Digital Coloring in Photoshop CS2 - Part 2

And we're back after that break from our sponsors. Did you buy what they offered? You know I don't get paid if you don't. Then I'll get taken off the air.
Okay, maybe not.

Anyway, now that we have the line art completed, and we have it separated it's time to do the base colors for everything. Once again, for this series of tutorials you will need Photoshop, a stylus/pen setup (or very very good mouse control), and now that we're done with the line art, you just need a lot of time.

Okay, so, depending on your line art, you could have a variety of subjects in your image. Characters, landscapes, vehicles, objects, etc. The main thing to keep in mind is to keep each object separate. Photoshop has some great features, and layers and layer groups are very useful. Each objects (person, vehicle, etc) should be it's own layer group. And within each layer group, each color should be it's own layer.

A note about layers... You do have to pay attention to layer order. Imagine the layers to be layers of plastic. What you paint on one layer is the only thing visible on the layer. The rest of the layer might as well not be there, you will never see it. So keep in mind that if you add test to the image, and you want it visible, you have to place it at or near the top of the layer stack. If you want a background added, you have to place it at or near the bottom of the stack.

Anyway, more on that as we hit the more advanced areas of the tutorial. Right now we're just focused on coloring the basics. To create a layer you hit the button next to the trash can in the Layers Window (Window -> Layers), the one that looks like a page being turned. To create a new group click the icon to the left of that that looks like a folder. To move layers into groups, all you have to do is drag the layer to the group and it will be placed there.

If you have a stylus or good mouse control, you can use the paintbrush tool to do this (It's on your tools palette, 4th row, right column). The paintbrush is an amazingly versatile tool, and can be expanded with various brushes that are available online. There are brushes that add abstract shapes, space scenes, fur, hair, and many many more possibilities. However, those are better suited to your particular image and effects you want to do.

For most of your coloring I recommend a paintbrush around 9 pixels with a 50% hardness. To get to these options you need to select the paintbrush tool, and then go to the tools options at the top of your screen beneath the menu bar. There will be the word Brush: and a shape with a number beneath it. Next to that is a downward arrow. Click the arrow to be taken to the options. Select a round brush, and change the pixels to 9 and the hardness to 50%. This brush size and hardness is a pretty good medium point to start with.

Do not worry about shadows, or highlights, those will be taken care of in the next part.

Also, when you pick your colors, make sure you pick a color that you will be able to shade of lighten easily. You do not want anything too dark or too light (if you need white, select a very very light gray. If you need black, select a very very dark gray.)

Now let's move on to a walk-thru example.

Let's say you have a character you want to color. We'll do the skin first as it is the layer that will be under hair, clothes, etc.

Select the paintbrush tool, and then select a color by using the color palette (the 2 large overlapping squares about 3/4 the way down your tools palette.)

Create a group for the character, and name it 'character' or the name of the character if they have one. Then create a layer, name it skin and place it in the group.

Using the paintbrush tool paint all the areas that are skin. If you have a very very large area that is skin (a leg, arm, or torso with no details like clothing) paint the border and then use the Magic Wand tool to select the area inside the border and use the Edit -> Fill command to fill it with your skin color. However, I do not recommend using the Magic Wand for anything that is detailed is not a large shape. Faces tend to be chopped up, and it will be more accurate to use only the brush tool.

Since we're on the topic of faces, lips and such should be painted on separate layers. They are technically skin, but they are a different color, so make sure you put them on a different layer.

Continue on in this manner, keep your objects and layers in order, and don't forget to name your layers correctly (it will save you a lot of time). Also, make sure you take a break every hour or so at least, if only so your hand doesn't cramp up.

Next time we'll go over specific techniques for hair, fur, and abstract backgrounds before we move on to shading in part 4, special effects in part 5, and tweaking and finalizing the image in part 6.