Fish

Body

Insert a new layer and rename it “body”.

Set your secondary color to your fish color. Click on the back square and then set the color. Make sure primary stays black.

Select the Ellipse Shape tool…

Set it to draw Outline & Fill.

Set the border size to 5.

Draw an oval to start, about this size. Need a bit of room above, below and behind for the fins & tail.

Make sure you’ve drawn the body in a new layer, not in Background! (if you did, CTRL+Z and start over).

Apply the Bulge effect (under Effects>Distort)

Play with the center and amount to get a slightly different body shape.

Tail

Insert a new layer, call it “tail”.

Select the Shape tool – change it to Heart

Draw a heart about this size…

Rotate the heart like this…

Go to Effects>Distort>Bulge… and play with the settings to make the tail more interesting…

Make the tail part of the body. Select part of the heart shape with the Ellipse Select tool.

Then Delete.

Merge the 2 layers together.

Top Fin

Insert a new layer, call it “top fin”.

Set the Shape tool to Triangle (or do another heart) …

…and draw/rotate a triangle at the top like this…

Apply the Twist effect (under Effects>Distort)

Make sure you play with the center area and then the amount.

If you need to move/rotate it, use the Move Selected Pixels tool

[Enter] or CTRL+D when you’re done to get rid of the dotted outline.

Go to Adjustments>Hue/Saturation

Play with the Hue or Saturation sliders to make the fin stand out more (darker or lighter).

Side Fin

Insert a new layer for the side fin – rename it and make sure it’s above the body layer.

Change the Shape tool to a Trapezoid.

Draw a trapezoid and rotate it like this…

Go to Effects>Distort>Twist and twist it a little to make it more interesting.

Go to Adjustments>Hue/Saturation again – this time you don’t have to play with the sliders if you want it to be the same color as the top fin.

Eyes

Set your colors to default.

Insert a new layer, and rename it “eye”.

Select the Ellipse shape tool…

Draw the eyeball shape. Then click off the shape to set it.

Change the Ellipse Shape tool to draw Fill Only and draw the pupil. Click off the shape when you’re happy with the size/position of it.

Switch colors (so white = primary), then draw a highlight white circle near the top of the pupil. Click off to set the shape.

Duplicate the eye layer.

Use the Move tool and move the 2nd eye over to the right, so it’s overlapping. [Enter] or CTRL+D to deselect when you’re done.

Mouth

Insert a new layer above the eye layers, call it “mouth”.

You have 2 shape options:

1. Heart
2. Lightning Bolt

Option #1: Heart

Another option is to use the Heart shape. You can also set the fill to another color than white.

To make the mouth shape more interesting, go to Effects>Distort>Bulge

Select a bit with the Ellipse Select tool and adjust the selection (resize/rotate) if needed.

Then Delete

Option #2: Lightning Bolt

Choose the shape and choose a color.

Draw a bolt something like this…

Then rotate it like this…

Adjust the size and move it so it’s over the edge with color only (no gaps).

Select the body layer and click inside the body with the Magic Wand tool.

Invert the selection using the keyboard shortcut CTRL+I or under Edit to select the opposite. Then select the mouth layer again and Delete.

Stripes

Insert a new layer, renaming the layer “stripes”.

Select the Line/Curve tool – set to 20 – 30 (depending on the size of your fish, you want to be able to fit about 6-8 stripes over the body)

Choose any color for filling that you think will stand out…

Draw a curve that goes outside the body on both sides…

1. Duplicate this layer and move it over a bit.
2. Repeat until you’ve got 5-6 stripes.
3. When you’ve done, deselect (CTRL+D).

For the copied stripe layers, go to Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and change the colors so you have 5 different colors.

Merge all the stripe layers together… just the stripes together, not with the mouth/eyes/etc.

Effects

Apply one of the following effects to the stripes:

• Effects>Distort>Crystalize
• Effects> Distort> Dents
• Effects> Blurs>Fragment

Delete stripes outside body

Select the Magic Wand tool

Make the ‘body fill’ layer active.

Click in the filled body area (= part of stripes we want to keep).

Invert the selection”

• either use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+I or
• go to the top Edit menu and choose Invert Selection).

Make your “stripes” layer active again.

Delete

Move the stripes layer behind the fins, just above the body.

Background Gradient

Make the Background layer active.

Set your colors to whatever you think will look good with your fish colors.

Select the Gradient Tool with a gradient.

Click and drag it down. Then [Enter] or click on another layer/tool to set the gradient and you’re done.

More Effects / Colors

Apply Effects > Photo > Soften Portrait to the following layers:

• body
• fins
• mouth

Apply the Bulge effect to the eyes to make them more cartoon-like.

At this point I have this…

At this point, you still have the option to change the colors of some or all of your layers by going to Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. I got something with colors I like better…