Open a new image 500 x 500 or about whatever size you want her to be. Make sure you it is 16 million in color and a transparent background. Set your background (fill) color to a flash color, I used RGB 255/204/153 and the foreground (stroke) color to black. Choose the shapes tool, set the line width to 1, check antialias and vector. Draw out the shape on your canvas towards the top. This will be her head. Then leave everything the same with the shapes tool and set you background (fill) color to black so that both the foreground and background are both black. Draw out an oval shape at the top of her head, this is going to be part of her hair. (Fig.1) Then draw two more at the sides of her head for the other parts of her hair. (Fig.2) Now in your layers palette it is best to start naming the layers and objects now so that we don't get confused when they start piling up. <g> Click on the hair objects you made, the side ones only in the layers palette and drag them below the face shape you made with the face color (Fig.3) and right click, choose rename and name them accordingly. (Fig.4)

Now let's work on her hair a little. Click your vector selection tool and then click the top hair object on your image, right click and choose the node edit option from the menu. Click the center node (red) then drag it down just a little, then grab the two side handles (green) and pull them up and out like you see here. (Fig.5) Then hold down your control key and add a line of nodes side by side by clicking between the two original nodes (red) that are already at the bottom portion of the hair.(Fig.6) Then click every other one of the new nodes (pink) you added and pull then up to form a zigzag type hairline like mine. (Fig.7) When you are done right click and choose the quit node editing option from the menu and the color should come back and you can see your hair.

Now repeat the same steps for the other side of the top hair portion. When done. right click and choose to quit node editing.(Fig.8) Now they look a little sharp so what we can go back and do now is to change them around a little to give more of a curved, wavy look. Click the any of your nodes where you want a more curved hair look and you will see the two additional handles come out one looks like alittle circle and the other end is an arrow. You can grab these and make adjustments to the node giving it a more curved look. This is really hard to show you, I made the screen shot a little large so that maybe you can see mine a little better to where I added the nodes and also see the ends to grab and adjust, you may have to just play with them a little to get the look you are wanting. If you have troubles and don't get the circle and arrow then right click and change your edit mode to asymmetrical and work from there. (Fig.9) It doesn't have to be perfect cuz chances are you will adjust it when we are completely done anyway to "fit" better with the body. Now choose the Vector selection tool and select the left side of the hair. (Fig.10) There are two center nodes, run mouse over the second middle on on the far right (red in screenshot) until it changes into little arrows and then click and turn the hair about so that only part sticks out. (Fig.11)

Now let's add some of her body and start whipping her in to shape. Add a new VECTOR layer, not raster and name it body area or something of the sorts. Set your foreground (stroke) color to black and your background color to the color you want her dress to be, mine is a blue (RGB 0/153/255). Now there may be an easier way for you to do this but if you want to do it the way I did I simply choose the shapes tool and set the line width to 1, create as vector checked, antialias checked and selected the rounded rectangle again and drew out the shape on the canvas. (Fig.12) Now choose the Vector selection tool again and click the object (dress) that you just made to make sure it is the active object, right click and then choose the node edit option from the menu. Click any node to move and position to make a narrow area towards her neck area and more wider towards the bottom to resemble the bottom of a dress. (Fig.13) Next, leave the colors the same but this time choose the CLUB1 preset shape, yes the club. ROFL This will be her sleeve. Set the line width to 1, and leave the antialias checked and the create as vector too. Make sure you are still working on the body layer and draw out your shape. Repeat again for the other side of her.(Fig.14) Then in your layers palette, right click the new club layers and choose the rename option and name them accordingly with the sleeve like mine.(Fig.15)

Now like we did before when we turned the left piece of the hair, choose the vector selection tool and select on of the sleeves, run your mouse over the second middle node til you see the arrows and turn the sleeves to better fit into the arms. Repeat for the other side.(Fig.16) Position the sleeves as best you can up towards the top of the body where you would want them to be on her when you are done, or at least as close as you can for right now. At this point if you don't like the shape of the club, you may want to node edit it a little to make the shape more to your liking, but it should be pretty close to a sleeve look without a lot of editing and that is why I chose it for the sleeves. (Fig.17) Then in your layers palette, click each of the sleeve layers and drag them below the dress layer so that they appear to be part of the dress.(Fig.18)

Choose your shapes tool again and leaving all the settings the same except for the shape, change it to ellipse. Leave the foreground and background colors to the black the blue, the color of her dress, draw out a small ellipse on the bottom part of the dress, this is just the rounded bottom of her dress, I found it worked better than all the node editing on the rectangle.(Fig.19) Right click the object and choose the node edit and then add two nodes, one on the right and one on the left, add them at the edge of the dress, the nodes I added are shown in red, the green ones are the original nodes that were there from the shape.(Fig.20) Then click once on the center existing node, then hit the delete key on your keyboard, this will remove the line, the black outline between the two nodes we just added. (Fig.21) Clear as mud fer ya? Right click and choose the quite node edit option and you will see what I am talking about. (Fig.22)

OK let's add some arms and stuff so she doesn't look so silly. LOL Add another new vector, NOT RASTER layer and then set the foreground (stroke) color to black and the background (fill) color to the flesh tone again, (hint: right click and choose from your most recent colors) In your layers palette then, click the newest layer you just added and drag it below the dress layer( Fig.23) , choose your shapes tool and set it to ellipse, antialias checked, create as vector checked. Draw out one shape for the arm on one side then repeat for the other side.(Fig.24) Choose the shapes tool again and set it to rounded rectangle this time and leave all other settings the same and draw two shapes at the bottom for the legs. (Fig.25) Again, as with the other layers, right click the new shapes and name them accordingly in your layers palette so not to cause confusion later. (Fig.26) If you haven't saved your image as a PSP File by this point yet then do it NOW too so you don't lose all your work in the event of a dreaded crash or something.

At this point I added the shoes and socks also on the limbs layer with the arms and legs. I used the rounded rectangles for the shoes and socks making different colors. White and black alternating. (Fig.27) Now let's go back up to the head and shape the face a little better and give the poor girl an ear so she can hear.LOL Choose the vector selection tool and click the head object, right click then and choose the node edit option from the menu and node edit the left side of the head to make a small curve like a cheek in her head, then on the right side add a couple nodes and form the ear section of her head. Then at this point we need to adjust the hair again to make it conform better to her head. I turned the right oval shape portion of her hair a little and node edited it and the top front portion a little as you can see here. (Fig.28) Next choose your line tool and set the line width to 1, and foreground color to black and your background color to null, nothing. Draw several point to point lines, and a bezier line on the dress.(Fig.29) Then working on the HEAD layer, using the line tool draw a couple lines for the eyes, one for the mouth. (Fig.30)

At this point I decided to add a neck since I had forgotten one when doing the head and stuff. Working on the head layer, below the head object layer I chose the shapes tool, set the foreground to black and the background to the flesh tone, right click and choose it from the recent colors list is the easiest, then selected the rounded rectangle shape and set the line width to 1, create as vector and antialias checked. I drew a new shape BEHIND the head and dress. (Fig.31) You should now have your three vector layers, head, body and limbs (Fig.32) each with objects layers under them. Click the (+) sign to expand each layer. You can see here how mine are layers to achieve the effects that I did, The layers palette was so large though that I had to break it down in to individual shots for each vector layer, you can see the head layers contents (Fig.33), the body layers content (Fig.34) and the limbs layers content (Fig.35) and then your layer 1 the original background. You can flood fill the layer one with the color of your choice for a background and tweak whatever you need to now to get things proportioned right and all.

I did a little more node editing, adding some lines, removing some on her sleeves and puffing them out a little. Play around and have fun with her cuz believe it or not that is about it for Lucy !! Congrads ! You now have a friend for your Charlie Brown. Here is one of my finished versions of Lucy below. Send me yours I would LOVE to put them in the Gallery with the rest of them. All the Charlie's are getting lonely over there and need some Lucy's to keep them company! LOL