Dragons by Selection
Creating a Perched Dragon

This tutorial was created for some friends of mine who wanted to begin learning more about PSP.  It is intended for upper beginners to learn how to use selections and to shade.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

This tutorial uses selections that I have made.  Click on the link to download the zipped file of my selections, then unzip into a folder onto your hard drive.  Download Selections

To do this tutorial you will also need Paint Shop Pro.  I used Paint Shop Pro 7.04.  You may download a free trial at Jasc.

Remember to save as a psp file often!

Before we begin, you might want to study the PSP tool bars.  I have labeled the tools on another page.  Click on the link and it will open a new page.  You may want to keep this page open while you work on the tutorial, to refer to the names now and then.  PSP Tools

Now that you have studied the tools, let's begin!

Before you begin, you will need to choose a color for your dragon, and a color for the pupil of his eye. For my examples, I chose these colors
dragon color = #FFFF40                  eye color = #008000

1.  Click New File in the top menu bar.  Enter these settings:  width=550, Height=400, Resolution=72.000 pixels/inch, Backround color=transparent, image type=16.7 Million Colors (24 Bits).  Click Ok.   Click File--Save As and save this file as PerchedDragcolors.psp

2.  In the Layer Palette, right-click on layer 1 and choose New Raster layer.  Name it wing.
Layer name should say wing!

3.  In the top menu bar, choose selections--Load from Disk.  Find where on your pc you saved the PerchedDragRDBselections folder and open it.  Highlight 01PerchedDrag.sel and click open.  You will get a selected area on your image (like below)

4.  Set your foreground color to your dragon color choice.  Choose the paint can from the left menu bar and flood-fill the selected region with dragon color.

5.  In the Layer Palette, right-click on the top layer and choose new raster layer.  Name it body.  In the top menu bar, click on Selections--Load from Disk.  Choose 02PerchedDrag.sel and open the selection.  Choose the paint can from the left menu bar and flood-fill the selected region with dragon color.

6.  In the Layer Palette, right-click on the top layer and choose new raster layer.  Name it leg.  In the top menu bar, click on Selections--Load from Disk.  Choose 03PerchedDrag.sel and open the selection.  Choose the paint can from the left menu bar and flood-fill the selected region with dragon color.

7.  In the Layer Palette, right-click on the top layer and choose new raster layer.  Name it claws.  In the top menu bar, click on Selections--Load from Disk.  Choose 04PerchedDrag.sel and open the selection.  Change your foreground color to #E1D4B5.  Choose the paint can from the left menu bar and flood-fill the selected region with this color.

8.  In the Layer Palette, right-click on the top layer and choose new raster layer.  Name it ridge.  In the top menu bar, click on Selections--Load from Disk.  Choose 05PerchedDrag.sel and open the selection.  Change your foreground color back to your dragon color.   Choose the paint can from the left menu bar and flood-fill the selected region with dragon color.

9.  In the Layer Palette, right-click on the top layer and choose new raster layer.  Name it head.  In the top menu bar, click on Selections--Load from Disk.  Choose 06PerchedDrag.sel and open the selection.  Choose the paint can from the left menu bar and flood-fill the selected region with dragoncolor.

10.  In the Layer Palette, right-click on the top layer and choose new raster layer.  Name it eye.  In the top menu bar, click on Selections--Load from Disk.  Choose 07PerchedDrag.sel and open the selection.  Change your foreground color to #FFFFFF.  Choose the paint can from the left menu bar and flood-fill the selected region with white.

11.  In the Layer Palette, right-click on the top layer and choose new raster layer.  Name it eye2.  In the top menu bar, click on Selections--Load from Disk.  Choose 08PerchedDrag.sel and open the selection.  Change your foreground color to your eye color  choice.  Choose the paint can from the left menu bar and flood-fill the selected region with eye color. 

12.  In the Layer Palette, right-click on the top layer and choose new raster layer.  Name it ear.  In the top menu bar, click on Selections--Load from Disk.  Choose 09PerchedDrag.sel and open the selection.  Change your foreground color back to your dragon color.  Choose the paint can from the left menu bar and flood-fill the selected region with dragon color.

You should have a picture like the one below, with each piece on a different layer.

13.  Save.
 

Continue to the next page to give your dragon some depth.
 
 

©  Dragon's Breath (aka The Dragon Lord), 2001-2003.  This tutorial and the  graphics on this page  are copyright to The Dragon Lord, 2003, 2002.  Please do not remove this tutorial from my site.  Share my url.