Tutorial Warehouse

Making a pawn figure

	- First step, let's choose our background color : white will do. - We now need to create a new layer where we will elaborate the shape of our pawn. - The left shape is made out of 4 circles, with circles 2, 3, and 4 being a little distorted with the help of the transform tool (Ctrl+T, then drag the handles).
The "trunk" of the pawn was made with the use of the Bézier tool.
	- Now that our shape is OK, we need to go to the most interesting part of the job, i.e. : give volume to our pawn. - First thing, let's define the outlines of our object, they will remain at the foreground (isolated on their layer), thus helping us to delineate our pawn.
- To create these outlines we will use the selection from the shape of our pawn : while holding the Ctrl key, click (in the layers palette) on the layer with the outline of our pawn. -Make sure the black is selected as the foreground color by pressing the D key, then go to Edit>Stroke, chose 2 pixels for the width, and make sure the outline is centered.
	- Time for shading ! If all went OK, you should now have the selection of the shape of the pawn still active ; if this is not the case, reselect by clicking the layer while holding the Ctrl key as above. - This selection will prevent us from going over the edges of the image, we can now go to the next step:
- Once again, check the black is the foreground color and white the background color, then select the gradient tool (by pressing the G key), go to the Options palette (if it is not visible, you can display it by going to Window>Show Options), select the Radial type in the Tools palette, we can now very easily create an impression of 3D - Try getting the same result as shown below, by starting from the top of the upper circle (The next lighting you can see on the lower part of the circle was added later with the airbrush tool)
	- Next step : adding volume to the lower part of the pawn. Since light is supposed to come from the left, we then need to add light to the left part of the pawn, with the light positioned on the right simulating a second source of light. - For the lighting : chose white as the foreground color (you can do so by pressing the D then the X keys), then the Airbrush from the Tools palette (or by pressing the A key), and gently stroke the edges of the pawn, which will be easier if you have left the selection active.
	- Final part : finishing Without a doubt my favorite part, 90% of the work is over, we only need to add the elements which will make our image look more personal. First by adding a mouth and eyes to our pawn : nothing could be simpler, just a couple of circles and a drop shadow.
The shadings have been colored : you can do so by choosing your color, select the Brush tool (with the B key), then in the options for the brush, select the "Colorize" mode and lo ! let's go for color ! The background is an easy job too : draw any black shape on a new layer then use the Distort>Twirl filter. To clone the pawn, merge the layers making up the pawn, then with the resulting layer active, right-click and select ôDuplicateö, then press Ctrl+T to be able to change the size of the clones. Done ! all you still have to do is add your text and send the flyer to the printer.