Color Me Now (a tutorial)
by Jay
Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 6:25 PM
Well a few people have asked me to describe my process for
creating comics using Photoshop. The truth is there are hundreds of
tutorials out there that describe the very thing I am about to write
so really I'm not adding anything that most artists don't already
know. But, the wonderful thing about Photoshop is there are
hundreds of ways to do everything. There is no "right" or "wrong"
way to do a multitude of tasks, although some are better than
others. Over the years I've mixed and matched techniques I’ve
culled from the plethora of tutorials out there and in the process
created my own as well. I’ll briefly touch on each step of
the process here because, quite frankly, each step could be a full
tutorial on its own. I’ll try to give you the ideas on how to do
everything but I won’t “baby” you by telling you an immensely
detailed “move mouse left 30 pixels, right 10 pixels”-style
tutorial. In the end those tutorials don’t help you because you are
an automaton repeating a series of steps as opposed to an
inquisitive artist who will experiment and discover things on your
own. If you want more in depth tutorials then check out some of the
links on my personal site. Plus, if I gave an in depth tutorial
then I will bore those of you (undoubtedly the majority) who don’t
have Photoshop or any intentions of drawing comics. At least this
way I can entertain all of you without going over your collective
heads with artist lingo. I’ll try to enlighten you. So before we
begin click on that little ole box floating above this paragraph and
we’ll go step-by-step on what happens in each of those smaller
boxes.
Step One: References
I’m creating an avatar for Leigh Anne so she can have a nifty
caricature of herself like the rest of us ranters. First things
first, you want to have reference pictures to look at even if you
are not drawing a real person. Unless you have extensively
studied human anatomy and consistently practiced drawing people
always have something to reference. Take this from someone who
used to be too stubborn to use references (“I can draw it on my own,
I don’t need any help”). The difference between not using
references and using them is usually the same difference between
looking professional and amateur. Even if you are drawing a fantasy
character, look at what others have done and have them ready at your
fingertips (er, computer screen)! Anyways, my reference is Leigh
Anne and by forcing myself to stare at that scary face of hers I
actually create a better piece in the end (more on that later).
Step 2: Sketching/Scanning
Sketch the character out on paper and after getting it roughly how
you want scan it into the computer (unless you want to hand-ink it, which
then you skip to the next step). Don’t worry too much. The sketch doesn’t
have to be a perfect picture; you’ll be cleaning it up in the next step
anyways. I, unfortunately, didn’t have a scanner to scan my sketch with so
I had to trace the picture into Photoshop using my
Wacom tablet (and the “brush” tool) in PS. The tablet is totally
optional and really helps with some of the more tedious repetitive tasks
(like hair, grass, etc.). Notice how jagged and wavy the lines are though.
The tablet is way too sensitive, which is why we go to the next step.
Step 3: Inking
These next two steps are still my experimental stages. The purpose
is to get clean lines for coloring purposes. There are many different ways
to do this and I haven’t tried half of them. Maybe if I stuck to one
technique I would perfect it and it would take me less time to ink than
usual (at present I spend over half my total comic creation time inking). As
previously mentioned using the Wacom tablet/mouse to trace the sketch in
Photoshop gives you fuzzy lines that aren’t always straight. If you have
Flash MX there is an easy way to clean the lines in Photoshop by exporting
the b/w line art onto the stage and then choosing Modify -> Bitmap -> Trace
Bitmap, then Modify ->Shape -> Optimize, and then saving it as a jpeg/gif
and opening it back in Photoshop. Regardless, I highly recommend inking the
pictures by hand and then scanning them. I’ve tried multiple ways of
inking, and hand inking, while not exactly the cleanest since it relies on
your ability and steady hand, is the fastest and it gives you the best
results. I “inked” by taking my digital sketch into Illustrator (copy and
pasted it) and then traced it with the pen tool. This way you are
guaranteed to have constant lines that are clean and not wavy. It didn’t
take too long to do and if you have a tablet you can always draw the picture
with the pencil tool (fix the setting so it doesn’t average you drawings
though). But for me this “inking” wasn’t good enough so I went to the next
step which made me reconsider doing this process in Illustrator.
Step 4: Dynamic Inking
This is just my personal preference and not required, but I like
dynamic lines (where the size of the stroke varies, thus adding depth and
motion). Again, to get a consistent line it is best to do this in
Illustrator by adding shapes over each of your lines to change the width of
the stroke. Except this takes forever since you have to match the curves
and mess with a lot of “points”. This literally took me the longest of any
of the other steps combined. In hindsight, it would have been easier to
hand-ink the sketch and then done this during the inking process (although
ink is permanent and I would have had to inked it correct the first time, or
else fix mistakes digitally). Plus then I could have smoothed the line art
in Flash. Nonetheless, I experimented with doing everything in Illustrator
and in the end came out with great line art. I also changed the eyes and
mouth from my original sketch just so it matched the style I’m trying to
develop for the site.
Step 5: Coloring
This is surprisingly easy. I took my line art and made a copy of it
on another layer set on “multiply”. Then I proceeded to color in the spaces
using the paint bucket on layers in between the two line art layers. Use
the magic wand on the line art to select the open spaces and then go to
another layer and fill that space with a solid color. Also make sure you
“expand” the selection (Select -> Modify-> Expand) by 2 or more
pixels otherwise you will get fuzzy gray pixels where the color meets the
line art (look at my early comics for evidence of this).
Step 6: Shading
On a separate layer I took my base color (such as my skin tone) and
then found darker and lighter shades of it. I painted these on using low
opacities (both in the brush and on the layers) so that they blended well.
Admittedly I didn’t do this enough and the contrast isn’t as large as I
would like. Some artists choose to use the “dodge/burn” tool for this (as
I did for my works) but it becomes really obvious when you do this. You
don’t get a smooth transition using this and it’s next to impossible to fix
mistakes without starting over. As for the hair, I just brushed darker and
lighter tones in the areas that required them, then I used the Smudge tool
(10-20% power) to smudge each individual hair strand with a small brush.
Using a tablet really speeds things up here.
Step 7: Highlights and Shadows
Again on separate layers I added shadows and highlights. For the
highlights I changed the layer to “screen”mode and brushed a light yellow
hue at a low opacity. For the shadows I changed the layer to “multiply”
mode (20-30% opacity) and brushed a dark blue (80%black). There is more to
it but it requires me to really get into numbers and strategy and really
it’s more important for you to experiment and discover what works and what
doesn’t.
Step 8: Background and Review
I added a background that I created a few months ago using gradients
and
texture brushes. The background is really up to you, just make sure it
doesn’t distract from the focus of picture (like mine does). At this point
it’s best to review your work and fix anything that doesn’t quite work.
Sometimes it helps to sleep on it and look at the picture with fresh eyes
and it never hurts to get other people to look at the picture and give you
constructive criticism. After working on this picture for so long I had
almost forgotten my original intent and I needed some outside opinions to
help me finish the piece. I had successfully created a wonderful character
but it didn’t look exactly like Leigh Anne, thus I had to fix the line art
and go through steps 4-7 again. This is why you need references people!
Step 9: Final touch-ups
After fixing the lips and nose I flattened the image and messed with
the overall contrast. Finally, the picture is finished and I can go back to
my lackadaisical lifestyle! Oh wait, I now have to create one for Jen
too...
- J,
"Friends are God's ways of apologizing
for our families"
Currently watching: Alien, Aliens,
Alien 3, Predator, Aliens vs. Predator
Currently playing: MegaMan Anniversary Collection, Gunstar Heroes
Currently listening to: The Sean Hannity Show (damn you Paul, again)
Currently reading: Eragon
