LJG Design.com ~ creative graphics and printables for your web site, business or personal needs.

Open a new transparent image 450 x 450 pixels and add a new vector layer called "body". Using your preset shape set to ellipse (in PSP 9 that is the bottom selection) set as vector with anti alias checked; Draw an ellipse and tweak the nodes into the following shape for the body. Somewhat flatter at the bottom than the top to appear as though it is sitting flat.
Add a new vector layer called "leg1" and using your ellipse tool as you did above, draw an ellipse and rotate it as the leg would lie.
Duplicate this layer and rename it "leg2" then mirror it to create the other leg.
Add a new vector layer and call it "foot1". Using your ellipse as you did above draw an ellipse to make a foot. Duplicate this layer and rename it "foot2" then mirror it and place it into position.
Add a new vector layer and call it "arm1". Using your ellipse as you did above draw an ellipse to make an arm. Tweak the nodes to get something you like. Duplicate this layer and rename it "arm2" then mirror it and place it into position as the other arm. (Have you saved your image recently?)
If you want you can add a new vector layer and call it "hand1". Using your ellipse with the same settings, draw a hand or paw on your bear. Duplicate this layer and call it "hand2" and mirror it as the other hand or paw. This is what I came up with. I did the hands this way in case I wanted to make it look like the bear was holding something later on.
At this point I decided I didn't like the legs. They looked odd so I tweaked the nodes a little more to give them a more defining shape.
Add a new vector layer and call it "head". Using your ellipse tool again set as above, draw an ellipse as a head. You can shape it now by tweaking the nodes or you can wait until we have added the ears.
Add a new vector layer called "ear1" and place it behind the head. Using your ellipse, draw an ear. Duplicate this layer and mirror it to create the second ear. I rotated mine and tweaked the nodes into shapes I liked. (Be sure to save your work as you go)
At this point I wanted to work on the face a bit. To add a snout I added a new vector layer called "snout" and using my ellipse again I added the shape, tweaked the nodes and got something I liked. Then I set a new layer under the snout and added some eyes. The eyes are simple black ovals. I then added a nose by setting a new vector layer on top of the "snout" layer and using my ellipse I shaped the nose.
Now our bear is layed out and all we have to do is decorate it. I am going to start on the ears by clicking the "ear1" layer and converting it to a raster layer. My fore ground colour is set to #c49664 and my back ground colour is set to #fdf0e1 Using my selection tool set at rectangle with anti alias checked I am going to select the ear and flood fill it with the light colour. Leave it selected and using my air brush tool I will now shade the edges of the ear using the darker colour. Set your airbrush as follows. Hardness = 4 Step = 12 size = 55 opacity = 22 Density = 100 With is still selected I added a new layer and sprayed a light touch of pink inside the ear. I end up with this
Now you can do the same thing to the second ear by converting the layer to raster layer and following the above steps.
Go to the head layer now and convert it to a raster layer, select the head and flood fill it with the light colour. Using your air brush tool with the same settings as above, shade around the edges of your head. I then did the same thing to the snout but I reversed the colours. I flood filled it with the dark colour and shaded with the light,Just to get a different effect on the snout.
Continue shading the bear. Go layer by layer, converting to raster and then selecting and using your air brush tool.You may need to play with the size depending on each layer. Once your shading is done you should have something like this.
Click on the eye layer, add a new raster layer and using your paintbrush colour white, size 6 paint a little eye speckle. You can leave it as it or you can add a gausian blur of 1 to soften it. I decided that I wanted foot pads on the feet so I added a new layer above the foot layers and flood filled an ellipse and shaded it the same way I did the rest of the bear.
I like my bears to be fuzzy looking so I get this effect using eye candy jiggle set as follows. I have this setting saved in my Eye Candy as "bear fur"
Starting at any layer you wish, click a layer then apply eye candy using the above settings. Do this on each layer except the foot pads. (Are you still saving your work?)
I'm going to leave you here with your bear. It's up to you and your creativity to decorate it :) Here are a couple of things I did with it.

Ivory Bear