Blending Color While You Draw

Shading is an important, even essential aspect of drawing. We all have our own shading techniques. I, myself, am a blender. Hard lines? They frighten me. After all, reality has no hard lines… it’s all shades of gray. Mostly. I mean, that’s not a hard and fast rule, either, is it? Philosophy aside, one of the techniques I use incessantly in drawing on Muzy is blending color or shades of a color as I draw. Here’s how it’s done. Read the rest of this entry »

How to Make a Gradient on Muzy

My green gradient on Muzy.

Gradients are useful both for backgrounds, and as building blocks for items in your collage. This green gradient is one I made, and this tutorial walks you through the steps to make it. Gradients can be between any two colors (or more!), but the easiest gradients to make are between two similar colors or two shades of the same color. The more difference there is between the colors you’re gradating between, the more detailed work there will be in order to make the gradient smooth. Read the rest of this entry »

How to Make a Cylinder out of a Gradient

Basic shapes are good for collaging, because they can be used in many different ways to construct a more complicated picture. A cylinder is one useful basic shape… it can be a shower rod, or a cane, or a table leg, or a coffee cup.

The collaging tool on Muzy makes creating a shaded cylinder simple. All you need is a gradient, which you can make yourself or find premade on Muzy. By resizing a larger gradient, you can get a perfectly shaded area, without having to painstakingly make a consistent gradient over a small area. Here are the easy instructions to make a cylinder in Muzy, using an existing gradient. Read the rest of this entry »