doing this on all the areas you work on this keeps any alterations you make to just that area…trust me I have had countless times where I have gone over and edge or something and the whole thing has been ruined….Now I have taken a lighter colour than the one I chose for the hair and started smudging in some colour where I want the highlights to be…. see item D

Now comes the bit I like best there are two tools that I think are priceless when it comes to shading.. they are the burn and dodge tools they take a bit of getting used to but they are great for shading..the burn tool darkens while the dodge tool lightens and by changing the exposure at the top of the toolbar you can have varying strengths also, but be careful of going over the same are too many times or your piece will be ruined in a second 

Remembering to get the area you want to work from –from the bottom layer go back to the top layer and begin shading with the burn tool as I have done around the headband ,eyes ,and face then go back with the dodge tool to lighten the areas you want lightened …see item E

Continue to work all over your piece until you like the look of it..as you can see you can create the folds in the jacket etc all from using these tools ..see item F

YOU HAVE FINISHED !!! well almost.. resize your image etc and if you are happy with your creation and dont want to glitter it or change it then delete the bottom layer and save your work..i then reload my finished piece into image ready and save optimzed as a gif file ready to load up onto my site.
But if you DO want to glitter your piccy then DONT DELETE THE BOTTOM LAYER... save your work and load up into image ready

WANT TO GLITTER IT????

Ok so you want to give your picky a little glitz…hey why not 
The procedure is almost the same as before but with a few little differences. Firstly I am now using image ready…now..I am only learning how to use this program so hmmm I will show you how I do it and I know there will be some smart people out there who will know better but …hey its my creation I`ll do it my way…

Ok we will need one more thing…A CLEAR GLITTER FILE.. you can create your own..if you start a new page in image ready about say 80 by 80 pixels (make sure transparent background is ticked) ( you will have to maginify this layer as it is so small )then on the first layer using white start placing some little dots etc..or some small stars or what ever you like), create two more layers and do the same but place your dots etc in different places then go to the top of the tool bar to the word WINDOW a drop down menu will appear ..choose animation.. a bar will open where your animation will go, click on the little arrow on the right of this bar and chose make frames from layers ..hey presto your three layers appear in the bar..underneath each frame you will have a time setting…choose the 0.1 and then click the arrow on the bottom left of the bar and choose the word FOREVER.. press the play button and your animated glitterfile should be sparkleing…Again chose file and save optimizes AS and name and save your file…Of course if you dont want to go through all this process then search the net for any clear glitter files :)

Ok on to the glitter… right … load up your coloured picky into image ready... you should have two layers as before ..the black and white bottom layer and your coloured creation… also … load up your glitter file ( note my glitter file would have three layers) now here is the tricky bit so pay attention…you will be working between all the layers of both files so go slow…
Click on your glitter file… you will notice three layers...at the side of each layer there is an eye you can click this on and off… we only want the bottom layer so make sure the eyes are off on the other two..go up to edit on the top tool bar and down to define pattern…this will store your first layer in memory…NOW OPEN YOUR PICCY FILE you will see the two layers go to the bottom layer and using the magic wand click on all the areas you want to glitter and they will hight light with the moving edges DON’T DESELECT THIS EDGE UNTILL YOU ARE FINISHED…now click on your coloured layer then make a new layer above it go back to the top tool bar to the word edit and then down to fill..and your empty new layer will now have the first part of the glitter..THIS IS NOW A GAME OF REPEAT…
Go back to your glitter file turn of the eyes on the layer you just used and turn on layer two..repeat the steps to define pattern and go back to your piccy file..make a new layer above your new glitter layer and fill ..go back to your glitter file turn off the second layer and finaly turn on the third layer…back up to the toolbar to edit down to define pattern and then back to your piccy file create your third new layer and fill..
OK I KNOW that was soooo longwinded but try it and soon you will glittering everything in sight 
Right we are now only going to work on our piccy file…
YOU SHOULD HAVE
Layer one ..the black and white piccy
Layer two …your coloured creation
Layer three..part I of your glitter file
Layer four..part 2 of your glitter file
Layer five.. part 3 of your glitter file
OK LETS GET RID OF LAYER ONE we don’t need that black n white piccy now
Next go to your coloured layer and duplicate it two times.
Now right click, hold and move up two of your coloured layers so there is a glitter layer on top of each one..eg starting from the bottom..-coloured layer –glitter layer –coloured layer glitter layer.-coloured layer and finaly a glitter layer...
You now have six layer..we now want to reduce them to three so go to the top layer and click on it to activate it(which should be glitter) look at the layer beneath it.(which should be one of your coloured layers). next to the eye there should be a tiny box if you click this what looks like a chain appears in it.. you are about to link these two layers..go to the top toolbar to the word LAYER and then down to the words merge linked click this and you will notice that the two have become one ..leave that layer alone and go down to the next glitter layer and repeat.and again repeat ..you should now have three coloured glittered layers… drop them into your animation bar and repeat the instructions for animating your glitterfile..save optimizes AS as before and you are done….

Piczo