This tutorial is written for Paint Shop Pro. It's supposed to help you getting started on making heads for the sims, and hopefully it can be a guide and inspiration. It goes through some of the techniques that I use, when I make a head. However, don't think of it as a complete guide, feel free to pick and choose from it as you like. That's what I do anyway, and I always like to try out new techniques and get inspiration from other peoples work.

Here's what you need before you start:
SimShow: Program by Maxis, that you use to view your skins in 3D as you work. Or you can just use SimPose.
A good graphics program: I use Paint Shop Pro myself. The program must be able to handle layers and have shadowing tools. Lots of people use Photoshop as well.
SimPose: If you want really great looking pics of your finished skin, this program is the one!
"The do's and dont's of skinning - what every Sim artist should know": This is something I wrote to help you get started right without stepping on any toes. Contains all the unwritten rules of the sims community... Read it before you start.

Content of this tutorial:

1. Creating a base
2. Getting the file ready
3. Eyes and eyebrows
4. Mouth
5. Hair
6. Shading
7. Making 3 skintones

Making a head:

1. Creating a base

You want to start with a base head to get the skin tone and face right. Just drawing on top of a Maxis head limits your options for making a unique looking face, so I create my own 'faceless' bases to start from. Feel free to just grab my bases, they fit the C001 heads, come in all skintones (including the pale one) and in both male and female. Click on the pic to download.

If you'd like to make your own bases or if you're using a mesh that doesn't fit the C001 format, here's how you do it:
Start with a maxis face (ONLY maxis, don't steal from another sim artist!) that fits your mesh. You can check this out in SimShow if you're not sure.
Open the .bmp in Paint Shop Pro and choose Colors -> increase color depth -> 16 mio colors. This allows you to use all colors and all tools in PSP.
Then paint over the eyes and mouth, using the color picker on the face to get the right skin color. Leave the nose and ears, no need to draw that from scratch.
Finally use the Retouch - Smudge tool to blend the color nicely into the skin and finish with the Retouch - Soften tool.

And here's your base. You might want to remove some of the hair too, depending on the mesh.
You can use the same base for all your faces, so remember to save it before you add the face.

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