CG Tutorial
CG stands for computer graphic. Most people who make small, cute images with the pen tool call them CG's. This tutorial will show you how to create CGs using the pen tool in Paint Shop Pro.
Step 1
Click on the pen tool 
and change your settings to look like this:
You can change the width if you want a thinner or thicker outline around your CG.
Step 2
Change your foreground/stroke color (top) to whatever you want your outline color to be. I chose a dark brown. Change your background (bottom) to whatever you want your fill color to be. I'm drawing a red apple, so my fill color is red.
Step 3
Now you can start drawing the outline of your CG. Start by clicking anywhere on the blank canvas. Let go of the mouse, and click and hold your mouse down in another blank spot. While you're still holding the mouse down, drag out until you get an arrow. Continue doing this to get a smooth outline. Look at the animation to get a better idea of how to use the pen tool.
Continue drawing until you join your last point with your first point. After you've drawn your shape, you can always go back and edit it by clicking on the white arrow next to the pencil under Mode (see first screenshot) and moving the anchor points around. My finished apple base looks like this:
Step 4
Make a new layer by going to Layer > New Vector Layer. On this layer you can add other details. I added a stem, and then made another layer and added a leaf.
Step 5
Now that the basic outline is finished, you can start to shade on a new raster or vector layer. Choose colors that are darker than your fill colors but lighter than your outline, and add shadows using either the pen tool or the brush tool 
. I only use the brush if I'm doing a small CG without any sharp points in the shading. Think of where your light source is coming from when adding shadows. If you're making the light coming from the top, the shadows should be at the bottom.
Step 6
Repeat step 5, but add highlights instead. Use a color that is lighter than your original fill color.
Step 7
Continue adding several more highlights and shadows, and merge the visible layers. When you're done shading, you can save it as a transparent .png or add a border and save it as a .gif. Here's my finished apple saved in .png format:
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