Glowing Candle

Glowing Candles

	Level: Beginner Tools used: Path shapes, Dodge, Burn, Blur, Warp, Effects/Lights, Easy Pallet Fill Galleries Additional Notes: This project is not animated; however, Rosie has an excellent tut on animating the flame of your candle here.
	I had done a tut similar to this several years back but found that it is not available on the web. I had to recreate it as best as I could, but I'm sure I've made steps that were not part of the old tut.
	1. Lets begin by opening a new white canvas (we'll fill in dark later) 300 width by 400 length.
	2. Using the path shapes, make a 2D rounded rectangle (you can use other shapes, but for this tut, we'll use the rounded rectangle) 105 wide by 185 long. Set the roundness at 40
	3. Go to your Easy Palette/Fill Gallery. I will let you use your own personal touch here; the example is using the Texture Mixture gallery.
	4. Lets darken the sides and bottom slightly. Using the Airbrush tool, set at a transparency of 55 and using black color, LIGHTLY go over the bottom and barely down the sides. We dont' want to darken it too much since putting the glow in makes it more 3D
	5. Using your eyedropper tool, select the LIGHTEST shade in your fill. Then go to your path too, make an eclipse, 96 w x16 l, 2D. Put this shape close to the top of your rectangle, but not all the way.
	6. Convert from path to image. Using the burn tool at level 75 and shape 10, burn the bottom edge of the eclipse, rounding to the sides (see example). Switching to Dodge tool, set at level 55 and shape 10,. highlight the back edge of the eclipse. Then use the blur tool to smooth out the shading.
	7. OPTIONAL: if you feel the candle needs more of an edge at the bottom of the eclipse (to make it appear to have burned down some) using the Outline tool, eclipse, 2D, border 2, 96 w x 16 l, make an oval to go over the top of your previous eclipse. Fill with your fill from the candle base. Right click the oval outline, convert to object, then using the erase tool (shape 15) carefully erase from the sides to the entire top. We only want to leave the illusion of wax that is sticking up from burning the candle.
	9. Zoom in at the top of your candle to 300; move your oval (and outline if you used one) down so that part of the back of the candle base is showing. Again using the erase tool, erase some of the top of the back, but not all of it. You dont have to be perfect on this, as candles do not burn perfectly even. While zoomed in, use your burn tool to make a small DARKER oval in the middle of the larger oval. This is where the wick will go and is usually a bit darker there.
	10. Lets get glowing!!! Select your base and go to Effects/Illumination/Lights. Move the selector on your preview screen to the position marked with the white X on my example. Use the settings shown. Then click ok. If you feel the lighting is too dark, or want a bit more glow, change the light color to a lighter yellow. Awesome, huh???
	11. Lets make a wick to burn. Using the Line and Spline tool, set at border 3, Hex#7a7a7a, draw a straight line (hold down on the shift key while drawing; makes a perfectly straight line!) Right click the wick, convert to object. Using the eraser tool, transparency set at 90, erase little by little at the very bottom until it looks like its set in the wax. Click out of the eraser tool, click the pick tool, and set your transparency to about 20. Experiment a bit; some do not need that high a transparency.
	12. Now, how about a little fire??? Using the path shape tool, Raindrop, make a 2D shape of 45 wide by 57 length. Change width to 19. If you wish, you can edit the path shape to look less "perfect". Go to your fill, using gradient color, I used Hex#f4f3c7 and Hex# c45e47.
	13. Use your Dodge tool to highlight the top and down the right side. Switch to burn and burn the bottom left. Then using the warp tool, SPARINGLY warp to blend the light top into the darker bottom. Select your flame and wick, right click, align, center horizontally.
	14. While flame only is selected, go to Effects/All/Whirlpool. Click the bottom right panel. Go back into Effects/All/Whirlpool and again select bottom right panel (or you could experiment a bit and see what happens if you chose another option).
	15. When happy with your flame, right click select all objects, merge as a single object. All that's left is to fill the background with black (or a gradient fill, using the eclipse shape button (last one of the selections), using black and white, or any dark color and white)
	You can use other shapes to make glowing candles; here are two examples using square and oval. Also, try using the Artists Texure, Magic texture, or Natural texture for your fill. The possibilities are endless!!!
	These BEAUTIFUL examples (left) are by my "sis" in Chile, Paula (Bladecroft) who can take ANYTHING I do and make it better!!!! In her example, the oval at the top is smaller and at the very top of the shape. She darkened around the edge more, moving her light closer to the top. The effect is a million times better!!!! Love ya, sis!!!!

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