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Tutorials Photoshop Coloring Basics Color doesn't simply add more information to a piece, it defines it. The use of color in an illustration can drastically alter its mood, tone, and meaning. Done well, you won't be able to imagine it in black and white. Done poorly, it will distract away from an otherwise excellent drawing. So let's at least make sure that your technique isn't cliche, overworked, sloppy, or just plain ugly. We'll start with a simple black and white ink drawing, full of potential. Then we'll use channels, layers, filters, and texture files to construct a truly stunning image. Tools: - Scanner - Adobe Photoshop - Tablet (not required, but highly recommended) Time Commitment: 4 hours Part I: Scanning Wipe off your scanner bed with glass cleaner. No really, do it. This will minimize the amount of dust you have to edit out later. Pick your scan settings. Always select "greyscale image" for black and white art, even if you think there isn't any grey. For this piece I'm going to scan at 300dpi so I have the option of printing it out later. If you know you'll never want to print your illustration, 150dpi is more than good enough. Preview your drawing first, then scan it into Photoshop. For further reading, see How To Do Everything With Your Scanner by David Huss (McGraw-Hill Osborne Media). Part II: Clean-up Don't worry if your drawing has mistakes or stubborn pencil ghosts, they are easily removed in Photoshop. Select ImageAdjustmentsLevels (ctrl-L) to brighten art and get rid of pencil ghosts. You'll want to move the left slider to just inside the first peak and the right slider to inside the last one. Use the brush tool (B) to paint out any bits of dust and generally clean up your line work. This is also the time to move any wonky bits, such as uneven eyes. Part III: Make a "Lines" Layer Putting your line work on a seperate layer is better than simply using "Multiply" because it allows you to add color and layer effects. To select your lines, go to SelectColor Range Pick up the white from the background. Select "Invert" and click OK. Now all of the non-white elements (i.e. your lines) are selected. Make a new layer (ctrl-shift-N), label it "lines" and fill (G) it with black. Note: I highly suggest that you accurately label all of your layers. By the time we're done, you'll have 20-30 different image layers and it will get pretty confusing if they're all just numbered. Deslect the lines (crtl-D) and make another new layer below the previous one. Label it "BG" and fill it with white. Double click on the "Background" layer to unlock it and then delete it. This is the time to decide how you are planning to use this image- for print, web, or video. For the purposes of this tutorial, we're going to default to print because it's easier to go from print to other formats than the other way around. Right now your image is still in Greyscale mode. Change that by selecting ImageModeCMYK Color. CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow Black) is the standard color scheme for print images. If you know your image will never see the ink of any printer, you can pick RGB Color instead. RGB (Red Green Blue) is the scheme used on all video monitors including televisions and your computer screen. Part IV: Coloring The fun part! Personally, I prefer limited color schemes. Just because you have 16 million colors at your disposal, doesn't mean you should use them all in the same picture. Make a new layer and label it "skin". It's a good idea to start here, because you can be sloppy with most of the edges since other, higher, elements will cover them up. Use the pencil tool to outline the area you want to fill with color, making sure there are no gaps. Fill inside the lines with color. Repeat for all major color areas, making a new layer for each. Don't worry about getting the exact colors you want- you can always change them later since everything is on a seperate layer. Part V: Shading Rendering your image in Photoshop can add depth and life, but it can also make it look like fake airbrush. My advice is to use computer shading sparingly and purposefully. Don't just airbrush because you can. Select the layer you want to work with and make a new layer. Pick "Group with Previous Layer" in the dialog box and label it "shading". You will notice that the "shading" layer is now slightly indented and has an arrow pointing down to the main color layer. Grouping layers means that the "shading" layer is a child of the main color layer. If you hide the color layer, the "shading" layer will be invisible too. In the "shading" layer, you will also only be able to work within the areas that already have color on the main layer. This makes it really easy to color inside the lines. Use the brush to shade away! I recommend making a new grouped layer for each color of shading you use. It will make changing things later on so much easier. Also keep in mind that there are lots of different ways to shade in Photoshop. You can apply color with a soft brush, hard brush, pencil, gradient fill, the list goes on. Experiment to find the effect you like best. Part VI: Texture- Filters I'm going to add a halftone texture to her sweater for a bit of depth. Again, this works great if used sparingly. Please, please do not go nuts with Photoshop filters! Most of them will only make your work look unprofessional and lazy. Lock the layer you want to work and select FilterPixelateColor Halftone. Adjust the color of the new halftone with ImageAdjustmentsHue/Saturation (check "Colorize") until you're happy with it. Play around with different effects, but remember: filters are Photoshop's dirty secrets, so no one else should know for sure that you used them. Part V: Texture- From a File You can add texture effects to your image from all kinds of sources: exotic papers, fabric, photographs of the sidewalk, etc. For this illustration, I'm going to add some water spots to the pants. Open up a texture file, like this watercolor scan I got on the internet, and copy it. Paste it above the layer you want to add texture to and group them together. Adjust the texture's levels to match the brightness of your base color. Scale the texture to fit your area by selecting Edit -> Free Transform (ctrl-T) Convert the texture to greyscale by zapping out all of the saturation using ImageAdjustmentsHue/Saturation Part VI: Line Color Lock your "lines" layer and pick a color. Use a very large pencil to go over the entire image. You can also add layer effects to your lines- mess around with strokes, overlays, and glows to find a unique look. Part VII: Background You can now fill the "BG" layer with any color you'd like, paste in an image, add textures, go nuts! For this illustration, I added a fine paper texture and created all of the icons using custom shapes. Part VIII: Save and Close Saving your image in the correct format is very important. It's definitely a good idea to keep a PSD version of the image as it is right now. This will make changes in the future a snap. Here are some other useful ways to save: Print - If the image is for printing, you want the highest quality possible. First, convert the color scheme to CMYK (if you haven't already been working it) by selecting ImageModeCMYK Color and pick "Don't Merge" from the dialog box. Make any necessary adjustments to colors that are now slightly off the mark. Flatten all of your layers with LayerFlatten Image and save it as a second PSD file by selecting FileSave As (Shft-Ctrl-S). PSD format is lossless, so it's the best option for print. If, however, you will not be printing from Photoshop (say you want to stick the image in Word), saving as a JPEG is better. Select FileSave As and pick JPEG from the Format drop down box. A "JPEG Options" dialog box will pop up after you click Save. Make sure you set the quality to 12 (Maximum). Web - For use on the internet, you can start by making the file a whole lot smaller. Select ImageImage Size and drop the dpi down to 72. Doing this will automatically reduce the pixel size at the top, but take a look at those settings to make sure they are what you want. Generally, web images should not exceed 600x400. When you have your image sized properly, select FileSave As and pick JPEG from the Format drop down box. In the "JPEG Options" dialog box, take the quality down as low as you can stand it (keep an eye on your image as you do this.) I usually go around 7 or 8. There are, of course, other ways to save images for the internet, but this is the quickest. Video - Saving an image for use in video editing, like in After Effects or Premiere, is similar to saving for the web. However, you can keep the file as a PSD, though I would still recommend flattening all the layers. Resize your image by selecting ImageImage Size. Take your dpi down to 150 and make sure your pixel size doesn't exceed your output screen resolution (720x480 for video.) Save it as a PSD for use in other Adobe programs or as a JPEG (maximum quality) for universal video use in programs like Final Cut Pro.