So Ive had a few people ask about the way I colour and the like, so I thought id do a simple step by step guide to how I do a picture. Im not sure myself how this picture is going to turn out (it was going to be for this months contest, but i kinda forgot that feb only had 28 days
).
Ill try and update this a bit every night.
ok so heres
CyberMonkeytrons' Tutorial to colouring and doing some other stuff
Ok lets just start with a disclaimer. This the the way
I do things. If you search the internet for a "this is how you colour in photoshop" tutorial- your going to get a million different views on how to do things. This is my way- not the only way. But hopefully some of the techniques and shortcuts I use may help some of you out.
Im gonna start slow but start to use bigger words a bit later.
Scanning
Ok to start off with your gonna have to get your picture into the computer. There are a few ways, take a photo of it with a digital camera, folding it up and ramming it into the disc drive, or scanning it in using a.......scanner...umm yeah..
If your scanning line art (like I am) set your scanner to produce a greyscale image from anything between 300 and 600 dpi. Sure you can go higher- feel free if your computer can run it, but as a rule of thumb 300-600 will suit most of your needs.
(
note- before you scan, make sure you rub out your pencils, it will save you LOTS of time later having to clean it in photoshop)
Getting Ready to colour
Right. Scanned in? Good. Open it in Photoshop- havent got Photoshop? Turn back now. Im not talking to you. Depending on how well your scanner works you should end up with something like this :
Its a bit...well.... dark.
If you go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast and slide the bars around- you can fix that though.
Much better.
Now to set up the work so you can start colouring.
RGB? CYMK?
Before you do anything you are going to have to decide what colour system you are going to use. There are two main ones RBG, or CYMK- now they may look the same (both have red, both have green etc), but they represent two completely different ways of displaying colour, so depending on what you plan to have as your end result, it will affect what colour system you should use (in order to get the best result)
If you plan to just have you picture on you computer, or the internet etc, your going to wanna use RBG (Red, Blue Green). RGB is called an 'additive colour system'. Im not going to explain it but you can read about it
here
If you plan to print whatever you have done- its best to choose CYMK (Cyan, Yellow, Magneta and Black....yes K stands for black). CYMK is a 'subtractive colour system. Once again im not going to go into it but if you want to punish yourself here you
go.
You
can convert them later on- but you can run the risk of cetain colours not coming out as well as you had hoped.
As im just going to be working on the computer- i want to use RGB
Image>Mode>RGB
Seperating the lines
There are a few ways to do this- some faster and easier to do than others, but those ways can often have limitations on what you can do to the piece later on. So I use a Channel selection.
If you look next to the layers tab there should be a tab called Channels. Click on it to open and you should see 4 'options'.
Hold ctrl and click anyone of the R, G or B boxes (B is my favourite)
The lines on you work should now have the 'marching ants' around them.
Now what you have done is just selected everything but your black lines.
Click back on the layers tab and create a new layer (the little folded page icon next to the rubbish bin- or Shift+Ctrl+N).
Name your layers
Double click on the words next to the little thumbnail picture on the new layer (if you didn't Shift+Ctrl+N) and name it 'lines'. Its important to make sure that you keep a handle on your layers my naming them when you create a new one. It helps keeps a tidy working space- plus some other reasons ill go into probably later on.
Now you should still have the white areas selected- hold down Shift+Ctrl+I or Select>Inverse (try and learn the quick keys as soon as you can- it will save you lots of time later on).
Now instead of the white being selected- your lines are- sweet.
While on your new layer called 'lines'-click the paintbucket tool (or press 'G') and click somewhere on the canvas. Now you have filled the selected area with a colour (hopefully a black type colour).
now our lines are on a seperate layer. as long as we make our new layers under 'lines' then we can happily colour away- safe in the knowledge that our lines are safe.
The last thing im going to do is create a new layer- call it 'background'- choose a random colour and use the paint bucket ti fill in the area.
When ever you colour, its never a good idea to work with a white background- its better to put something in there.
NEXT TIME
I'm gonna start blocking in this sucker with selection tools, paint bucket and layers- lots of layers.