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View Full Version : Studio Iscelian Tutorial: Coloring in Photoshop



Loklorien s'Ilancy
Sep 22nd, 2005, 11:43:36 AM
This is just a very basic tutorial I decided to throw together. I don't have any screencaps of the drop-down menus for some of the actions (keyboard issues), so I'll just describe them in as simple a way as I can.


- - -

First we'll start off wih the inked drawing:

http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/tutorials/tut1.jpg


From there you can choose whatever colors that strike your fancy. I use seperate layers for skin, hair, clothes, and whatever other trinkets are drawn on to the subject. Use the magic wand tool to select the areas you wish to color; to make multiple selections you can hold down the shift key. After making your selections, go up to the 'select' button on you menu, and hit modify>expand. 1 pixel should be enough, though 2 never hurts either:

http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/tutorials/tut2.jpg


Now that we have the basic color matte done, it's time to add shading. Using the burn tool, begin to shade the drawing. You can use the burn tool directly on the layers you've colored:

http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/tutorials/tut3.jpg


Now it's time for highlights. You want the dodge tool for this. Like burn, you can work directly on the original colored layer:

http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/tutorials/tut4.jpg


Normally after I've gotten the shading and highlights done, I go over the drawing once again with both the dodge and burn tools, making some areas darker and some lighter:

http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/tutorials/tut5.jpg


The wings were a bit tricky, but it's all about layer order with this step. I drew in the wings on a seperate layer, once again using the dodge and burn tools to give them folds. At this point, my layers looked like this:

Wings
White bckgrnd for wings
Hair
Misc
Skin
Bckgrnd

The 'white bckgrnd for wings' was a simple layer where I made a selection of the wings, then filled in the selection with white. Experimenting with layer masking will yield transparent effects, and the longer you fiddle with it the more you'll be able to get things to look the way you want them to:

http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/tutorials/tut6.jpg


And now, the Reaver. Adding to the canvas size gave me enough room to make the Reaver however big I wanted it.

http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/tutorials/tut7.jpg


On a new layer, I began drawing in the ethereal/otherworld weapon. After getting it the closest to my liking, I added both an inner glow and an outer glow. Finally, I used the smudge tool to make it a bit more 'edgy':

http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/tutorials/tut8.jpg


And finally, I fudged around with the wings some more, adding color overlays to both the wings layer and the white wings layer. On both, I changed their normal setting to use different masks:

http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/tutorials/tut9.jpg


So there you have it - a superquick tutorial on a quick color job. If anyone else wants to take a crack at the Cat Reaver, here's a link to a larger version of the inked original:

http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/tutorials/tut0.jpg


Happy coloring :)

Dasquian Belargic
Sep 22nd, 2005, 04:29:23 PM
Nicely done, and a useful tutorial (didn't even know there were burn/dodge tools). Raziel-cat is nifty.

Eldorack
Sep 22nd, 2005, 04:58:10 PM
That looks very bad...

Lilaena De'Ville
Sep 22nd, 2005, 05:22:34 PM
Woo hoo! Love the tutorial, s'Il! Using the burn and dodge tools make things SO EASY!

*tosses in a few more exclaimation marks for the hell of it*

My attempt (sans wings which were deemed too hard):
<img src=/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=735956>

Eldorack
Sep 22nd, 2005, 05:48:31 PM
I realy like the gradiant background. That looks cool.

Loklorien s'Ilancy
Sep 22nd, 2005, 06:44:48 PM
Danke schon, glad ya'll like it :) And I agree with Eldorack, the gradient makes it look great. I notice too that you gave the eye a glow, Holly - awesome attention to detail.

I want to do a continuation of this for making backgrounds, so I might start working on that tonight.

And thank Jenny for the subject - her comment in the art thread made me want to draw a kitty Raz :D So Jenny is the inspiration for this tutorial :)

Lilaena De'Ville
Sep 22nd, 2005, 07:49:18 PM
Thanks - I wanted to give it a sense of light coming in from somewhere and the gradient was the best way to do it. I don't think i aligned it properly with where my shadows/light actually were but...

I colored something else too:

<img src=/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=735975>

Loklorien s'Ilancy
Sep 22nd, 2005, 09:19:37 PM
soooo... yeah. My host is being stupid right now :(

Khendon Sevon
Oct 4th, 2005, 08:25:55 PM
my own quick addition ;)

yay for fun lineart!

Taja Loraan
Oct 10th, 2005, 02:14:27 AM
... I do all my shading using the polygonal lasso or brush tools, with each colour on its own separate layer.

x_X;;

Number 62
Oct 11th, 2005, 01:15:30 AM
This is kind of interesting, I never thought about using the burn or dodge tool, but I don't ever really think about using them. I always did it the long way, or almost a digital painting method. Brush, smudge, new layer, brush, smudge, new layer...takes forever but the amount of detail you can brush into it is almost worth it.

Anyways nice tut. I might try this later. :)