I have been asked to produce a tutorial for making my snowmen - so, here it is!! They were all drawn freehand, and the different snowmen are just different sizes of the same basic snowman, with different "clothes" added but all to the same basic colour scheme.

You will need Paint Shop Pro if you don't already have it : you can get a free download from JASC and use that.

So, assuming that you now have PSP......

First of all open a new image the size you want your finished image to be (click on "file" then "new" and set the background at transparent for now.)

Now hit the L key on your keyboard - this will open the Layers Palette : if you click on the arrowhead in the top right corner of the layer palette it will stay open and be easier to use (you can drag/resize it like any other window.)

Click on the icon (in the layer palette) which looks like two sheets of paper - this will give you another layer. Double-click on its name in the layer palette and rename it "body."

Select the colour palette at the extreme right of your main window : click on the top one of the pair of boxes and select white. Select the paintbrush icon from the left of the main window and draw a freehand "snowball" for the snowman's body. Select the "fill" icon (pouring paint can) and fill the shape - if the whole image goes white it means you have a gap in the outline - click "undo" and zoom in with the magnifying glass to find it and retouch with the paintbrush before refilling the body shape.

Now use the "magic wand" tool (left toolbar again) and click on the body - it will outline with a moving dotted line. Move your cursor up to the top toolbar and click on "Image" then "effects" in the drop-down menu then "inner bevel." Select "presets" and choose "round," click on "auto proof" so you can see what you are doing in the right hand window, and slide the smoothness to 10, depth to 3, ambience to 0, shininess to 25 and width to 25 - experiment with the settings to get an effect you like. Click on OK when you are satisfied. Right-click on the background of your image to get rid of the dotted line.

Open another new layer and rename it "head." Make sure the new "head" layer is highlighted on the layer palette. Draw a head on this new layer and follow the instructions for the body - you won't need to reset the inner bevel details this time. Don't worry about the exact positions of the head and body - you can re-position the head or body later if you want to, using the four-pointed arrow tool.
Open two more layers, one at a time, for "left arm" and "right arm" and make them in exactly the same way.

Using the "move" tool, position the head, body and arms where you want them - try different positions until you find an arrangement you like.

Go to the Layer palette and click on the "spectacles" next to the background layer (it might be called Background or Layer 1) to "switch it off." Click on any one of the other layers then go to the "layers" menu on the top tool bar, click on it then on "merge" and "merge visible." The layer palette will now show only two layers, Layer 1/background and "merged" - rename "merged" to "snowman."

Open another layer in exactly the same way as before and create a face for your snowman - you can move it around as before since it's on another layer.

Make new layers for clothes - draw them with the paintbrush, choosing colours from the colour palette, highlight with the "magic wand" and choose textures from within the "Image / effects / texture" palette - experiment, you can always use the "undo" option! This snowman's clothes were made in three layers - hat, coat and scarf, and using a combination of texture, inner bevel and drop shadow effects: I drew them all onto the basic snowman free-hand, "deleting" and "undoing" frequently until I got the effect I wanted.

When you are satisfied with your creation - and only then - "switch off" ALL the layers (click on the "spectacles" to show a red cross - your picture will disappear but don't worry, you can get it back!) and switch the background / Layer 1 back ON again - click on its red cross. Now, go to the colour palette (right) and choose a colour which doesn't appear at all in your snowman -if you're planning to use it on your own web page, try to find a colour pretty close to the background colour of your page if possible but if you're just creating a general-purpose transparent gif, it doesn't much matter as long as it's a different colour.

Fill the background (until now a grey checkerboard denoting transparent) with your chosen colour, then switch all the other layers back ON by clicking all the red crosses. Bingo! Your snowman will have reappeared!

Now comes the time to save your snowman. Go the "Colors" in the top toolbar and click on "set palette transparency," then "yes" and "OK." Click on the BOTTOM radio button ("set the transparency value to palette entry") and then on the background of your image - you might have to move the palette transparency window to one side to do this - then "OK." Don't panic - your background will still seem the same. Click on "Colors" again and "view palette transparency." NOW it should have reverted to a checkerboard (it might be tinted but don't worry, as long as it's a checkerboard it's OK.)

Save your finished picture in the usual way - "File / save as" and save as a GIF image - otherwise you will lose the transparency you have just created.


Your snowman is now ready to use however you want!!