Kirodorn got their homepage at Neopets.com

Q: Where do you get your ideas?	A: They run around in my brain kicking things until I let them out by way of drawing or writing about them. Sometimes they're inspired by existing characters, but not very often. And when they are... they usually change into something more original later on.

Q: Will you be my neofriend? No? Why not?	A: I don't need a list to tell me who my friends are. If we're friends, we both know that, don't we? I don't use my neofriend list at all. Please don't ask to be my neofriend.

Q: Where did you get your userlookup?	A: I made it with help from APRIL'S CODING HELP and CSSHELP, and unless stated otherwise, the graphics are mine. I won't teach you HTML, nor will I make you a custom lookup. It's far too time consuming and I'm not very patient.

Q: Will you draw me something?	A: Nope. Requests and trades are closed. Forever and ever. Muhaha. But seriously... I don't have enough motivation to do either. Or time anymore really... I have a full time job and stuff. This also goes for collabs.

Q: Can I use your art?	A: No. It's mine, made by me, for my own use only. I don't tolerate art theft, so if I catch you stealing, I will report you, regardless of who you're stealing from.

Q: What do you use to draw?	A: I use paint shop pro 7, NOT photoshop. If you scroll down a bit, you'll find a tutorial I made a long time ago on cell shading in paint shop pro 7. Unfortunately, psp7 is no longer in production, so it is no longer available for download. If you have a version of psp that is NOT 7, I can't help you. Versions 8 and 9 are a different layout than 7, and versions 10 and X are made by a different company. I don't use them, so don't ask me about them. Also, I know the tutorial is REALLY old and my drawing technique/style has changed a WHOLE LOT since I made it, but it's been requested I not update it or take it down. I guess it's still helpful, even now?

Q: Will you RP with my pet?	A: I don't RP on neopets. At all. Or anywhere else, especially not instant messengers. Those are evil. Why? You could say I don't know how, and the times I've tried to learn I just couldn't get into it. You might find me on the boards sometimes, having Praedius begrudgingly following behind, but that's about as close as I get.

Q: Can I do fanart for you?	A: Of course! I don't know why anyone would refuse fanart. :) The easiest way to send fanart (since this gets asked often too) is to upload it to photobucket and send the url through neomail without the http or the three w's. I'm no longer premium so I don't have a neomail address anymore so uploading it is the only way to get it to me unfortunately.

Q: Are you mean? You sound mean.	A: Depends on who you're asking. I have both friends and enemies here. I love neomail though, so why not find out for yourself? ;D Don't confuse "mean" with "strict" while reading through this. Most of these questions are the "STOP ASKING ME THIS" sort of thing, so I'm bound to sound a little irritable. But really... I try to be as nice as I can and if you neomail and find we have something in common, I could be quite the chatterbox. Or... typer...box?

Q: Can I print your art and hang it on my wall?	A: Believe it or not, yes, this is a frequently asked question. I don't care if you print stuff out... I can't really stop you and I don't know why you're asking for permission. Just don't tell people you drew it. Well... I guess you could, but you'd have no proof and you'd just be lying. :/

Q: Can I use your pets in my story/comic/other?	A: Actually... I prefer you don't. I have this thing about characters staying in character, and I don't read fanart for that reason. People seem to have a problem staying in character when they write fanart. If you're going to change a character to write a story, why not write about your own? Unless you're a superamazing mindreading writer who can delve into my brain through your internet connection to write in character with my pets better than I can, no. A few of them are even characters off of neopets (Praedius in particular) and they have my copyright stamped on their heads.

Q: What happened to your old account paracelsus4?	A: I didn't like having a username with a number, so I created the account bumroot and transferred all my pets over there, then self-froze paracelsus4. I doubt I need to have this question up still... hardly anyone remembers the account I bet.

*Q: So... what are* your accounts?**	A: The first account I created is albinoshadow, and that was done waaaaay back in 2003. The second account that came to be is arttimo, which is now my main account due to my adventures in the Neopian Times. My three other sides are akaruikage, elebrafe, and bumroot.

Paint Shop Pro 7 Cell Shading Tutorial

As usual, do not take any of my images and claim them as your own. Do not use my example image to practice with the tutorial. Use your own. I worked hard to make this tutorial for you guys, and if I find people abusing it, I can take it all down.

:Getting Started:
First, scan in your picture, so you start with a sketch like the one above. This will serve as the the bottom layer. It doesn't matter how messy your sketch is... you won't see it when you're done. Once you have your scanned sketch open, open the layers palette (figure 1) and go to "Layers," then to "New Raster Layer" on the top bar to create a new layer. Do this twice. You should now have three layers. Right click the top layer, click "rename," and rename it "lines." Do the same for the middle layer, and rename it "white." The layer called "background" is the default layer that your sketch resides on. The finished result of your new layers should look like figure 2.

:Outlining Your Sketch:
Open the tool options palette and click the draw tool. It looks like a little pencil. Match the settings to the example of the tool options palette in figure 3. The first picture is the first tab of the palette, and the second is of the second tab. Outline the silhouette of the drawing on the lines layer. It should look like figure 4 when you are done.

:Finishing Your Outline:
Next, change the pixel width of the draw tool to 1 pixel (it's currently on 3 pixels) and outline the rest of the drawing, still on the lines layer (figure 5). Once it's outlined, click on the layer you named "white" and flood fill (little paint can) the picture white. The pencil lines should disappear, leaving the clean black lines of the lines layer (figure 6).

:Coloring Preparations:
Duplicating the lines layer will help with coloring later. To do this, right click the "lines" layer and click "duplicate" from the drop down menu. It will create a new layer called "Copy of lines." Turn off the visibility of this layer by clicking the little eyeglasses next to the name of the layer on the layers palette. At the top of the screen, go to "Layers," then "Merge," then "Merge Visible." If it won't let you, make sure the "copy of lines" layer is not highlighted. You should now only have two layers, as seen in figure 7.

:Selecting and Coloring:
Using the magic wand tool (you can't miss it- it looks like a little magic wand) with a tolerance at around 80-120 on the tool options palette, click the "merged" layer and click the first place you want to color in your image. It is now selected, and only areas within your selection will be affected by the tools you use. Holding shift while making selections allows you to select more than one part at a time. Flood fill in your selection with the base color you're using. The base color is the lighter of the two colors. The shadow color is the darker. Figure 8 is what an image with a selected area looks like.

:Shading:
Shading is done manually with the airbrush tool, done with the settings shown in figure 9. It's best to do all the places with the same color at once to save yourself time when choosing colors.. Shading can get tediousâ�¦ but it brings a drawing to life. Shading takes practice... study what's around you and where shadows hit. Choose a light source and shade areas facing away from your light source. This is not a tutorial on how to shade... this is just showing what tools to use to do so. Figure 10 is an example of what your shading should look like, but it varies from picture to picture.

:Last Steps:
Once all of your shading is done, merge the layers so that you can save it as a .JPG or a .GIF file without your computer complaining about layers and filetypes. Merge your layers the same way you did the first time, but instead of choosing "Merge Visible," choose "Merge All," as seen in figure 11.

:Finishing Touches:
The final step is adding text (the text tool is a big letter A and it's pretty self-explainatory), a username, or anything else you might want on it. To make it smaller than 17K for the beauty contest, experiment with optimization. Go to File, Export, then .JPG Optimizer. If you've saved your image as a .GIF file, use the .GIF Optimizer, as seen in figure 12.

:You're Done!:
Enter the BC a lot to make yourself known! Always make sure to put your username on your pictures, because art thieves are everywhere... they'll take advantage of your hard work in an instant without thinking twice about what they're doing. Having your name on your picture makes it more difficult for thieves to steal because they either have to remove it, crop it off, or pretend it isn't there, and none of those methods work very well if the name is right over the picture and not just on blank space.

Arttimo/AlbinoShadow's FAQ

Paint Shop Pro 7 Cell Shading Tutorial

::Kirodorn's Artwork::

::Art Thieves::

::Trophies::

::Adoptables::

::Link Back::