This tutorial is rated 10+ due to
the use of vectors and shading.

Most of you have probably noticed my tutorials have been getting harder. *L* My goal is
to get you to do enough vector and shading tutorials that you feel comfortable doing them.
Once you master these two skills there isn't anything you can't do!! Sure, I could give you
selections, but then what would I be teaching? Don't be afraid, so what if your horse doesn't
turn out like mine and you need more practice, that's the fun of learning and what makes your
horse uniquely yours! You think I just woke up one day and could do these??? NOoooo, it's
taken me years (2 to be exact) to get to this stage of PSP`ing. I can't tell you how many
vectors I've done that ended up in the trash! But nothing is worth doing without a little
aggravation, blood and sweat!! *LOL* If you truly are into PSP and want to learn, then
practice, practice and more practice is the key! I'd rather take one tutorial and work on it for
days and know that I put everything in to it that I possibly could to make it my best than I
had to do 50 selection, flood fill tutorials. Not that I don't think those tutorials have their place,
they do for lower level skills, but if you want to advance and be truly on a 10+ level then you
have to learn vectors and shading!
 

I'm not sure what inspired this tut other than loving horses. They are such beautiful and
graceful creatures to watch. For the last 10 yrs I've tried my hand at sketching but never
could do justice to the beauty of a horse. Although this one isn't perfect, nor does it capture
their true beauty, it's much better than any I have ever sketched.

This tutorial uses PSP, the tools and filters that came in it. The mane I used Eye Candy
4000's fur.
It's written using PSP7 but 6 users can easily do this tut too.

For those that do not have Eye Candy 4000 I am providing my mane for you to use. Unzip and
open into PSP and set aside for later use. When you get to the steps on making the mane then
copy the one I've provided and add it as we go along. Duplicate and use deformation tool to
angle the mane as needed.

My Mane Zip

Let's get started...
Open a 500 X 500 transparent.
The basic horse will be done in 4 layers. The face, which includes the right ear, the neck, the left
ear and the lower mouth.

Set your background (fill) color to #C99761
Foreground color should be Null

Preset Shapes set to Ellipse, antialias and create as a vector both check.

Draw out a fairly large oval just slightly off left center. This will be his head.
Click on the Object Selector, then right click on your canvas and chose Node Edit.
Below is a screenshot of where and how I placed my Nodes. Remember that you can
click on a node to activate it, then right click on it to change the shape to Cusp. By setting the
nodes to Cusp it allows the arms on the node to move independently of each other. I have
left this screenshot full size so that you can see the placement of the head on the canvas along
with the node placements.

Check your progress from time to time to see how it's looking. Look at the screenshot
where his ear meets his head. I pulled the nodes as close as I could so there wouldn't be a
gap between there.
Once you're happy Convert to Raster and rename as head.
I suggest you save NOW *L* Wouldn't want you to lose that!!

Now lets move to making the lower mouth.
Preset Shapes same as before. Draw out a small oval just under the nose area of your head.
Object Selector, right click on canvas, choose Node Edit. Here are the placements of my
Nodes...

You don't have to worry to much about the nodes that are on the head area, those will be hidden
under the head once we are finished. Add and change Nodes to Cusp as needed. When you're
happy Convert to Raster and rename as mouth. Move this layer below your head layer.

SAVE!!

Next comes making the left ear..

Preset Shapes same as before. Draw out an oval about where you think the ear should be.
Rotate the oval just a little to the left. Object Selector, right click on canvas, node edit.
Look at the screenshot below at node placement...

When you're satisfied Convert to Raster and rename to left ear. This layer should already
be below the head layer but if not move it.
SAVE!

How's he looking so far?? The hard part of the vectors are over. All we need now is his neck.

Preset Shapes, same as before...
Draw out an oval from about where the head area between the ears is, then all the way
down to just above the bottom of the canvas. Here is what mine looks like with the nodes
added and moved...

Once you're happy, Convert to Raster and rename as neck.
This layer should already be below your head layer, but if not move it to just above
Layer 1.
SAVE!

This is our basic horse! Take a break and come back to it later if you're feeling tired.
I did my vectors one day and saved it as a psp then the next day I started on the shading. If
I get frustrated, I save what I've done that I like so far as a NEW psp file and come back
to it later. I ended up with 7 different psp files on this one horse. That way if I change my
mind about something I did but it's been saved I can go back to the one before that and start
over from there. I know it seems a little silly but that's how I like doing it, if you prefer a
different way, then that's fine, do it your way.

Okay time to get started with making this horse come to life!

Make your head layer your active layer.

Below is a screenshot of the basic facial features. I used vectors to make them, putting
each one on their own layer. This will give you and idea of where to place the eyes and
other facial features.
Pull this screenshot into PSP so that you can look at it as your work....

It doesn't matter really at this point what color you use because we can always change that as
we go. Just give yourself  contrasting colors so that they will show up okay as you work. In
the screenshot above my eyes show as a brown but make them Black on yours. The left eye
should be in two layers. One for the ball of the eye and one for the outline. The left nose area
should also be on two layers.

Once you have the outline of the facial features done, Converted to Raster and named,
then make your head layer your active layer and let's start adding some colors to our horse.
Go to Selections, Select all, selections, Float, Selections, Modify, Expand by 1. Add a new layer
naming it shading face1.

First off I want you to set your foreground color to a dark brown I'm using #553629
We will be using the Airbrush Tool with these settings..

Draw out some strong details like I have in the screenshot below..

Go to Effects, Blur, Gaussian Blur with a radius of 3
This is all we will put on this layer because we want those lines to be left strong.

Add a new layer naming it face shading 2.
Now on this layer we will be switching colors here and there as we go. I'm going to
give you 3 different colors to work with, You may want to make yourself a color swatch
using the colors so that it will be easy to switch between the colors as you work on the
different layers. These are the 4 colors we will be using for the facial areas.
The dark brown we used above... #553629 #753F2C #76412D #A04420
Open a small transparent canvas and use the paint brush to make a color swatch
of the colors.
First let's set our Airbrush to size 56
Leave all other settings as they are.
first color is #753F2C (this should be the second color on your swatch)
Spray this color pretty heavily on your horse's face, something like this...

Now let's change to this color #76412D (3rd color on swatch) and spray some areas here
and there like this...

Now  this color #A04420 (4th color on swatch) spray some light areas around
your horse's face like this..

Now for our last color, I know I said only 3 but this isn't a new color it's the dark color
we started out with *L* Change to color #553629 (1st color on swatch) use this color
very lightly here and there to get some depth shadows in your face. Once you have the
colors on, Go to Effects, Blur, Gaussian Blur with the radius of 3 like we did before.
How's it look? Not quite dark enough?? Well here is what I did.
I duplicated my shading layer then lowed the opacity of that layer until I had it like I
wanted. I also duplicated my face shading 1 layer too, because we want that layer bold
so it will stand out underneath the other layers. This is what I ended up with...

I then added a new layer and sprayed on some final touches in places I thought the
face needed. Working from dark to light shades of those brownish red colors, and
changing size on my Airbrush here and there too. Here's what my final face looks like...
(Excuse the areas I've jumped ahead of you on).

Once you are happy with your face, hide all layers except the shading layers and
merge them together visible, rename to face shading.
From here down you won't have many screenshots of the facial shading but take
the above screenshot in to PSP with you so you can look at it for the details on the
shading as you work.

Now let's move to the mouth layer and make it our active layer. Go to selections, Select
All, Selections, Float. Selections, Modify, Expand by 1. Use the colors we used on our
face shading to shade the mouth until you have it matching with the colors on his face,
remember to use the Gaussian blur, same setting as above. Once you're happy with it,
hide all layers except the mouth shading layers and merge them visible, rename to mouth
shading. I guess you're noticing I'm not merging my base layers with my shading layers.
You can if you want to but I like having my shading layers separate. I'm not sure why
I did this *L* I guess because I'm bad about changing my mind!
I do hope you're remembering to SAVE as we go along???

Now let's make the inside of our right ear active. Go to Selections, Select all, Selections,
Float then modify, expand selections by 1 just like we have been doing.  I then used the
darkest color #553629 and flood filled my inner ear. I then deselected and used
Gaussian Blur set to 3 to blur my inner ear some, that's all I did to that layer.

Now make your left ear your active layer. Go to Selections, Select all, Selections, Float
then modify selections by 1. Add a new layer. Use the colors that we used on our face
to color your ear. When you have it like you want, hide all layers except the shading
layers for your ear and merge visible.

I know we're starting to get a lot of layers so make sure you start saving often so that
if those nasty little gremlins decide they are tired of playing you won't lose anything
you've done.

Make your left inner ear your active layer. Select it, modify by 1 and flood fill it with
the dark color #553629 like we did the right inner ear. Gaussian Blur at 3 just like before.

How's your horse looking thus far?

Next I want you to make your right eyeball layer your active layer. Zoom in on it so you
can see. Did you remember to make the outline around the eye on a separate layer?
Hope so. Click on the eyeball and make it your active layer. Set your foreground to
Black. Use your Paint Brush set to these settings..

Look at the eye on the screenshot of my finished face, see how I blacked the eye
all the way out to the edge of the outline? As Em told me, "not much of the white area of
a horse's eye should show". Here is a screenshot of a closeup of the right eye..

Don't worry about the shadow in the center right now, we'll put that in using inner
bevel in a next.

Once you have the black in like you want. Go to Effects, 3D Effects, Inner Bevel.
Use these settings...

Now go one layer below the eyeball and add a new layer. On this layer
we will use the Paint Brush with the same settings as before to add just a little white to
our eye.
Set foreground color to #AFA9A7 Zoom in close so that you can see. Add 3 or 4 pixels
of the gray color on the left side of the eye, something like this...

Make your left eye your active layer. Zoom in, change foreground color back to Black.
Use the Paint Brush, same settings, color in all of this eye black. There won't be any
white area on this eye. You should have something like this...

Whoa! I'm tired.  Save your work you've done so far. Come back to it later if you need
a rest. Believe me sometimes it's best to do that. You will come back with a whole new
perspective.

Let's make the spot on his forehead the active layer. Use your airbrush set to a slightly
darker color than what you made your spot. We won't select it so be a little careful of the
over spray. Spray a few little touches on it, then go to Blur and Gaussian Blur by 3.
Now go to your layer palette and lower the opacity on that layer to around 40 or 45.

Now for the nose, let's start first with the right nostril. Zoom as close as you need to so
you can see better. Make it your active layer. Go to Selections, Select All, Selections, Float,
selection, modify, expand by 1. Add a new layer, with the colors we used for the face use
the airbrush to spray around the nose. Use the same settings on the Airbrush that you used
for the ears and face playing with the size to get one that works best for your nose. I used
the dark brown color with the airbrush to do the small area that would be the opening in the
nostril on a separate layer. Use Gaussian Blur of 2 and or 3 to blend your sprays. Once
you're happy you can hide all other layers and merge your airbrush layers visible.
Here's mine zoomed in so you can see it better..

Now move to the left nostril and do it the same way with the airbrush, but use more of the
darker brown on it to make it a shade or two darker than the right nostril.

Next comes the neck. Select the neck like we did all the other layers. Modify Expand by 1
Add a new layer.
Remember how we made the hard lines on the face to get our muscular look? That's what
we want here too.
Use the Airbrush with these settings.. foreground color set to the dark brown #553629

Here is how I sprayed my lines on the neck....

Use Gaussian Blur set to 1 or 2 to lightly blur your sprays, remember we want this bold
because it will need to show through our other layers of shading.

Keep selected, add a new layer. Raise the size on your airbrush to about 20. Change your
foreground colors between all the browns like we did for the face. Then Gaussian Blur at 3.
If it's not dark enough then do like you did for the face and duplicate the layer and lower the
opacity on it. Deselect once you're happy, hide all layers except the shading layers and merge
them visible. Don't worry about the area between the neck and the head right now, we'll work
on that once we have our mane in place and can merge all our horse body together. Here's
mine...

Now for the mane...

Make your very top layer active. Add a new layer. Set your foreground color to the
dark brown! Airbrush set to the setting we use to make our heavy lines on the face and neck.
Zoom in on your horse behind the right ear. Spray a line starting behind the ear and
down his neck, follow the line of the neck. I used red in the screenshot below so that you
could see better...

Go to Eye Candy 4000 Fur and apply these settings...
color is #553629

Go back to EC 4000 and apply the same settings once again. Now one more time.
3 times total with those settings.

Now back to EC 4000 Fur and apply these settings twice..

Once again but change the direction in Basic only, to 301 and apply twice.
Once again change Basic direction to 253 and apply but only once this time.
Now back to 301 for one last time.

Click on the deformation tool and pull your mane down a good bit to make it longer. Pull
the right side out some too if needed. Now go to Layers, Duplicate. Use the mover tool and
the deformation tool to move that layer next to the first one. Keep Duplicating the layer and
moving it into position until you have your mane like you want it. Look at the above banner
to see how mine looks!

That's pretty much it, touch up any layers you want. Look at the face layer and the neck layer
where they meet. Does you mane cover it up so that it looks okay? If not do some touch ups
using the airbrush and the brown colors on a new layer. Then Gaussian Blur 2 or 3.
You can merge visible, copy and paste as a New Image, export as a tube, or you can leave the
excess and put a background behind the horse, save as a gif or a jpg.

I do hope you've enjoyed this tute. May God Bless and keep you safe.
Until next time,
Connie