VOID
Art => VOID University => Resources & Tutorials => Topic started by: Angie on Feb 21, 2008, 04:31 PM
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Coloring In Photoshop
Table of Contents
-Cel Shading
-Soft/Painterly Shading
-Tips and Tricks
-Hair-http://entervoid.com/board/index.php?topic=9939.msg156910#msg156910 (http://entervoid.com/board/index.php?topic=9939.msg156910#msg156910)
-Rain-http://entervoid.com/board/index.php?topic=9939.msg159322#msg159322 (http://entervoid.com/board/index.php?topic=9939.msg159322#msg159322)
-Basic Color Choices for Cel Shading- http://entervoid.com/board/index.php?topic=9939.msg159873#msg159873 (http://entervoid.com/board/index.php?topic=9939.msg159873#msg159873)
-Removing White Backgrounds/Coloring Lines http://entervoid.com/board/index.php?topic=9939.msg161862#msg161862
-Quick and Easy Texturing http://entervoid.com/board/index.php?topic=9939.msg162743#msg162743
-Skies http://entervoid.com/board/index.php?topic=9939.msg169030#msg169030
-Doing Flats the Painless Way http://entervoid.com/board/index.php?topic=9939.msg169309#msg169309
-Cuts, the American Comic Coloring Style http://entervoid.com/board/index.php?topic=9939.msg182778#msg182778
-Angie's Big Overall Guide on How to Make You a Better Colorist http://entervoid.com/board/index.php?topic=9939.msg195330#msg195330
-Tips For Coloring Professionally http://entervoid.com/board/index.php?topic=9939.msg204844#msg204844
I'm going to cover 2 different ways to color as well as some quick tips that I use to make life easier. Don't have a tablet? That's okay, I will be covering ways to color with or without a tablet. This tutorial requires a basic understanding of Photoshop and knowledge of how layers work. If you do not understand layers, please read my Introduction to Photoshop tutorial.
First we need some lineart.
http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/3695/deelineartky5.jpg
this image was drawn by http://entervoid.com/member/3814 and is being used with his permission. Typically you want to be working at an even higher resolution but for this tutorial, it's okay. There are some stray pencil lines, but that's okay, if you read the cleaning up tutorial you know what to do with those.
CEL SHADING
(http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/3369/13565481qc1.jpg)
First we need to make a bunch of layers. Make sure that your lineart is the very top layer and is set on Multiply. It really helps to name your layers so you can keep track of things. Now, if you have a tablet, get to filling in each object. It really helps to zoom in to 200% so you know that you are staying in the lines. If you're using a tablet, it really helps to fill in the background with a solid color so you can make sure you're doing everything okay. If you do not have a tablet, use the polygonal lasso tool that I have highlighted to the left, and proceed to fill in your selection with the paint bucket tool. I actually prefer this method over using just a tablet since I spent about 7 years of my life coloring with a mouse, so to me it's much easier. Get each layer filled in? Awesome, let's move forward.
(http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/495/89389524rt3.jpg)
First things first, lock the transparency of the layer you're going to be working on. This prevents you from going outside the lines and will make it much easier to get smoother shading. Next, if you are using a tablet, simply choose a hard edged round brush and go at it. If you are not using a tablet
(http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/2176/64958430sx9.jpg)
simply use the polygonal lasso tool to select where you want to be shaded. It takes practice but is well worth the results. You can get much better results by using the pen tool but the pen tool pretty much needs its own tutorial and I'm not very good at it so polygonal lasso tool+paint bucket it is. Do this on each layer, remembering to lock the transparency and you should end up with something like
(http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/4343/55129863da6.jpg)
Some things to remember on shading, for the darker shade, it should be less saturated so the whole thing doesn't end up looking all blown out and crazy colorful.
Now create a new layer on top of the lineart layer and with a solid round brush, add in some eye shine. If you would like to give your coloring a little extra shine, create another layer right below the lineart layer and set it on Screen or Hard Light, whatever looks best to you. And go along where there's shading with a light color and a soft brush to create some secondary/reflective light.
You should have something like this
(http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5331/30665130rh9.jpg)
Remember this isn't really how light works but it looks nice.
PAINTERLY STYLE
If you would like to do a more painterly style instead, this time start with the colors you want to be the darkest and if you're using a tablet, get out the Airbrush Pen Opacity Flow brush. It's a brush that Photoshop has by default and only works if you have a tablet. If you don't have a tablet, you can get a similiar effect by choosing a hard edge brush and lowering the opacity. There unfortunately is no easy way to do it without a tablet, you're just going to have to bear it by using the mouse.
(http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/10/73714253hz7.jpg)
Work in reverse and gradually add more light. You can do this the same way you did the cel shading by adding dark to light, but this is how I personally do it. It's really up to what you're more comfortable with. You should end up with something like
(http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/7382/86787800nc0.jpg)
It's pretty much the same thing, for little details like making a fur texture, just make your brush smaller. I typically use this method of coloring for all my backgrounds.
TIPS AND TRICKS
-If you would like to add a texture to your piece, find a high resolution texture on http://deviantart.com or any other site that offers free textures, and paste it into a new layer on top of the colors. Set the layer on Soft Light or Overlight. It helps to make the image black and white (CTRL+SHIFT+U) first.
-NEVER EVER TOUCH PHOTOSHOP FILTERS. Just forget things like blur, lense flare, etc. exist. It is possible to use them successfully but if you're using a tutorial for Photoshop, obviously you're not ready to use them. The best use of Photoshop filters are ones you can't see.
-If you're having a hard time figuring out how to do the color for shading, look at cartoon/anime screencaps and grab colors off of them.
-The [ and ] keys are your friend, they change the size of the brush that you are working with.
-Burn and Dodge aren't the end all be all in coloring. Don't touch them.
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I really like how you're doing these.
That's not quite the way I do my cell-shading, but now that I know what "lock transparency" means, I'll have to try it.
Hey, is that Riley?
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Well there's several ways cel shading can be done. It can be done with the brush or the polygonal lasso tool like you see in the tutorial. If you're familiar with the pen tool, it can also be done that way, but for me it was always the biggest pain in the ass. But if you're not using a tablet, the pen tool for easy curves can be pretty valuable. And yep, that's Dee's character Riley in the tutorial.
And if anyone has any requests for various coloring techniques and styles in Photoshop, please let me know and I'll see if I can make a tutorial for it to add onto this topic. (I do have my limits of course haha there's a few styles I'm still not super familiar with like realistic painting in Photoshop)
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I want to see how you pull off coloring Angie's 'strandy' looking hair in all your battles without pulling your OWN hair out. XD I crave to see the secrets revealed!
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haha in which style? Cel shaded or the more painterly style I went with in the Suit battle?
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Okay here you go Kozi
Hair in Photoshop
Not going to go through and explain layers or anything this time around since everything you need to know should be in the first post.
If you would like some lineart
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/6884/13220128lm7.jpg
a profile of Angie from my battle vs Scarlett, I cut out all the background stuff and drew the back of her head digitally just to make your lives easier. I went with a profile shot since it's a bit easier to do and I can better show how to get the texture of the back of her hair. Feel free to use your own lineart for this, I'm just providing this in the event you don't have something lying around.
Like you did in the first part of the original tutorial, put your lineart on top with a layer below it labeled "hair". Proceed to fill it in with a flat color and lock the transparency on the layer. Got it? Awesome. I'm not providing an image example on this part since this is essentially what you should have been doing in the first tutorial.
(http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4170/87267811ge9.jpg)
Now for this I've done a quick sketch of how Angie's hair works. I actually never do this type of thing when I color hair, but if you're just starting out it helps, just do another quick layer and lay out how the hair should act. For simple hair styles I doubt this would be necessary, but styles like this can be a little more complicated. And if you're using my lineart, there's some color swatches to the right you can just steal for the shading.
(http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/3823/93963445mj9.jpg)
I made this a lot more detailed than I normally do. I did the shading by following my red lines, it's really up to you how detailed or simple you are. It takes practice, but try to always make sure your edges where the shadow begins are thin or pointy.
(http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/4994/23416815rr1.jpg)
If you would like to give your hair a little more texture, take a thin round brush, and quickly make tiny strokes along the hair while still remembering the structure of the hair. I personally only add 2-3 strands, it's really up to you
(http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/1400/18293917wj3.jpg)
Now you don't have to add another shade if you don't like, it's really up to you. I personally only stick to 2 tones, but if you really want to give it more detail, go for it, just do the same thing you did on the first tone.
(http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/1975/66563382qs8.jpg)
We're almost done, simply take the Airbrush Opacity Flow Brush (it's a default Photoshop brush that only works with tablets) and add some shine to the hair. Again, remember the structure of the hair for the best results.
(http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/6091/34055133hj7.jpg)
And we're done! Add any personal touches you like, I always add some secondary lighting (as explained in the original Photoshop tutorial up there) and go around the darkest parts in the shading with a soft brush.
Doing hair in a more painterly style is essentially the same process, you just manually draw in more strands of hair using the Airbrush Opacity Flow Brush.
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Oooh, this is lovely! :D I'm loving the chunkiness to it. :D Great tutorial.
Thank you Angie *grovel grovel*
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Rain in Photoshop
This is probably the easiest way you can do rain short of simply downloading a rain brush off of deviantart (which is what I did for my battle versus Suit). In this tutorial not only will you learn how to rain, you will also be learning how to make your own brushes! This way of doing rain is the same technique I used in my latest battle versus Scarlett.
First we're going to make us a rain drop brush.
First make a new document, create a new layer, and fill it in with black. Then make a white dot on the left of the image. The image can be as large as you like, make it big enough to where it will be able to be easily applied to your image without too much distortion.
(http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/9613/66504718cx3.jpg)
Now we're going to do the forbidden, use a Photoshop filter. Go to Filter, Stylize, Wind and have it set to Wind and coming from the Left. You should get something like this.
(http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3937/84365955hz1.jpg)
Now press CTRL+F to use this filter a few more times, it's really up to you how many times you want to do it, I did it 3 times
(http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/6767/12695748as2.jpg)
Now press CTRL+I to invert the image
(http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/5701/39662023pv9.jpg)
Now press CTRL+T and flip it 90 degrees.
(http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/4901/82532243sy6.jpg)
Now simply hit CTRL+A to select the entire image, and go up to Edit, Define Brush, and name it whatever you like that you'll remember.
The following steps might not work properly with a mouse as they require pen pressure. If you do not have a tablet, simply add the rain in yourself, this step just saves time.
Now open up your Brushes window (if you don't know where this is at, go to Window, Brushes) Select Shape Dynamics from the side menu and change your settings to this.
(http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/5640/19971620mj0.jpg)
Now turn on Smoothing, and then go to the Scattering menu and make sure your settings are like so
(http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/5002/92402118bw8.jpg)
And finally go to the Other Dynamics menu and simply turn Opacity Jitter to 100% with Pen Pressure off. You can save all this by clicking on the little arrow under the X and selecting New Brush.
Now simply create a new layer on the image you want to add rain to and have at it. This technique isn't perfect so you may have to manually erase a little extra rain here and there because it tends to create unnecessary extra drops if you're not careful. It also helps to add a little motion blur and lower the opacity. Experiment and see what works best for you!
(http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/4711/60816058fr7.jpg)
Things like water hitting and dripping off objects can be done by simply drawing lightly in your desired color on the rain layer or a new layer. To get the impression that someone is moving through rain, adding a little motion blur to the rain droplets helps give the illusion that the rain is moving with the character. Here's a very closeup shot of one of Angie's hands from the Scarlett fight that shows how I do little additional droplets on my own.
(http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/1720/94976194qm3.jpg)
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Amazing rain tutorial. There's tons of rain tuts on the interwebs, but not very much that can portray rain efficiently. This one's great if you ask me.
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Basic Color Choices for Cel Shading
Okay, I'm not going to be teaching coloring theory on this particular section, just very very basic rules of thumb for color choices for Photoshop. Now I may eventually do color theory but since for me it was a year long college class, it may be difficult to condense the information. This is not the end all be all and this won't be very effective if you're looking to make something realistic, this is mostly useful for the cel shading style. I'm doing this because I've gotten questions about how to make stuff look a bit less flat color wise. Also keep in mind that you don't have to stick to this, you can do some really awesome things by being more experimental with your palette, but again, I'm just covering some quick basics.
Before we get into the tutorial, here are some important things to keep in mind
-Pick a color scheme, feel for the picture, or certain time of day when you color an image. I have a far easier time making color decisions when I have a specific tone/time of day set in mind.
-Try to avoid having a billion different colors in the image. I generally try to avoid using more than 3 base colors for backgrounds, because once I go past that it becomes more difficult to manage and can easily make the image extremely busy.
-Saturation-How intense the color is. From full blown bright red to gray.
-Hue-the property of light by which the color of an object is classified as red, blue, green, or yellow in reference to the spectrum. (from dictionary.com)
-It's fine to reference other images for colors. In the beginning you may find that you're color sampling a lot of works, but it's best not to depend on it. Once you get a feel for what to do, try to branch out instead of constantly stealing colors from other images.
Good Examples of Basic Comic Coloring:
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/181/example1mg1.jpg
(http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/181/example1mg1.jpg)
For me, the Bone comic covers are a great example for doing basic comic coloring. The backgrounds don't overpower the foregrounds and the colors are pleasant to look at. There isn't any random bright red or green to suddenly pull the viewer's eyes to the background.
Bad Examples of Basic Comic Coloring:
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/7933/example2mu4.jpg
(http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/7933/example2mu4.jpg)
Not only are they insanely saturated and difficult to look at, my eye has no idea where to go on these. Yes, they're Archie and not meant to be masterpieces, but they should have some standards.
(http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/8106/80241521ot6.jpg)
This is our basic color chart we're going to be using for this. Again, this is very basic shading, you'll get the best results from experimenting and really messing with the colors. This is for basic cel shading so we're not too concerned with realism. This is also significantly more saturated than you'll be using in most coloring situations, I just chose this blue as an easy example. Try to start out with a less saturated color.
(http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/9439/59491774pe2.jpg)
1.This is a palette a lot of beginners are guilty of. Hell, I made the mistake for years until someone pointed it out. The colors are 100% saturated. While you can get away with it, it tends to flatten out the image and make your colors difficult to look at as they're so bright.
(http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2664/55434750zy4.jpg)
2.If you're wanting to do a straight up flat lighting situation, this is normally the way to go. As your shading gets darker, you're making the color less saturated. Now it's probably not necessary to go all the way to black or anything, but this way prevents your image from becoming too bright. You have to be very careful to not go totally gray or gray too fast, or it's going to look like you added gray to your coloring, which is a big no no.
(http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/7811/47742707jc6.jpg)
3.Now here we're doing the opposite. This is good for a more intense lighting situation where a bright light is over the character/object. Start with a less saturated color and as the shading gets darker, choose more saturated colors.
(http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2844/10272257hd6.jpg)
4.On this one we're shaking up the colors a bit by starting with our blue and going to purple for darker shades. This is very useful for when we're in a low light situation like in a cave, in a dark room, etc.
Hopefully this is helpful to you guys. Remember to experiment on your own and see what works best!
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awesome angieness! if I may, I'd like to add a link to a tutorial I did on using color masks to color in photoshop.
http://dannyburbol.deviantart.com/art/How2-Shade-with-Masks-72792696 (http://dannyburbol.deviantart.com/art/How2-Shade-with-Masks-72792696)
It's a lot like you're doing in your first post, but I use color layers (so you can instantly change your color scheme).... also, check out the end with the dark blue and light yellow layers for getting the character to really pop.
BTW, thanks for sharing, I wish more people took the time to share techniques like this.
Thanks,
~Danny
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Thanks for the link! Yeah, I've taken a class on Photoshop and I wish I had really paid more attention when we covered masks. I just never felt the need to use them but they can be helpful
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Very helpful tutorials, Angie (and Danny) - thank you
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Removing the White Background from a Black and White Image/Coloring Lines
Every once in a while you'll see images where people color the actual lines of their image. A lot of the time people do this by drawing the art in digitally, but for people like me who have no talent with a tablet, there is a way to do it with scanned art. This tutorial will show you how to accomplish something like this.
(http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/8940/promo2rww7.jpg)
There are surely several ways to do this, but I've found this is the simplest way to do it. It's not perfect and can be a little rough on really thin lines, but it gets the job done. First open up your image. Make sure the layers window is open, and click on the Channels tag.
(http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/4226/18528512ri8.jpg)
Now simply hold down on the CTRL button and click on the RGB Channel. It will select the white around your lineart. Now hit DELETE on your keyboard or CTRL+X to cut it and voila, all the white should be gone.
(http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/3900/19549271kh7.jpg)
And all you have to do now is hit CTRL+U and adjust the lightness/hue/saturation of the lineart for the desired color.
(http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/3640/51268142vq8.jpg)
And there you go, colored lineart! Just make sure that you have the lineart layer set on NORMAL at all times and simply color the image like you would normally.
Some helpful tips
-It helps to duplicate the layer after deleting the white once and merging them back down into one image (don't flatten the image), this should thicken your lines a little in the event any of them got too thin in the delete process.
-This method isn't 100% perfect, you may need to touch up a small area or two and get rid of any white edges around the lineart.
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I would like to show another way that seems easier to me.
(http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/9118/dinglo8.jpg)
Clicking the load channel as selection button in the channels tab.
delete
then go to the layers tab and press the lock layer button.
(http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/2977/bamuc3.jpg)
Deselect, and then you can color all over the line art and it will only color the line art.
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Oooo I didn't know about that way of doing it, thanks for the tip Dawg
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After nearly killing my computer trying to color at 600 dpi, I found this...
"If you're trying to save memory while coloring, you can do what I've heard many professional colorists do: Scan the art actual size (10x15 or so) at 300dpi. Save that file, then reduce a copy down 50% so the computer will go faster while coloring. When you're finished, enlarge it back up to 300dpi, and paste the original line art back into the K channel. Then when the file is imported into QuarkXPress and reduced down to 67% for the printed size, the resolution will effectively climb to around 450dpi, for super- clean printed results!"--Quoted from http://www.balloontales.com/tips/output/index.html
Now I don't use QuarkXPress... But that first part is a great idea!
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Quick and Easy Texturing
Texturing can add a lot to a piece, and it's fairly easy to do, the nice thing about it is it can make the coloring process significantly faster because textures tend to fill in the gaps and make it to where you don't have to spend 5 hours blending colors or trying to get a crazy painterly look. I personally use it because of this, on average it already takes me 6-8 hours to color a page so getting a shortcut is welcome. This tutorial is mostly going to focus on just simply adding a flat texture to something. I will also go into how to add somewhat believable dents/cracks in objects. Successfully texturing takes practice and I'm still not great at it, one thing a lot of people have told me is to not let the texture overpower the art, which is difficult to do. When you first start adding texture to objects, it's difficult to not go crazy because it can look super awesome when applied, but things can get very muddy if you go too crazy. The best thing to do is experiment and see what works for you, don't take this tutorial as "how to get my stuff to look like Angie's", because I'm not going to show exactly how I do it, this is very similiar but I personally take a few more steps.
Finding a Texture
Well, the ideal thing would be to make your own texture. If you want that old aged paper feel, simply get your own paper and crinkle it up, burn it, spill coffee on it, etc. Or if you're lazy or don't have access to totally awesome things to make textures of, you can find them online. Just make sure that the textures you are using give you permission to use them. I go to various websites if I need something specific, but for this tutorial we'll hit deviantart. Just go to the main page, click on categories, resources, textures, and pick whatever you like. If I'm going to use deviantart, I search by what's popular because it can be a pain to search 80 bajillion pages for something good. The only problem here is you might end up having textures that everyone and their mom also uses because obviously, it's a popular texture. For this tutorial I'm going to be using
http://light-stock.deviantart.com/art/TEXTURE-XLI-90232632
The artist asks that you let them know if you use it so be courteous and follow their wishes. It may look massive and pixelated but this will be ideal if you're adding this to a 300 DPI image. Simply open up a colored image.
(http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/1474/23495204ob5.jpg)
Now I normally color the background after I've put the texture up so as you can see, I haven't exactly put all the time in the world into painting that wall back there.
(http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/1369/56663811um9.jpg)
Now all you have to do is copy your texture, go onto the layer you want, press CTRL+V, and it'll make the texture where you want it to be. Make sure you make the texture black and white by hitting CTRL+SHIFT+U.Set the layer the texture is on on Soft Light or Overlay (whichever you think looks better) and voila. I recommend messing with the opacity of the layer so you can tone down the texture, but that's up to you. Right here I only have the opacity set at about 74% or so. I personally add more than one texture so it's more difficult to tell exactly what textures I use and it tends to look a little less lazy. Now we can stop here because it looks fine as is, or we can add a little more.
Adding Cracks/Scratches Into Surfaces
I like to add a little more to my walls and various surfaces so my backgrounds have more to them. Why not add some cracks into that wall? This is what I do on most of my walls as well as things like Angie's father's shoulderpads right there. All you have to do is take a dark color and draw in the cracks, it needs to be darker than the surface you're drawing on obviously. You'll end up with something like this
(http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/4118/69840311id2.jpg)
Now add a highlight. You can put it on a new layer if you're scared, or do it on the same layer. I personally go with whatever the secondary lighting is to make it stand out more, but if you want something more realistic, simply use a color that's slightly lighter than the surface you're coloring on. We all know my lighting probably isn't realistic, but it works and looks nice so that's what I do. (I know I'm being a terrible example)
(http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/5280/92975327rc5.jpg)
This kind of thing can be used for cracks, dents in armor, etc. And normally looks pretty nice and adds a little more depth to the surfaces. Obviously this crack in the wall wouldn't make sense since they're standing in a hospital and I doubt the hospital is that ghetto, but it's there for example sake.
Tips
-Please NEVER EVER EVER add texture to plain black and white lineart!!!! It can be done, but 90% of the time it looks terrible. Don't do it unless you are just the best thing ever. There's very little I hate more than seeing lineart placed on top of random wrinkled paper texture C. Every time I see something like
(http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/9648/33147202jf8.jpg)
part of me dies inside, kittens cry, babies get thrown off buildings, puppies get hit by cars, etc etc etc. Don't do it, I beg of you! I really don't know why people do it but it just doesn't look good most of the time. (I did acknowledge a few people on this earth can pull it off, so I don't need examples where it was pulled off successfully. It can look good if done right, it just requires more than placing a texture behind your lineart)
-Don't let your texture overpower your work. This is a critique I've gotten in the past so I'm speaking from experience. Never be afraid to lower the opacity of your textures and use multiple textures to keep objects from blending into one another.
-You will almost always want to make your texture black and white. Just hit CTRL+SHIFT+U. Most of the time it's going to make your colors go to hell if you don't do this. There are occasions where you don't need to, but for the most part, it's a good idea to make the texture black and white.
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when I do rain, I steal a space backgound from google images with plenty of stars, the I blur/contrast so its all black and white. Then I select, then erase the black, and then do a motion blur on it and play with that. You can also do a radial blur to get the rain effect I used here.
http://michaelharris.deviantart.com/art/Jodie-Potter-62477810
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Since Fowlie requested this, here's a tutorial for fairly easy pretty skies in Photoshop. Since it's super late this isn't my best tutorial but you should get the general idea I hope. Keep in mind the way I do skies isn't always necessarily the most realistic way, I recommend looking at actual references to do your skies. Also don't be afraid to vary the colors up some more to give them more life. In order to do this tutorial you'll need to have read my first coloring tutorial for the brush I use.
For this tutorial I'm using the the same color template as the Frank battle so we're going with something dark and dreary
(http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/3429/sky1xd7.jpg)
As you can see there I've provided a template right there. As usual I'm working with a texture, you are free to add one if you like but that's entirely up to you.
(http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/7357/sky2wl6.jpg)
First I start gradually adding in a second color
(http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/6550/sky3wg0.jpg)
I then lay out the next color gradually and start adding in where the clouds will be.
(http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/9998/sky4le8.jpg)
And as for the actual clouds and more variety in the colors, I use the forbidden color dodge tool. I discovered this when trying to figure out how Airlight colors. I pretty much just gradually add some highlights to the clouds, draw in some new clouds, and brighten up the lightest part of the sky some. Now on this image I went much further than I normally go since this would probably be just a little distracting in a comic but you get the general idea.
The best advice I can give is obviously try to use references and to practice. You'll notice on my Foo fight the skies gradually got better looking because I just figured out how to do them there so keep at it and experiment to find out what works best for you. Again, this will not give you the most realistic sky but you can pretty easily get some nice results.
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Doing Flats the Painless Way
One thing that has always been a thorn in my side in all my years of coloring, was doing flats. I would spend an enormous amount of time zoomed in way close to fill in the flat colors, and all this time there was a much easier method to doing them. Corny recently passed this trick onto me and I was kicking myself for having never thought of doing flats this way as it cuts time doing flats in half if not more.
First obviously open your image you're going to work with, since I'm in the middle of coloring a BB page at the moment I'm going to use that.
(http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/8898/25563935hf4.jpg)
-For this we're going to use the once forbidden magic wand tool. So go ahead and select that bad boy.
(http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/3396/54016459ha0.jpg)
-While on your lineart layer, select the area you're going to color and you'll get the little dancing ants in the desired area
(http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/989/43171729qz0.jpg)
-Go up to Select, Modify, Expand
(http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/4935/61013895tj1.jpg)
-Choose anywhere from 2-4 pixels, it's up to you and how large your image is. 2 pixels is fine for a 300 dpi image.
(http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/3820/78575515qc9.jpg)
-Now go down to whatever layer you want the color to be on, and using the paint bucket tool just fill it in and voila! Obviously there will still be times where it's not totally perfect and you may have to do some touching up like for the white on Angie's face. But for the most part this has made coloring significantly faster for me and hopefully for you too.
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Yea-yeeaaah.
Best technique ever.
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uh WOW. Thank you.
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Expand!! Ugh, that's genius!
Thanks for the tip!!
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I'm pretty clever for knowing that nifty little trick already, WOO!
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I'm pretty clever for knowing that nifty little trick already, WOO!
I kinda did it already too, haha. Another trick is if something is all the same colour inside the lines, select the space outside and Modify>Select>Inverse
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oh you kids. you're so clever. haha
that's what i end up doing too a lot of times (depending how nice my lines are going in haha). learned it back in the day coloring texture maps, but i always went by 3px.
to make it even easier: save the "Expand x2px" as an action on the action menu. that way you just click the area with the wand, click that action, & fill rather than having to do the pull down & option menus each & every time you fill a new color.
EDIT: or even better: save expand x1px as the action, that way you can click it in increments till you get a result you like depending on the original line art.
I kinda did it already too, haha. Another trick is if something is all the same colour inside the lines, select the space outside and Modify>Select>Inverse
i get what you're saying but that would mean sparse backgrounds without much lines meaning tons of area you can click on to inverse from. and we can't have that!! still though the other method's cleaner as that way it's still a bit easier to tweak & adjust the lines if you wanna give them some color
-J
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I always expand and decrease by 5 pixels.
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Dawg, that kind of talk is not going to get you any dates.
Angie yer doing a great job here
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Holy crap...Thx Angie!! I just used this quick flat way and saved like 30-45 mins (too many little areas)!!!
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Don't have any updates but I do have a question for those of you that have been printed before. What's the deal with CMYK? I noticed when I print at RGB my stuff will come out way dark unless I manually just make it really light before printing. Since I'm looking to eventually be a colorist, this is something that's important for me to know about coloring for printing.
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Something I just went through with getting my own stuff ready for print.
I had all of my stuff in RGB. Went to convert it to CMYK and it looked lighter on the screen, specifically the darks. I darkened them back up to what they were in RGB, then sent the files off to the printer for proofs.
They came back WAY dark... I don't know if my monitor was just set too brightly or what. I lightened them up instead of darkening them this time, then sent them off again. Still too dark! I played with the brightness and the contrast this time, really ramping them up.
Still waiting to see the final results of this.
What I ended up doing was holding the proof next to the monitor and calibrating my monitor based off of what I saw in the print. I ended up adjusting colors with my monitor set to 55% contrast and 0% brightness. I was taking the contrast in the files way up after that.
Books don't emit light, so your files might have to have their contrast and brightness increased radically in order to replicate the kind of feeling you'd get looking at the color you saw on your monitor.
Extreme darks and lights tended to disappear in CMYK.
Holding up the proof right next to the monitor helped show me just how dark I needed to set my monitor. Each printing company has different settings for their presses, so having your proof in hand will really help in knowing what final adjustments to make.
A final note: this was with a digital printing press. I don't know if offset printing has better color accuracy. Having your proof and adjusting from there would still be the way to go, until you get familiar with your printer's press's settings.
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Thanks dude! Yeah, my printer in my apartment has always printed with close to 100% accuracy. But when I take it to Staples or to the campus printers I have to lighten my stuff up a ton. Since I'm doing Pulpo in color I need to make sure it doesn't print out super dark.
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Get something printed at Staples or whatever and adjust your monitor to fit it, you'll be much happier than trying to constantly mess with the RGB/CMYK conversion. I don't know what it is, but I know it's complicated.
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I don't know about that CMYK stuff but I do know you can mess with printer options that can drastically change the quality of the color. This is typically used for photography but I find that it's useful in all printing situations.
Best way to test this out is to cut your picture into strips using selection tool and print it out. Then change the options move the strip over, print on the same paper so you can compare. I'm talking about the option to change your picture from such options as Absolute Colorimetric, Relative Colorimetric and Perceptual which some printers, especially high quality ones have. I don't have the options in front of me but I'll describe them as best I can.
Perceptual implies that the colors will come out as those colors trained by the human eye, or as close to it as possible. Colorimetric will be closer to what you see on the computer. Basically Perceptual is lighter and Colorimetric is darker. Anyways while i was writing this I looked it up and this is probably a better explanation of this stuff:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-space-conversion.htm
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Ok, dudes and dudettes, here's the deal on CMYK.
I work in the print industry, so, I gotta chime in here, i'll try to keep it simple.
(NOTE THIS MOSTLY APPLIES TO LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTING - DIGITAL IS A BIT DIFFERENT)
CMYK VS. RGB
Let's say this is the ENTIRE spectrum of colors:
{---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------}
from infrared to ultra-violet.
The human eye can see this much of that spectrum:
{----------------------------------------------------------------}
It can see a wide range of the ENTIRE spectrum of colors. (Birds can see an even wider range than humans I think, and dogs n cats can see less of the full range, but that's off topic...).
RGB (RED-GREEN-BLUE) as you may know is how a monitor/TV displays colors
It can display this much of that spectrum:
{--------------------------------------------}
it has a really wide color range, but of course cannot display the full range of hues that the eye can see.
Then there's CMYK standing for CYAN-MAGENTA-YELLOW-BLACK (yes the K stands for black because blue already took the B)
CMYK can print this much of that spectrum:
{----------------------------}
Those 4 colors (CMYK) come together in offset/litho printing using halftones/ben day dots to create ALL of the colors you see in print, except for SPOT colors, aka Pantone colors, which are used to get colors outside of CMYKs range, aka GAMUT.
CMYK printing works kind of like painting where you can mix the primary colors to get almost all of the other colors.
So as you can imagine, CMYK has it's limits, say you want a really intense red to print, well the only thing you have on a 4-color press is the pinkish-looking Magenta, and no matter how much of the other three colors you add to Magenta, it's not going to get any more red.
That's where the spot/pantone colors come in.
And that is why many RGB images that print CMYK come out looking like ass, many of the colors a monitor can display are "out of Gamut", or out of range of what the printer can print.
You kinda have to know how a printing press works to understand fully, but the typical print job prints with 4 colors via 4 seperate towers that each hold 1 color of Ink, so if you add spot colors it becomes expensive because you have to throw another tower into the mix.
Rule of thumb is that, like Zach said, extreme darks and lights suffer. And that muted colors come out better and more intense colors suffer.
Dark and light is not as hard to fix, you can usually always go darker or lighter with the 4 colors, but ink will never get more intense (aka chroma) than it is unmixed, and unmixed = only the 4 choices, CMYK.
.
COLORS THAT ARE ESPECIALLY HARD TO MATCH ON PRESS:
INTENSE REDS
GREENS
INTENSE BLUES
ORANGES
SO KNOW YOUR COLORS WILL SUFFER ON PRESS IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF THESE.
always a good idea to find out as much as possible about the printer/press that will re-produce your work, then you'll have a better Idea of your limitations.
I know from reading the DC coloring/lettering book that most pros color their stuff in CMYK mode, so that they know what they will get in the finished product. That's a great book for comics coloring info BTW
Digital printers are kinda different, some of them have extra inks in addition to CMYK, and that's why they can print RGB better.
But in general, these rules still apply, even with extra ink colors, the printer will never be able to match ALL the colors on your monitor.
In photoshop it's tricky if you use filtters cuz many of them only work in RGB, but if you goto the view mode, you can work in RGB while previewing in CMYK.
Many printers will convert your files for you, but then you don't have any control over how it will come out. Proofs are infinitely helpful, but sometimes a digital proof cannot be matched on a 4color litho press.
Hopefully this is helpful to some of you.
Damn, I got kinda complex, well if anyone has any ??? let me know i'll try to explain better.
;D
AND THE LINK WILLY D POSTED http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-space-conversion.htm
GOES EVEN DEEPER ON THIS STUFF AND ALSO HAS PICTURES SO CHECK IT OUT!!
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Wow! Thanks Josh!
I learned something, yay!
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Awesome post, now I know my colors!
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So I've been going color crazy lately. Between coloring a project for someone I've been coloring random lineart on my hard drive to get some practice in and to get more comfortable with this style. I did my latest battle in this style and think I finally have it down enough to share the knowledge.
So today you guys get a new tutorial on a different style!
How to Do Cuts-The American Comic Book Style
For the longest time I've always wanted to know how to color like American comic books. I've found many many tutorials on how to do it in the past, but they were always kind of vague and made no sense at all to me. But after watching a video of an artist coloring in the style I managed to figure out what I couldn't figure out for years. And it turned out being stupidly simple. Hopefully I can help you guys out so you don't have to deal with the years of wondering how the hell the colorists do this.
(http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/6104/part1pf.jpg)
The first piece of BW lineart I could find on my hard drive was this sketch Chamba did of Angie like 1000 years ago so I'm going to go with that. First I lay out all my flats like I would for any other style. It's important that you try to keep your colors kind of dull so they don't make your colors end up like a saturated mess in the long run. Take note of the two colors I have selected to use, the darker tone is the tone you see there, the lighter one is the tone I will be using to lighten up Angie's fur. Once you get your flats down, make sure to lock your layers so you won't go outside of the lines. (as seen in previous tutorials)
(http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/6430/part2.jpg)
These are the tools and settings we will be using. The Lasso Tool and Gradient Tool will be our friends for this.
(http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/603/part3o.jpg)
Now make your selection with the lasso tool where you want the light to be hitting. For those of you without a tablet, the polygonal lasso tool is a viable alternative even though it can be tough to do curves.
(http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/803/part4i.jpg)
Now using the gradient tool, drag the tool down as far as you like to create shading. Do as many times as desired, for this image I dragged the tool down twice.
(http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/226/part5.jpg)
You are free to make new selections and use the gradient tool more to make the coloring a tad more complex.
The one color you will probably have to be the most careful with is reds, as they can get oversaturated very easy as I learned in my first time coloring with them.
And there you have it!
(http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/3095/angiechambacolors.jpg)
There's my results.
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That turned out very cool, Angie - I'll have to experiment with that technique as well
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That's pretty much how I colour my stuff... I just need desperate help with colour choice.
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Angie, it is barely an exaggeration to say I love you for this haha
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haha np dude
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Personally I cant decide whether I like using the hard light transfer mode. I tend to use screen and it seems to work very well, depending the the style your going for, and it seems to keep things from getting over saturated...
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I dunno if this is helpful but here's my "process" or "progress".
(http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x101/shadowrenderer/Halprogress.jpg)
In the middle you see the flat colour sans line art.
-I use pretty much the technique described in "How to color for comics" by GURU-eFX & Antarctic Press. Highly recommended.
-Line art is dropped into a channel.
-All colour goes on the background layer. (This way the document stays smaller & you can press "delete" to fill colours.)
-Once I've finished all the flats I create a "flats" channel (seen in the middle, gray scale). This way I can easily select an entire colour area with the magic wand tool.
Finished pic.
(http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x101/shadowrenderer/Halworld-1.jpg)
It was a small line art pic & only quick colouring. But anyway, hope this helps.
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That's pretty cool shadowrenderer. It looks sorta like how I do but I'm not as pro at it as some of the people here - Thanks for sharing that!
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Not a new tutorial, but I had my senior portfolio review and when I told one of my teachers I was planning on being a comic book colorist for a career, he shared these with me. Hopefully they're easily readable, I had to shrink them down and lower the save quality to get them to a reasonable file size.
Essentially, Wizard magazine asked some pro colorists to all color the same page. Each artist provides their comments on why they did things certain ways and such
Hope this helps some of you!
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/4019/colorscheme01005.jpg
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/6954/colorscheme01002.jpg
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/8274/colorscheme01003.jpg
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/9697/colorscheme01004.jpg
My apologies to anyone on 56k
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Something I just went through with getting my own stuff ready for print.
I had all of my stuff in RGB. Went to convert it to CMYK and it looked lighter on the screen, specifically the darks. I darkened them back up to what they were in RGB, then sent the files off to the printer for proofs.
They came back WAY dark... I don't know if my monitor was just set too brightly or what. I lightened them up instead of darkening them this time, then sent them off again. Still too dark! I played with the brightness and the contrast this time, really ramping them up.
Still waiting to see the final results of this.
What I ended up doing was holding the proof next to the monitor and calibrating my monitor based off of what I saw in the print. I ended up adjusting colors with my monitor set to 55% contrast and 0% brightness. I was taking the contrast in the files way up after that.
Books don't emit light, so your files might have to have their contrast and brightness increased radically in order to replicate the kind of feeling you'd get looking at the color you saw on your monitor.
Extreme darks and lights tended to disappear in CMYK.
Holding up the proof right next to the monitor helped show me just how dark I needed to set my monitor. Each printing company has different settings for their presses, so having your proof in hand will really help in knowing what final adjustments to make.
A final note: this was with a digital printing press. I don't know if offset printing has better color accuracy. Having your proof and adjusting from there would still be the way to go, until you get familiar with your printer's press's settings.
I have an update on this information. Recently, two firms in digital printing, Ka-Blam and comiXpress, have started to make use of some kind of printing algorithm that translates RGB to CMYK with very good accuracy. Going through a digital press, this means that you don't have to adjust your colors or convert them to CMYK.
I'm not sure if offset printers have discovered this yet, but if any of you plan to use these services, you no longer have to worry about extreme color differences if your work was originally done in RGB. Even extreme darks were preserved.
I've used both now, and while Ka-Blam prints slightly darker and comiXpress lighter, they are both very similar.
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I have a question about using screen mode in photoshop. How exactly is it different from using regular strokes with transparency? I know I've read that using it is great for highlights, however it doesn't seem to do anything unless I set my color to white anyway, in which case I still have to take the transparency to 10-30%, which provides pretty much the same result as if I was highlighting with normal mode in the same settings as far as I can tell. What does screen mode do better?
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I don't really use screen unless I'm trying to make a glow or something like I'll toss a screen layer on top of the lineart layer and make a television or a light have a kind of glow to it.
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By the way, Angie, those links are awesome. I really love seeing how different artists interpret the same work, and with the explanations and everything it was really interesting. I liked the effects on the third one the best but overall I was drawn to the second one the most. When I looked at what comics he had to his credit it made sense since he had worked on Ultimate Spider-Man which I collected for quite some time.
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Yeah I love seeing how people do things differently, one thing that's fun is practicing on pro lines and then seeing what you did compared to a pro colorist
I did http://angieness.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2npzv3 and learned later a pro colored it http://greatlp.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d9whiz and it was cool how we went for something different
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Such helpful stuff in this thread. Thank you for that. Your art style is very similar to my ideal, so anything you have to teach I'm eager to learn.
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Well if you ever have questions definitely toss them in here
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So I did a livestream of myself coloring one of Zsa's pages from Arma. I'd done the flats on his part so I had them sitting around so I busted them out and compiled it into a sped up video. I had to make some cuts here and there to get it under 10 minutes. But yeah, I figured it may help some people to see my whole coloring process aside from flats. The video isn't amazing quality as it was from a livestream file
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqaekBfZz6g
This is the final product
(http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/6063/10copypractice.jpg)
Before too long I'll try to do an actual video tutorial when I'm not being shy.
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you can turn that yellow circle off in the options somewhere, it makes things a little less annoying but nice work as usual angie :)
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I was under the impression that the yellow circle was on intentionally, to make the mouse easier to follow for the viewer. I was glad it was on. :)
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On the note of flat colors.
If you're too lazy too make slections and expand them for every item, there's an even lazier way.
EDIT: forget it if you read it XD
It's really too much trouble for what it's worth.
You can still use the bucket on a copied line layer if you make it accept a wider range of colors, if you're really caught up with time...
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Angie's Big Overall Guide on How to Make You a Better Colorist
Introduction
Now that you know all the techniques, it's time to take it a step further. Fancy rendering can only do so much if you haven't put a lot of thought behind what you do. I used to think that fancy rendering was all I would need to be a good colorist and after getting
http://www.amazon.com/DC-Comics-Guide-Coloring-Lettering/dp/0823010309/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284909649&sr=8-1
this book, I realized oh there's a lot of things I never thought about when coloring comics. A lot of this information I learned from this book, I'm just giving the same information from my own point of view so I'm not doing a straight up word for word write up from the book. I'm not going to be covering everything I learned, for that you can buy the book if you really want to know everything. I am just teaching you the stuff I felt was important.
Coloring is just like any other art form, you need to think about what you do. While some people may see being a colorist as someone that just gets paid to essentially color coloring books, it is up to you to decide if you want to be a glorified 5 year old or someone that's serious and cares about what they do.
Now before you go down the path of being a pro colorist, remember that it's a somewhat thankless job. As the colorist you are not the star and are paid less than the penciler. You will often get lineart that's a pain in the ass to color since no one really cares about how the colorist may feel about unnecessary detail lines and open gaps. Even though we're undervalued, keep in mind that you're extremely important in telling the story even though people may not realize it. I chose to color professionally because I love to do it and it's quite a bit less pressure than being a penciler. So if you are okay with making magic behind the velvet curtain then read onward!
Applying Color Theory to Comics
Many of us have taken color theory classes and a lot of us never think to use what we've learned in comics. You can use your knowledge of color theory to help your composition and push things to the foreground by using
(http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/8632/valuee.jpg)
(http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2450/complimentarycolors.jpg)
(http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/2076/intensity.jpg)
I'm not going to go in much depth explaining each of them but essentially
value-using lighting to make a character pop from the background. Whether it be making a character dark vs. a light background or light vs a dark background. It's usually not a good practice to have the character be the same as the background unless you want to make them blend in. This may lead to some occasional unrealistic lighting situations, but in comics clarity is a big thing you want to always have so it's okay to bend the rules some. To be a great colorist it's important to know where it is appropriate to toss realism out the window. You're trying to tell a story, not paint a still life.
complimentary colors-this one is extremely common in comics. In Joe the Barbarian there you can see that that's not really the most realistic lighting situation. By making all the objects in the foreground cool colors and the background colors all very warm, we focus on the foreground. Realistically everything would overall be very warm but the foreground wouldn't pop nearly as well.
intensity/saturation-in classes most of us are taught that the further an object is away from us, the duller it should appear and this is essentially that. In this panel here the characters are extremely vibrant, whereas the background while still somewhat vibrant, is quite a bit duller in comparison to the characters. http://zsabreuser.deviantart.com/gallery/ especially uses this a lot and you all should too as it adds more depth to your colors. A lot of super heroes have extremely vibrant color schemes because it helps them easily pop from backgrounds.
Style
When you look at a comic, which ones do you think have the best colors? What do you think makes a good colorist?
Who do you think has the best coloring technique from these examples?
(http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1891/styleexamples.jpg)
You don't have to tell me your answer, but most people will probably say that #3 is the best due to the fact it's the most realistic and traditionally well done. Since we're a community of artists everyone's answer might be a bit different since we can see past the technical level. The right answer is all of these are great in some way or another and I find them all to be equal.
Each image is colored in a way that suits the lineart. What would #2 look like with #5's colors, what would #4 look like with #3's colors? They probably wouldn't work nearly as well because the colors suit the style of the lineart in each image.
As amateur colorists, we all fall into the trap of trying to color things the same. It wasn't until recently that I learned oh hey, maybe I don't have to color every single comic the same way. Being able to color in different ways not only helps you figure out ways to color any kind of lineart, it also makes you more valuable since companies and clients might want you to color in a ton of different styles.
I mean, look at this badass
(http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/4813/fatheadwilson.jpg)
That looks like a different person colored each one but it was only one guy, http://fatheadwilson.deviantart.com/
Using Color to Show Emotion
When we're starting out, a lot of us don't consider that color can be used to increase the impact of a scene or give a certain feeling to the story.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/angieness9/colortotellastory.jpg)
These are all recent examples of color work I have done. I've chosen stuff I've worked on because it's far easier for me to explain how I used color than to try to bullshit how and why someone else did it. All of these are somewhat similar in intent but I like to think they're all different enough to have their own little category.
1.Color to Show Impact-in this example most of the comic is colored in a very simple and stylistic way which made it easier for me to alter the palette so the panel would have more impact. Something kind of makes her feel emotionally shocked so I wanted to use color to not only express her shock, but to make it feel like time has frozen. So for this I wanted kind of an odd color. I didn't do a straight up blue because it would feel more somber and I didn't go with a warm color for her as it would make the panel feel angry. One thing to consider with this is you don't want to use it too much, or it will lessen the impact. Use color to show impact very sparingly.
2.Color to Establish a Setting-These two panels are from the same page and are right next to each other. Essentially the soldiers are fighting guys in the middle east and as it happens you see scenes of him being honored with medals. Now these soldier scenes are actually part of a flashback as well. In the present the character is a drug addict and has a miserable life. So when he thought about his glory days of being awarded for bravery I wanted the panels to feel kind of somber so I went with grayscale. I left anything that was red in color because these scenes are taking place next to a blood bath so it felt appropriate and reflective of what was going on. I also made sure each scene has a drastically different palette so the viewer knows it is a different scene.
3.Color to Show Emotion-This goes kind of hand in hand with #1, this one I only messed with the color in the background. This is actually taking place during the day with a blue sky. But for this panel I made the background red to reflect on the anger of this guy. To me it just didn't feel right to have a guy holding a gun to someone's head with a peaceful blue sky in the background. The purpose here was just to show the emotion, not to have a significant impact.
4.Color to Establish an Overall Mood-in this last example the whole comic is done in an unrealistic palette. Because the story is very slice of life I wanted kind of a calm feeling. While the whole comic doesn't have pleasant things happening, when I thought of the story everything felt very dream and winter like. Now this will sound like bullshit talk to you but to get quite what I wanted this story to feel like, have you ever gone outside during the winter as it snowed and had to go to a dark parking lot or poorly lit area? Now in this kind of area have you ever looked towards a streetlight and noticed the snow slowly falling down in the light while everything around the light is pure darkness? I'm always taken aback when I watch this during the winter since for me it's very beautiful since it feels as though time is standing still outside of that little light. That's kind of the feeling I wanted with the colors so they're very wintery and cool.
So if you want to give a little more impact to the overall feel of the story, color is a great way to do it.
In Conclusion...
Color is a valuable tool that's important to help tell the story. If any of you go the route to being a pro colorist then hopefully this advice has helped you. For me I never noticed how much talking the color really did until it was pointed out to me, so hopefully I have opened your eyes a little.
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I picked up that book from the library yesterday!
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Wow, that's only making my art mojo hunger even more for me to draw. I've always been passionate about CG coloring more than any other part of my art Which can be a bit problematic I guess haha.
I figured I'd share my results with trying Angie's cuts method. The lines were done by Seel/Dingo. Friend commissioned her to draw this.
(http://imgur.com/LxL0j.jpg)
bigger version---> http://imgur.com/yGN3u.jpg
And I did it over livestream too haha, but I'd have to run to the studio thing and download it and cut some of the fat from it.
But shyeah. Bookmark'd this thread forever,
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Wow, that's only making my art mojo hunger even more for me to draw. I've always been passionate about CG coloring more than any other part of my art Which can be a bit problematic I guess haha.
Your attempt worked out well! The only thing to watch out for is the lack of shading on the face.
And whether or not focusing on coloring mostly really depends on what you want to do. On Void where the intent is to make you a jack of all trades it doesn't work so well, but if you're wanting to do it professionally that's obviously where a chunk of your time should be going.
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Thanks Angie! :D Shading dog faces are the bane of my existence. Though I should just do some studies on my own dog since my personal character's species is the same as hers (German Shepherd).
But yeah I definitely came to void to improve on all fronts. The coloring part, I work on that all the time, on personal art, commissions and anything in between.
Oh, and @Cherubas,
Blending modes are kind of a crutch IMO. It's best to understand shading by doing it naturally (like say you're painting, do all your painting in one color layer) and once you get the hang of that, you can use blending modes (like multiply, screen, hard/soft light, etc) to your advantage.
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If you want to see how I colored the cover for the Harahi and Angie comic, I made a tutorial here.
http://www.hbreckelcolors.com/images/howtocolor.html
It may or may not be used for a magazine that needed some tutorials, if it gets used I'll obviously take down the link.
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http://stuff.veekun.com/pkcolor/
An extremely thorough color theory tutorial, with Pokemon!
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Holy crap that tutorial was helpful and informative. Gonna use that for ref for a while now.
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Another process video to see my tips and tricks in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjhBAkNZPHc
You'll also learn from watching this that the select:expand shortcut for flats sucks hard for lineart that isn't high res since I spend a lot of time fixing my flats throughout the video. Someday I will do an actual little how to video dealie, it just involves me figuring out how/getting software for it.
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I'm wondering something. I'm fairly competent in Photoshop, but I've never done coloring with gradients like this. I noticed that they don't spill over into the whole selection you make over the flats. Is that because you are putting down the gradients in the seperate color layers? Like with the highlights on the skin, that gradient didn't form a huge halo around his head, even though your selection was basically a blob around his head.
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I think she locked the layer transparency before she applied the gradient.
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I think she locked the layer transparency before she applied the gradient.
Derp. just tried it for myself. Of course that's what she did. Works like a charm.
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Yep, if you look closely at the beginning of the video I give each layer it's little name and I go back and forth with locking/unlocking layers.
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I can't wait to give it a try in my comics!
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Hope it helps :D
Another thing to watch for in the video is I have a little master palette file I go from. You can also use Photoshop swatches, it's the same function. But I like to keep a palette for colors I tend to use a lot, Angie has her own little section at the top of mine. Provided ideally you won't be using it to a T so your comics will have variety, but it can be a time saver.
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I saw in the video that you went up did select>modify>expand every time. I dunno if you were just doing this to demonstrate what you were doing in the video, but there's an easy shortcut for the people that don't know.
Use the magic wand tool to make a selection.... of anything, it doesn't really matter.
Now you are going to record the action of expanding by x amount of pixels and map that to a shortcut key. So instead of going through the menu every time, you can simply press a button.
1. Go to Window>Actions to bring up the actions menu.
2. On the bottom on the window you'll see a "begin recording button"
3. Having already selected something with the magic wand, go up to select>modify>expand and expand by however many pixels you'd like.
4. Go back to the window and hit stop recording.
5. It will then ask you what shortcut you'd like it mapped to.
6. From now on, select an area with the wand, then hit your shortcut to expand automatically.
You can also use that to record other actions as well.
I also started using the palette thing like you have, I can't believe I wasn't doing that before haha.
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Red, this combined with Angie's tut has made coloring more productive then ever! Thank you. :)
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I didn't know about that Red, I'll have to try that out! Since all my PS knowledge is self taught I had no idea how to use actions.
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I didn't know about that Red, I'll have to try that out! Since all my PS knowledge is self taught I had no idea how to use actions.
I never used actions in photoshop until I learned about them in Illustrator and wondered if PS had the same feature. I'm so glad it does ;_;
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I knew about it but I just never gave it much try since there were some actions it wouldn't do. Also my Mac uses the F row as a function row so I can only use the +Shift/Command and that can be a bit awkward. I guess I should try and disable those functions but then I could switch windows as quickly. :/
Still a wonderful way to do this. Invaluable.
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Tips for Coloring Professionally
Disclaimer:this is for those just starting out. I do not work for any large companies yet so I'm not going to give you bs and tell you this advice will land you a job at DC. These are tips on how I personally get jobs, all my clients are small publishers or are just individuals so this may be different than landing a gig at a large company.
Tip #1:Your greatest assets are speed and consistency.
There is no room for perfectionists. Small time pro colorists are a dime a dozen and there's a ton of them all over deviantart just waiting to take jobs from you. The way to stand out is by being a speed demon and doing it well. Honestly no one cares if you can churn out painterly masterpieces if it takes you a month to do 2 pages.
That's not to say you should be good at shitting out mediocre coloring. You need to be fast and good at what you do. But if you can churn out a ridiculous amount of pages and make them look good, the word will spread and you will get more jobs. At the moment I can do 60 pages in a month if I'm on tight deadlines and am juggling about 10 different jobs, I got those jobs because I built a reputation of being a speed demon and people like getting things done quickly.
Also keep in mind, when you're starting out you'll be lucky to get $20 a page from most people. If it takes more than 2 hours to color a page you'll be making less than minimum wage so it is a ginormous waste.
Tip #2:Don't be too trusting.
Okay now that sounds harsh, but you need to protect yourself by making sure you don't get screwed. You can do this with the following
Write a contract-by making a contract you have your terms in writing, this will save you headaches in the long run. My contract isn't very well written or lawyer sounding but it gets the job done.
Half up front, half upon completion-If you have never worked with this person before, this is very important. I have several clients I've done several things for and I just have them do payments in installments. But for new clients, since this is the internet you need to cover your ass. You never ever EVER want to wait until the job is completed to receive a payment.
Unless they're Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, etc. say no to back end payments-back end payments are where you don't get paid until the book is completed and has started to make money. Now this can happen in large companies and can be a necessary evil. But if you're super small time, there is no guarantee the book will sell and you may never see a penny for your hard work.
Tip #3:Charge for revisions
And you better tell the client your rates for charging, no one wants to get charged for something they weren't warned about. People will take advantage of you and have you recolor entire pages if you don't charge them. I personally charge by the panel. Never ever let people take advantage of you.
Tip#4:Your client is a human being, treat them as such
I have a few clients I do a ton of work for and am on friendly terms with them. This has lead to more jobs and more opportunities. While I know on a job it can be hard not to see someone as just "your boss" because they're paying you, but if the client likes you and likes your work they're going to want to give you more work. That's not to say be all "hey dude, sup?" or be super casual towards them, you still need to act professionally because this is a job.(so don't tell them you just banged this hot girl with a nice ass in the bathroom at a bar last night) I'm not necessarily BFFs with anyone I work for, but they have my back and have helped me in the past.
On that note, keep communicating with the client during the duration of the job. Phone/email tag isn't very fun and people giving you money don't want to wait to hear from you. Be considerate and responsible.
Tip#5:Be open and be honest if there's a problem, but don't make excuses
This kind of goes hand in hand with #4. If there is a problem with your computer or a death in the family, you need to let your clients know ASAP. 9 times out of 10 your clients will be understanding. But the second you abuse it just because you slacked off, you might get fucked in the event a real emergency arises.
A week ago I was pretty much computerless because first windows update corrupted my videocard drivers, and then the videocard died a horrible death. The first thing I did was pull up my phone and email all my clients on all my current jobs to let them know there would be a delay. They were all understanding and one even gave me an early payment to cover the repairs for which I was extremely grateful for.
Tip #6:Be smart, save and back up your work CONSTANTLY
This is something you should have all learned from participating in Void, but shit happens. Computers don't last forever and things can go wrong. During the computer crisis I mentioned above I was not the least bit concerned because I had all my data backed up on a second hard drive as well as dropbox. A computer crash should NEVER EVER EVERRRRRRRRRRRR be an excuse to not finish something. You can net a portable 1TB hard drive for under $100 and a 500 GB one for even less, NO EXCUSES.
And on that note, if you have computer issues don't ever go to Best Buy. Their solution is always to reinstall Windows, you can do that yourself for free. Hit up local places, you will save time and money this way. I hit up a local 24 hour computer repair service and they fixed my computer and put a superior videocard in for a little over $200.
Tip#7:I don't care if you're good at one style, learn more styles
While you don't have to learn every coloring style under the sun, the more styles you can do, the more valuable you are. While I love to color in one specific style, I have picked up new ones because a client wanted it. Be flexible! It also looks good if you're going to go out of your way and specifically learn a new style for someone.
Tip#8:keep your mouth shut
I'll be the first to admit I complain a lot. It's a filthy habit and it's hard to stop. But dammit, you better not ever complain to a client ever, and don't even think about breathing a word of it on facebook/twitter/whatever. I have never done this but I know someone from my college that went on to work for Dreamworks. He complained about a job on facebook. His bosses found out and he got canned and blacklisted. He now can't find work in the industry because of this reputation.
Tip#9:Only do freebies if it is worth it
It's okay to be selfish, only take on free gigs that either a.you really want to do so you don't care that you're not getting money or b.this free gig will lead to more work. You are not a charity, you do not owe anyone anything, don't let people take advantage of you. Some companies will have you do test pages, that falls under "will lead to more work". I've personally done a few freebies because it got me more jobs. If someone randomly notes you on DA saying they got a really awesome comic they want you to color but don't want to pay, say no. (and be nice about it)
Tip#10:Know when to say "no"
No matter how fast you think you are, there is only so much a human being can realistically do. Know your limits because you don't want to let everyone down because you can't meet any deadlines. I recently dug myself into a hole by taking on too much work and took a week off my day job so I could get on top of everything. I can tell you first hand the human body was not designed to color 5 pages a day for a week, it hurts and you don't want to put yourself in that situation. I learned from it so heed my warnings and don't make that mistake! More work will come to you so don't feel as if you have to take on everything.
Tip#11:You are not the star
Sorry to crush any dreams right now, but you aren't. In advertisements, publications, blogs, news, etc. they're most likely going to be going on about the penciler. There's been instances where I haven't been credited or was miscredited in books and such. Them's the breaks for inkers, colorists, and letterers. If you want to be the star that everyone talks about, coloring is not for you. If you're cool with being in the background and doing awesome things even if it means you might not get credited or have people showering you in praise, coloring is where it's at.
And most importantly...
Tip#12:YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN SUCCESS
Now obviously there are agents that will help you get actual work, but you yourself are the one that will be responsible for your success. Work hard and do what you can to move up in the world. Just because you have some buddies in the industry doesn't mean you have a free pass to working for a big company. No one has any responsibility to make things work for you so you better get your ass in gear. Here in grown up land things aren't handed to you!
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... I never knew this thread was here. I LUVZ YOU ANGIENESS
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haha np, always looking for more ways to help people out
*edit, fixed some errors and added a few more tips
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*claps* everything she said - i fully agree, endorse and have lived.
biggest thing of all - its a job kids- its fun, but you wont sleep some nights, - if you get paid to do this, remember- you COULD be working in retail.
i know, i did my 6 year stint in it.
<3 angie
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angie, you are the definition of BALLER.
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Thanks guys! <3
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I'm about due to make another tutorial, if any of you guys have requests and want to know how I do some things let me know!
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I kind of have some knowledge, but you should post something about 'clipping masks'--although not everyone uses it, but if you're super nit picky, it is a life saver.
Also, actions are incredible--you can easily set them up on your F2-F12 keys, so you never ever have to keep dragging your mouse over to certain tasks over and over again. Here's a tutorial that explains it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRhaXXVnhAQ
Since I see a lot of work here that starts off with flat colors, I bet many of you always use the 'select>expand>2px' thing all the time, or maybe 'flatten>dpi=2' or even 'edit>transform> rotate 90 degree'--with action keys, you can make simple things like that set up to a hotkey. Saves your hands some sanity and time. (just watch the video for better explanation) not in the video: If you want an action set to a hotkey, there's an option called 'function key' when you press the record button.
*note: this tutorial also leads to the 'batch' function, which is also the magical time saver. The Batch function allows you to set the same 'action' to a fat wad of files in a folder.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq7Y-IwiW7g (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq7Y-IwiW7g)
A VIDEO LECTUE ON COLORSCRIPTING.
WHAT"S COLORSCRIPTING YOU ASK? ITS A WAY FOR ANIMATORS AND ILLUSTRATORS TO SET MOODS IN THEIR STORY BY GIVING MOMENTS CERTAIN COLORS OR TINTS THAT PUSHES SAID MOODS> ITS WHAT GIVES ALL YOUR FAVORITE MOVIES AND COMICS BETTER EMOTION!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9liKyUnfNO0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9liKyUnfNO0)
HERE"S ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF COLORSCRIPTING!