Pixel Art Paint Doll Hair

The doll base shown in the example to make hairs is not pixels art, since the retouch tools have been use on it. Here is a pixels art base doll you could use. Just right click and save as on your hard drive.
	Painting in pixel is very easy to do in PhotoImpact. Let's open your doll base and expend your canvas to have enough space around it for drawing your hair. On the left, this is the doll head I did use, and the color palette for the hair.
	We are going to use the paint brush: Shape: Square Size: 1 Transparency: 0 Soft Edge: 0 We are going to paint in mode, since we want this to be an object when we are done. First, I draw a rough sketch outline of the hair with a one of the medium color first. To be able to see what I'm doing for the sketch, I zoom in at about 500, you could zoom in bigger if it is better for you.
	Once my rough sketch is done, I click out of mode. Then click again on mode and change my color to black. By clicking again on mode, this will give me a new layer to work on. I'm still in my zoom view, the zoom view on the left is at about 800. Now I draw in mode with the paint brush, as you could see on the left, I did use the rough sketch as a guide line. While drawing, if you do a line or a square dot you don't want there, without clicking out of mode, click on the eraser next to it, and erase the part you don't want, then once done, click again on the eraser to make it inactive. Stay in mode and continue your drawing.
	Once you are satisfied with your drawing. Click out of mode and save you image as a ufo. Now select your rough sketch and delete it, we don't need it any more. Select your drawing outline of the hair.
	Click on the fill bucket and color pick the darkest color on your swatch color palette and fill in. We could have paint it, but this is faster. Now save as a different naming-002.ufo
	Ok, I'm going to show you the shortest way to paint those hair. Let's open your layer Manager and hide everything except your outline drawing of your hair. Once that is done close your layer manager, you will need all the space you could get. Now we are going to use the selection tool the Magic wand. Mode: + sign selected Area: Selected Similarity: 0 Search connect pixels: Selected Now select inside the outline drawing hair. Once that is done, Go to selection and convert to an object. Then choose the fill bucket and fill your object. Save your work naming-003.ufo
	Ok, now let's open the layer manager again. and unhide your doll head base. Choose your paint brush, click on mode, you still have the same color as your fill bucket color. Zoom in at 800. Now start painting the white part behind the ear and head inside your drawing lines. Once done, zoom at 100%, click out of mode and save again.
	Click on mode again, your paint brush is still selected, now color pick the next color. Zoom in at 800. We are going to start painting our cast shadow. Living some shadow where we need some. At this point here, instead of freehand painting, I choose the straight line. It is faster and gives me more control for a nice straight line. Start painting. On the left here you have a zoom view of the bottom of her hair.
	Here is the top of her head and the second one is the middle part of her hair. This will give you a better idea, where to paint your cast shadow. Once you are done, zoom out, click out of mode, and save your work. Look at the little image on the left, this is about what you should have so far. Your outline, and two colors in.
	Ok, Let's choose your paint brush again, color pick the next color on your swatch color palette. Click on mode, Zoom in at 800, now we are going to paint the light reflection in her hair. Have a look on the top part on the left here and the small image to give you an idea where to put it.
	Do the same as well for the bottom part of her hair. Once done, click out of mode, zoom out, and save your work.
	Great, one more color to go. Choose your paint brush again, color pick the lightest color on your swatch color palette. Click on mode, zoom in at 800. We are going to paint the highlight in her hair. This is where the lights shine on it. Have a look at the example on the left for the top part.
	Example on the left for the bottom part of her hair. Once your done, click out of mode, zoom out and save your work. Look at the small image on the left, this is what we have so far, looking great isn't it.
	We need to paint some more hair on her forehead. If you haven't put your color swatch in your Easy Palette, it is time you do so, you will need it there to be handy and will save lots of time too. Ok, choose your paint brush, color pick in your easy palette on your swatch image the medium dark color. Click on mode, zoom in at 800 and start painting on her forehead some hair. Look on the example on the left.
	Here change color as you need without clicking out of mode, I did paint diagonal line to imitated the hair string of going up. Look at the example on the left to give you an idea. Once you're done, click out of mode, zoom out and save your work.
	Hum, we need some details here on the bottom part of her hair. I did paint diagonal to emphasis the curls of her hair string. Let's choose your paint brush, click on mode, zoom in at 800, color pick your color on your swatch image in your easy palette, use a contrast color as you paint your diagonal. Have a look on the image at the left here. Once you're done, click out of mode, zoom out and save your work again. Cool, now we have half of her hair done.
	Let's open your Layer Manager. Select all your hair, and merge as single object. While it is still selected, right click and duplicate, with the Transform tool. flip horizontally and position on the left here. Hum, as you could see I was not in the middle when I did my drawing, but never the less, we are going to fix it without any problem, so if this happen to you not to worry about it. Before we go on, let's save our work.
	Here is how, I did fix the space, I did color pick the same color as my outline drawing, that is the darkest color. And I paint in mode and did zoom in at 800. First I paint the space with straight lines, in my case here I did need two. Now I didn't want the middle to be so large, so I color pick the shadow color, and paint over the outline in the middle I had at the beginning. Have a look at the example on the left here. Once I was done, click out of mode, zoom out. Save my work. I did open my layer manager, selected the hair I just did paint and selected the other hair part and merge as single object and save again. Now it looks much better.
	We are almost done. While we still have our layer manger open, unhide the base body of the doll. We just need to paint the white part between the head, neck shoulder and other hair. Have a look at the example on the left. Just paint one side, once done, click out of mode, duplicate, flip horizontally and position on the other side. Zoom out and save your work.
	Now selected all your hair parts, and merge as single object. Select your hair, copy and paste as a new image and save it as a transparent .gif file. Make sure in your saving option that where is says Soft, you have none selected, we don't want some jaggies around it. You may as well add it in your Easy Palette Library for fast access and further use.
	Ok, here is what I did with my doll. Hope you did enjoy the tutorial, don't forget to post your result in the Pixels Art Workshop at PhotoImpact International Board. You must be a register member and the good news it is free. Here is your Award, don't forget to grab it.