Final touches

Now for the final touches... don't skip this step, it can make all the difference.
I'll add details, sometimes adjust colors, add shadows to the skin, adjust her eye color and maybe put on some makeup.

On this doll I'll start with her face, it needs some darker colors to go with her hair. I'll make a selection of her eyes using the rectangular selection tool on the base layer. (use the 'mode' buttons to add or subtract from the selection.)

The selection I make looks like this:

I make sure the layer of the base is the active one and press CTRL+C to copy the selection. I create a new layer called Eyes. Then I press CTRL+V while the Eyes layer is active to paste the selection. It will appear at the top of the layer list as a floating layer. You'll need to right-click and choose 'anchor layer' to get it into the last active layer (the Eyes layer).

Now that I have a copy of the iris on a seperate layer I can play around with the Layer -> Colour -> Hue-Saturation... settings:

She'll get dark blue/blackish eyes.

Now for makeup... create a new layer called Makeup.
I grab the airbrush tool on these settings:

and paint around the eyes with a dark color. I paint a dark red on the lips and for the cheeks I get a bigger brush and a ligther orange-red:

Then I erase the part of the eyemakeup that is on top of the eyes and lashes, grab a smaller brush and airbrush on a little highlight on the lips:

Then I decrease the opacity of the layer to give a less intense look:

(If you want to drastically change the color of the mouth it's better to use the method I did on her eyes and copy it onto a new layer, otherwise you'll loose too much detail.)

For details I make a new layer. I add a ribbon to the shirt and seams to the pants. I shade them, but usually only using 2 or 3 colors in the pallette.
On a seperate layer I make a pattern on the pants leg, blur it a bit and lower the layer opacity. And now she looks like this:


Last thing I do is add shadow on the body. I make a seperate layer for this, and paint with the pencil tool, using the colorpicker to get the right skintones off the base.
I put shadows on her belly, on her arms (cast by the shirt) and on her forehead (cast by her hair). Also at this point I delete the name of the basemaker and add my own name instead... which in this case is the same of course :-p




>>> next page, Saving as gif with transparent background >>>