Come Fly A Kite
On a nice breezy summer day, it's fun to fly a kite,
but if you're as small as a little country mouse then beware you don't
get blown away! This tutorial, gives you the opportunity to make a
kite from scratch and then to add a little critter to it using the
kit provided.
To be able to complete this tutorial, you will need
to download the following zip file:
The mouse.ufo kit
You'll also need to save this mouse-fill.jpg tile.
If you're feeling a little adventurous, then you might like to download
this bear.ufo, but be aware that I haven't
included instructions in this tutorial for it.
My terms of use for this tutorial are simple....What
you create using this tutorial is yours to do with as you please.
A link back to this tut is appreciated but is not a requirement. The
tutorial itself along with the images herein are copyrighted to me
and all rights are reserved.
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The Kite
Click on File/New/New Image and open a new RGB White canvas with
a width of 500 pixels and a height of 300 pixels.
Using the Path Drawing Tool; Shape - Diamond; Mode - 2D; mode....any
colour will do at this stage. Draw a kite shape aproximately 110x170
pixels.
Use the Transform Tool/Rotate in Virtual 3D. Rotate your kite
to a position similar to that shown in the image on the left here.
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Use the Line & Arrow Tool; Shape - Straight Line; Mode -
3D Round to draw a couple of crossbar lines on your kite. Fill
these lines with a wood from the Easy Palettes Material Gallery.
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With the main kite selected, use the paint tools to
decorate it to your liking. I chose to keep mine fairly simple looking
but you can paint yours to be as elaborate as you like. |
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Use the Line & Arrow Tool; Shape - Spline; Mode
- 3D Round; Colour - grey and with a border of 1 to draw in the
tail line of your kite. |
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To create the bows that will go on your kite's tail
line, use the Path Drawing Tool with a colour of your own choosing;
Mode - 2D to draw the Custom Shape - Crown 1. Duplicate this piece
and then click on Edit/Rotate & Flip/Flip Virtically. Align
them into a bow shape and then merge both pieces as a single object. |
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Use either the burn tool or the airbrush if you wish
to give your bow more detail and then add a circle shape drawn with
the Path Drawing Tool to the center of the bow. Select all bow parts
and merge as a single object. |
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Duplicate your bow as many times as required....you
can colourise a few of them if you wish too. Rotate them and move
them into postion along the tail of your kite. |
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Add a main line to your kite from the center of the
wooden crossbar using the Line & Arrow Spline Tool and your
kite is finished. Of course no kite is complete without someone
to fly it, so the next part of my tutorial will explain how to colour
the mouse .ufo provided. |
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The Mouse.
Unzip and open the mouse .ufo and fill the head, body, arms and
legs with the mouse fur tile provided or just leave them grey.
Fill the front paws, feet, and tail with a pinkish colour.....The
pink I've chosen to use has the hex code #D1B6B9
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Use the Blur Tool with quite a large size to click
just the once on the head and body pieces. This will soften the
look of the fur.
Then use the airbrush set with the colour black, a transparency
of about 60 and a soft edge of about 50 to do some shading. Firstly
add a little bit of shading to the lower side of the mouse's body,
remembering to add some shading at the edge of the head too. Then
select the head and add a little bit of shading down the right
side and slightly over the top of it.
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Select the ears and using the paintbrush, Shape -
circle; Size - 16; Colour - the same as that used to fill the front
paws, feet and tail; Transparency - 0; Soft edge - 0; paint a circle
on each. Then change back to the airbrush with the colour black
for more shading. Zoom in if necessary to shade very carefully around
the tip of the ears. |
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Select all objects and merge as a single object.
Add a couple of tiny eyes and also a nose, then using the paintbrush
size 1, paint in little straight lines to formulate the toe and
fingers areas.....LOL, what else can you call those bits, claws
perhaps? Paint some more straight lines on the tail near to the
base too...a dark grey is a good colour for these little lines
you're doing.
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Zoom in on your mouse image to about 200% and then
using the Blur Tool, carfully blend in any sharp looking edges such
as the tops of the front leg and forearm and also where those pieces
meet with the front paws and feet. |
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There you go...your mouse is ready to be added to your kite image.
Using the Line & Arrow Spline Tool you can add some windy
looking curves with a lightish coloured shadow to complete your
windy day kite picture if you wish.
I sincerely hope you had as much fun doing this tutorial as I
had in writing it. Below you can see another windy day kite image
using the bear.ufo
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