As I mentioned, my picture contains eight layers; the background layer, a blue layer, a white layer, a brown layer, a layer for the eye white, a layer for the eye yellow, a layer for the gray nose, and the ink layer.

With this knowledge, you should be able to shade the picture on your own from here out, but I will continue to the end to show you a few more tips and tricks that may come in handy.

Many people use different methods of shading in Photoshop, and I'll go over the two I've used since I began learning Photoshop. You can, if you prefer, use the simpler method of using the Dodge and Burn tools, which lightens or darkens the colors of your image. To access these tools, press the keyboard shorctuc "O", or click on them from the toolbox. You must click and hold the mouse button down so that the rollout menu appears. You"ll see the Dodge tool, the Burn tool, and the Saturation tool ( it looks like a sponge).

The downside to using the Dodge and Burn tools is that it only lightens to white, and darkens to black. Doing so may make your image look less "colorful" than choosing your own shade of the color you want to darken. The solution is to only use these tools when you need to add subtle shadows and highlights, or when working only in grayscale.

I recommend not heavily relying on the Dodge and Burn tools to do the work for you. Instead, use the Brush Tool to shade and highlight your images. You may locate this tool by pressing the keyboard shortcut "B" key, or by finding it in the Toolbox.

I will begin by shading Maglot's blue fur. To shade it, we would use the Color Picker to choose a darker blue and for highlighting it, we would choose a lighter blue.

The picture to the right shows the direction of the light, and a generalization of what the shading should look like. Obviously, I can"t even begin to teach you about lighting a 2D image to resemble a 3D one here, so this is something you will have to learn elsewhere.

Your own style will have to come into play at this point of the tutorial, as I have my own and will be doing it "my way". I generally like to lay down some initial fur effects whil shading to give it some detail and mark of areas I will need to highlight later. The type of shading you want to do is entirely up to you. You may choose to do quick, wide shading, or careful, detailed shading. Whatever works for you is fine. I personally do both to ensure eveness of the picture.

You"ll of course have to switch layers while shading if you put different colors on separate layers. Just make sure to note what layer you are on before you start coloring, or you"ll make mistakes. I often end up painting with blue on a white-colored layer, or on the background layer, and will not realize it until I try to color over it again, and I suddenly can"t color over it because it was on the wrong layer!

That's all there is to it! I hope this was a step in the right direction for you, and that you enjoyed the tutorial. Click the button below to go back and discover how to accomplish other techniques for making the nose appear shiny and wet, and how to make the fur realistic.