Need help with replicating something

[Waldo]

Here is what I have as a png:

I am wanting to be able to replicate this to make other letters or positions but am having problems because of the way it's different widths in places. I'm sure there is an easy way to do this but it's outside of the way I normally use photoshop so was hoping for some suggestions.

The face, shadow stroke shouldn't be a problem for me but the different widths are getting me..
I use CS4.

Thanks!
Waldo

[thedirtyknapkin]

im a little confused...

are you trying to make a whole new font?

or are you jut trying to replicate the face, or what?

because creating a whole new font would be a huge undertaking

if that really is what you want, the puppet warp tool might work, if you had CS5

[Waldo]

I'm not trying to make a new font, but that's not a bad idea! May help in the long run...

I'm basically trying to get a handle on how to make a fluctuating shape like that while keeping all the edges nice and smooth for when I stroke it. So For example I may want to make a worm curled around a sign (he's "holding" a sign"), or I may make another letter. I just can't figure out a good way to do it.

Thanks, and I don't mind the huge undertaking part as long as I know how to do it.

Thanks!
Waldo

[thedirtyknapkin]

oh!! ok

just make the shape with the pen tool, then right click, then hit stroke path, then choose brush, and it will make a brush stroke with whatever your current brush settings are

[Waldo]

So simple and yet so elusive to me, lol.. Thanks! So what I did to make different parts larger or smaller was use the liquify tool to make the head and tail bigger and the neck area a bit smaller. It left a few rough spots so I used the select/refine edge to make a bit smoother. Is there an easier tool to enlarge/shrink different parts or does that sound about right?

Waldo

[thedirtyknapkin]

the liquify tool is probably your best bet, but if you go to your reconstruct tool, and set it to smooth it will do a great job of smoothing out those rough spots