Chibi Sakura asked me to do a "Quick-coloring" guide.
After your done with the pencil art, i sugguest doing the outline in ball point, or artist pens (You'll see why later). Make sure ALL the lines connect to each other. That parts important. Then Scan the pic in as a pure black and white file. When u save it, make it a 24 bit color file.
Now open the File in Photoshop.
Use the 'magic wand' tool to select the desired areas, Hold the "Shift key" to select more than one area at a time, like all the parts that'll be "skin colored" for example.
I Usually use a soft air brush kinda brush setting, with a soft edge. Use that same setting for the burn tool. Use it to add in the shadows, Use the smudge tool on cloth and hair to give it a sharper shadow. Also Use the "Dodge tool" for highlights
-My Usual settings-
Keep the Burn Tool Opacity to about 20%-30%, switch accordingly
Keep the Dodge Tool Opacity to 20%. 50-100% for hair.
For Smudge, Keep the brush relatively small, and at 70%.
Red Marks on Butt, A soft edged brush, Opacity 20%- 30%, Dodge for those little highlights.
Tips for Faces: Just color the whole thing in a single color, even if the eyes are not closed off. Use Burn and Dodge for Shadows and highlights. Use burn where the eyes are, so it looks like blushing and the natural shadows. Then Go back in and add the white with a small brush.
Tips for Hair and Shiney Clothes; Use high contrast, and bright highlights. For the Highlights just add a line the follows the shape the head would turn, Then use the smudge tool with a thin brush to push and pull the highlight making it look like hair. This Also Works well with leather clothing.
Hope this Helps ^_^
***UPDATE***
When using the Burn tool, you'll notice it has 3 settings. Highlights, Midtones, and Shadows.
- Highlights, it darkens the area while keeping the shadows less saturated. This is great for darker/cooler colored clothing and hair.
- Midtones, it darkens the area while saturating the color of the shadows. This is good for brightly colored clothing. *
*Also a trick i have for doing the skin is coloring the entire area peach, using the midtone burn, and then adjusting the saturation and lightness manually. It makes things faster and it gives the skin a consistant look. You can also use the Highlight burn for those extra dark shadows on the skin.
- Shadows, i never use this one, It darkens things way to quickly and you have less control over it.
When using the Dodge tool, you'll notice it has 3 settings. Highlights, Midtones, and Shadows.
- Highlights, Lightens the area and the highlights bring out a more saturated version of whatever color your using it on. This is great for making super shiney textures like leather, metal, or latex. It also looks good for certain hair colors.
- Midtones, Lightens the area and keeps the color the same. Great for duller surfaces like skin, cloth shirts/other clothing, and most normal hair (blonde, brown, grey, etc)
- Shadows, the only time i use this is if
Midtone fails to give me the desired results. For certain colors ( Cyan, Red, Neon Green and Yellow) the
Midtone will no really add a sufficiant highlight. This is when its time to use the
Shadow Dodge (sounds bad ass
)
As Requested: Coloring Guide ^_^
