Halloween Illustration

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In this tutorial, I will take you on a guide to creating your own Halloween illustration. This tutorial is made the most effective by the emphasis on the facial features and the use of colours. If you need any help understanding this tutorial after, please contact me.

To begin, open up a new image on Paint Shop Pro. My image is sized 385 x 439. First of all, we're going to draw on the face. In order to do this, select the Preset Shape Tool (P) and select the colours of your choice. We're going to use a circular shape, and we're going to border it. In order to get a clean border, we must use both of the pallets. An example of what I mean is shown to the right. I used the colours #DBA779 and #EDC894. Covert the vector layer into a raster layer.

Next, draw on the hair. To do this I used the Pen Tool (V) . I already have a tutorial on illustrating hair, if you're stuck on this part please check it out.
Match your pen tool settings to mine below (and it's at these settings that you'll do anything else requring the use of the pen tool in this tutorial):
Segment type: Point to point
Meter limit: 15
Create as vector
Line width: 1.00

I've chosen to do my hair in the colour #920E08; partly because I thought it'd fit in with the Halloween theme, and because when creating the illustration I was watching The X Factor [2010], and everyone seemed to have dyed their hair red. Covert the vector layer into a raster layer.

In order to add more depth to the hair; I created a new raster later, selected the brush tool at a size of 20 and a hardness of 0, and added some streaks to the hair. I then applied the Gaussian Blur effect [Adjust > Blur > Gaussian Blur] (at a blur of 5.00), and then set that layer to Soft Light at 26%. The difference is subtle, but effective.

In order to slightly change the shape of the face (as no ones face is totally round), select the Pen Tool (V) , make the first pallet transparent, and match the second to the colour of the hair. We do this as the first pallet is only useful if you want a border on the image.

Use this tool to trace around the circular shape, In order to trace your shape with curve, click where you want the shape to begin, click at a different point and then drag the mouse (Example (from illustration guide tutorial). Covert the vector layer into a raster layer.

The eyes are one of the most important features of this illustration. We want to put a lot of emphasis on all that's happening in the eyes, maybe more than we would for other illustrations. Start off as you usually would, use the Preset Shape Tool (P) to draw on the circles for the eye. I useually start of with a white colour, a dark colour (in this case #220101), a lighter version of this dark colour (#440000) and then (sometimes) black.

Once you've traced these simple shapes, use the Pen Tool (V) (using all your know about make curves), to draw on a border.

Make sure that as you go, you are converting these vector layers into raster layers. This makes it easier to add more onto the image. To create the glassy effect in the eye, I used the Preset Shape Tool (P) to draw four white circles in the eye. I gave them a softer edge by applying a Guassian Blur [Adjust > Blur > Gaussian Blur] (at a blur of 2.00). I set this layer containing the circles to Dodge at 90%.

Use the Pen Tool (V) (using all your know about make curves) to draw on the other features. Remember to be converting the vector layers into raster layers.

To add more emphasis to the face (after all, it is for Halloween), create a new raster layer and select the brush tool at a size of around 25 and a hardness of 0. Use this to add colour bubbles to the image, I used a hot pink colour to add emphasis to the cheeks, and a dark brown colour for the sides of the face. I set both of these at Soft Light at around 30%.

I won't completely walk to you through creating the hat and the clothes, just because all you need to create it we've gone through in this tutorial. Create the hat while selecting the top layer, use the Pen Tool (V) and make use of selecting a colour on the top layer for the broder. If you have some bits of the hair sticking out after creating the hat (like I have in my example to the left, select them with the Selection Tool (S), locate their layer and press delete.

Use the Pen Tool (V) to draw on the neck, shoulders and clothes. Take into accoutn all that we've learned in this tutorial. Start off with the neck and the shoulders first, then raw the clothes over.

Finally, add in any extra colours and effects. Clean things up, apply a background colour and a border... Then merge all of your layers together.