Snap-hiss Dolls

Gradients

I'm a toolshader, and I use a complex graphics program. You won't be able to follow this tutorial if you're using MSPaint or something similar. Sorry, it's just how I doll. I'm going to assume you know your way around whatever program you're using, because I use the GIMP and I don't know Photoshop/PSP shortcuts and menus etc. I'm also going to hope you can find what I'm talking about if it's under a different name in your program. And finally I'm going to assume you already know how to use your program pretty well; this tutorial won't teach you how to do things like select or use the airbrush or change tool settings.
Here's the doll I'll be starting with (Base by Tir na n'Og). I'm going to give the dress a nice yellow to pink gradient.
Firstly, shade the dress. Shade only with grey, but use shades that are about the same brightness as you want the finished item of clothing to be. Since I'm going to use very light colours, I've shaded it nearly-white (see the shading black/white tutorial, if you're going for the extremes of brightness).
Pick your gradient (or make your own, if you want to). Fill a new layer with this gradient, and delete everything outside the dress. With this dress, we can easily get away with a simple linear gradient, one that just changes along a straight line, but if you're doing a very pouffy dress, it's best to use a circular/radial gradient so that the bottom of the dress, which will be slightly semi-circular, doesn't look odd.
This next bit's pretty easy. Just play around with layer blend modes of the gradient layer (you'll find a drop-down menu somewhere near where you control the layers) until you find something you like. With a bit of luck, you'll find one that looks perfect, and that's it, you're done! However, this doesn't always get you perfect results. I've used Colour, but it doesn't look quite right - it's a bit too light for me.
What I'll do is use 2 gradient layers. Just copy the first one, so you have a new layer. Then play around with THIS layer's blend mode. Sometimes it matters what order the layers are in. As well as just changing the blend mode, try swapping over the gradient layers. I've gone with Saturation, and I've put it behind the Colour gradient layer. Still, something's not right.
I can see that the Saturation layer made it darker, but it's TOO dark now. So I'll simply reduce the transparency of the Saturation layer...and now it's just how I want it!
Finish off your doll if it's still half-dressed, and that's it! Here're a few examples of dolls I've done with this technique.

Note: A lot of the time, just one gradient layer works perfectly fine, and it's as easy as that. Only sometimes will you have to use two layers. I've used three gradient layers for a single piece of clothing only once - that was...well, a bit hectic.