Long dress tutorial

I know the dress in this tutorial is pretty simple, but hey, it's just to show how I do folds^^ Will probably make a more detailed one later. Later ;)

This tutorial is written for those who have some knowledge of the tools in Adobe Photoshop Elements, or just Adobe in general. Ca easily be translated into PSP^^

Good luck!

Base is from DHF.

1. obviously, chose your base. This technique can be used for any sized bases, not this one^^ though if you plan on doing something huuuge, add a few more shades to you palette.

2. Make yourself a palette on a new layer consisting of three colours(or take mine if you want to), one for the outline and dark shading, one for the main colour and a lighter one for highlights. I suggest choosing a more saturated colour for the highlights if you want a slightly shinier result.

3. Start drawing the outline of the dress on a new layer, called "dress" or whatever. I always do this in black. You don't have to of course^^ 

Afterwards, clean the outline, cause messy outlines makes your doll look bad. Make some changes if it's needed (I needed to XD). Then fill the outline with your darkest colour, and fill with the medium one.

4. Duplicate your layer. Pick the first colour and start drawing your folds and the shadow. The folds should be following the directions of the fabric. I wont even try to explain, just take a look at my example;) Now, the dress I have made is tight over the torso, so the folds will be more vertical than what they would have looked like on a loose one. Don't worry about drawing outside the outline, we'll clean it up later!

Brush settings:

Size: 1 px

Mode: Normal

Opacity: 100%

Click here to see zoomed version (opens in this frame)

5. Duplicate your layer. Now, when you have your folds, start smudging! Make the shading smoother by making strokes with the direction of the folds. Really, its not difficult, so I don't think I need to explain a lot more, just take a look at my doll^^

Smudge settings:

Size: 1 - 2 px

Mode: Normal

Strength: 69%

Click here to see zoomed version (opens in this frame)

6. Duplicate your layer. Now, pick the lightest shade. Again, use the paintbrush (same settings as before), this time making the highlights. Be careful not to add too much right underneath her breasts, because they cast shadow XD 

Click here to see zoomed version (opens in this frame)

7. Duplicate your layer. Pick smudge again, and start smoothing the highlights, with the same settings as before.

Click here to see zoomed version (opens in this frame)

8. You're done with the shading! Congrats! 

Now we're going to clean it up a bit. Go to the layer that has no shading, just the outline and fill. Use the magic wand to select the transparent areas. Go back to the layer with all the shading. Hit Ctrl+X and the mess should disappear.

9. Again, go back to the layer with just the outline and the fill. Duplicate it. Hide the copy, and select the fill on the other layer. Hit Ctrl+X again. Now you have an outline^^ Doesn't make the biggest difference, but I like to do it :) Didn't make an example for this, because its no point really.

Since this is a dress tutorial, I won't show you how to make hair here, go to my wavy hair tutorial instead^^

Final result:

Add some borders and a necklace to make it more interesting!

I'd love to hear what you think of this tutorial, I'd also love to see what you've done with my tutorial, email it to me, and I'll put your doll here!