After I have opened my sketch in Elements, I make a new layer over the one containing my picture. You see the button that looks like a few layers paper that says "make new layers" when you hold your mouse over it? Well, you need to press that.

P.S. I was holding my mouse over the button for this picture. You just can't see it 'cause it's ninja! XD

Then, I paintbucket (uncheck on "use/sample all layers") the layer white so that the entire picture is white. Afterwards, I right click on the layer and choose "rename layer", changing the name of the layer to "white". Once that's done, I keep the "white" layer selected and use the bar above all the layers labled "opacity" and lower the opacity somewhere around 20-30% so that I can see my picture but the lines are lighter than before. It looks something like this-

So, what do I do after making my "white" layer? Outline of course. This is why the "white" layer was made in the first place. If I didn't have that layer, it would be very difficult for me to distiguish my outlines from the sketch lines. Anyway, for those of you who may have tablets, I advise using those as they are much faster than the method I will use for this picture. But, for those who don't have a tablet, there is a very handy tool called the "line tool". That's what I will use for this picture.

NOTICE!!!! You see the little boxes next to the area that says "2px" (which is the line width by the way)? Well, if you are using the line tool you will want to have the box that has the two blue boxes over lapping selected. This will keep the program from making seperate layers for each line. Also keep your fingures near the "ctrl+z" buttons. Those two will undo any mistake you make during the outlining process or any other part of your picture. Very useful.

Okay, once I'm done outlining, I right click on the layer with the outlines and click "simplify". I then rename it "outlines" and change the "white" layer's opacity to 100% while making the base layer, the one with the sketch, invisible. The result is something like this-

Well, now I have my outlines. So, now let the real fun begin! It's time to add the base color! *gasp* "Chiyo," you say, "you're not going to be working in black and white any more?!" That's right. Time to liven up this picture.
To do this, I make another layer, this one called "base color", and place it in between the "white" layer and the "outlines" layer. This will make it so that the color will be visible over the white but they will not destroy my outlines. After I have chosen all the colors I want, I put them in their respective places with the paintbucket tool (recheck "use/sample all layers"). Here is what I have so far.

So, that's how you color a picture, right? WRONG!
But Chiyo," you interject, "the picture has color! Isn't that what you were doing, coloring a picture?"
Well, yes. But, notice how flat the picture looks. Don't you think the picture would look better if it looked a bit more... realistic? Well, that's the next step: shading!
To do this, I first make two new layers, one named "shading *insert part of picture here*" and another named "palet" and put them between the "base color" layer and the "outlines" layer. On the layer called "palet", I take a sample of one of the base colors with the "eyedrop" tool (in this case I'm doing my fur so the color is white)and click on the color down in the area below the brushes that shows what colors you are working with. This will make a window pop up that will show you a bunch of color options. I then use the sampled color and select three colors from the window, a really dark version of the chosen color (in this case a blue-gray), a medium version of the color (a lighter blue-gray), and a color close to the original (a light turquoise). After each time I choose a color, I make a splotch of that color on my "palet" layer. This way, I won't have to remember what colors I used for shading a certain area. I can just use the "eyedrop" tool to go right back to that color. So, this is about what it should look like-

Sooooo... now what? Well, remember that layer that's underneath the "palet" one, the one named "shading *insert part of picture here* (in this case "shading fur") Well, it's time to use that layer. That layer is going to be used for... you guessed it, SHADING! But, you can't just go shading the picture. After all, if you just start shading, you're gonna go over all the base color you laid down. So, you need the help of *insert fan fair* a special tool! This one is called the "magic wand" tool and it looks like a... magic wand *gasp* who would have guessed! It will select a certain color and you will only be able to color that certain color. So, I use that tool to select the color white. Then, I change my bursh to a soft brush at 100% opacity. I select the darkest color on my "palet" (the dark gray-blue) and, after deciding where my light is coming from, I put in some shadows. Here's what it looks like-

Well, since the color of my fur is white and so is the background, I need to erase any of the shading color that went outside of the lines. So, that's the next step- clean up. That is done by simply taking the eraser tool and erasing. Simple, huh?

Alrighty then, now that everything is all cleaned up, time to go to the next step, blending in that dark shading color with the original. How is this done, you ask? Well, there are those two other colors, the middle color and light color. But, how will that work? After all, using those colors will just simply make another streak of color like what was done with the gray-blue. Well, not if you lower the opacity of the brush. I prefer to lower it to a nice 15% opacity. That makes it easier to blend into the other colors.
So, once the opacity is set, I use quick, short movements with the brush. This makes differing amounts of the color in areas and helps smoothen things out.
Alright, first we use the medium color-

Then we use the lighter color-

And there you have it. That's pretty much the basic to shading. But, there is one more thing that I like to do when I shade. After I finish using the other colors, I like to take the orginal color (white for this) and go over around the edges of my shading. I feel that this pretty much finishes the transition.

So, now you just use the magic wand tool again on the same area as before. This will undo the tool and you can color anywhere on your picture. Here's what the shading all together looks like-

Now, you just repeat the steps starting with making a new layer between your first shadin layer and your palet layer and choosing your three shadin colors till you've finished shading. Here's what my picture looks like six shading layers and many colors later-

My, my, you must be determined if you're still hanging around. Well, don't worry, we're almost done.
WHAT!" you say. "We're not done yet? But we did all the shading!"
Well, yes. But, where there is shadow, there is light. So, now we move onto my personal favorite part: lighting.
Doing the lighting is a whoooooooole lot simpler than doing shading. All you do is make another layer over all your shading layers (after making the palet layer invisble) and take a soft brush with white as your color and just use it wherever there is light.

But, there is one thing. You can't just take white and slap it on somewhere. If you do, then you'll have streaks of white everywhere. Based on what you have read so far, what do you think we need to do? Right, we need to lower the opacity of our soft brush. I tend to like to use an opacity 5-8% for clothes, skin, and items and a 25-30% opacity for hair, metal, and eyes. Just like with the shading, I use short, quick strokes to make the amount of lighting vary.

This step is an extra step toward lighting that you do not nessacerily need to do but I like to. For the lighting in the eyes, I like to make a separate layer for the eyes above all the layers including my outlines layer.

By doing this, I can make the light in the eyes go outside of the outlines which gives the eyes a nice effect.

And now, we're done.

Or at least, with the needed things.

After you finish a picture, you may wish to add a background. Although I usually have a background already in my sketch, this time I did not. To do the background, I advise that making a layer in between the white layer and the base color layer. This will allow you to do whatever you want with the background without altering your picture. So, I will just play around with the tools and add some shadow underneath me.

IMPORTANT: This next step is not nessasary but I like how it makes my pictures look.
After I finish all the shading, lighting, and background things, I like to make a layer above every single one of my other layers and use a tool called the "blur" tool (it's represented by a water drop and can be found by clicking on the finger below the slanted line if the blur tool is not already shown on your tool bar). I like to have the opacity set to 50%. Then, I make it larger enough to take up pretty much my entire picture (you may want to scroll out from your picture as this tool can take a while to work). Then, I use the tool. The blur tool will blur the picture a bit, making all the lines smoother.

AND NOW FOR THE FINAL TOUCH! Add your signature! I like to use vivaldi font and a layer effect called "simple inner" (as seen in selected box above layers"). Make sure your text it a legible color. Ones that stand out against the background are great.

Well, that concludes the tutorial. I hope it made sense and was helpful to you! Feel free to neomail me on my main account, chiyo_hoshi, if there is something that needs explaining. If you want to see the completed picture in its full size and grandure as well as some of my other artwork, you can visit Avina's petpage. As a little parting gift, here is the original sketch compared to the completed picture! See ya and good luck!^^

End Tutorial