Colouring Line Art - Crits & Advice

[Claw Soup]

Hi Guys,

Just looking for a critique of my work and a bit of help really. Below are images of a sketch of mine and the addition of colour using photoshop. Pretty amateur attempt, I know - I was hoping that you guys might be able to give me advice on how to colour line art effectively, and maybe point me in the direction of some examples of other artists that do this type of thing... if any! I'm not even sure if combining these mediums is a norm for you guys or something you avoid altogether... I'm pretty new at this.

Thanks, all the best.

[Bette]

Hi

I would recommend reading through this site: http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm its brief but i think its something that could help you start thinking about coloring and rendering. Aside from the technical approach to colour digitally, you will also need to learn about how to colour, in general. Study fundamentals and all that jazz.

I started out working with digital this way, so i have a few pointers you migth find usefull.

-clean up your lineart. Having a paper texture on your drawing can create a really nice effect, but if you wait with adding the texture till you are done colouring you dont have to worry about the texture's effect on colour or your render. Basically it gives you more control.

-Shade using colours! not dodge or burn. Colour changes hue, chroma and value as the form turns. Dont use a darker purple to shade purple, depending on the light conditions of your character, the shade might be cooler or warmer purple.

-This one is more technical but stay with me. After cleaning up your line art, you can separate the black lines from the white background with a trick i learned a few years back. ( This can be really neat if you want to colour your line art)
On the layer where you have your lineart, select layer and copy, enter quick mask mode. paste your copy ( the lines should turn red at this) and exit the quick mask mode. you now have a selection on your screen, when i do this i always have the background selected, so inverse the selection for it to be the lineart. Create a new layer. Paint bucket into the selection on your new layer, and voila! nice line art on separate layer. (This method works better than just simply selecting the white background since the wand tool often creates pixilated and jagged lines. This way, the lineart will stay nice and smooth)

-Fast way to colour your lineart: in your layer with your lineart with no background, chose the "lock transparent pixels lock. (the locks are seen at the top of your layers menu, underneath the blending mode option) this way you colour only in existing pixels, again without losing the smoothness of your lineart.

hoped this was of help, remember to check out that link and good luck=)

[Grunler]

Bette's got some good advice. Another trick I learned with this process was to duplicate the image into several layers, colorize each of those layers, then "paint" by erasing portions of a particular layer. One of the benefits to this method is that you retain the texture of your original drawing, and it lets you avoid painting obviously digital highlights over graphite shading. Here's an example using two layers adjusted by the Image->Adjustments->Gradient Map tool. I'm sure you can figure out where I used the eraser.

That's an ugly palette, but you get the idea. I'm also a big fan of channel mixer, selective color, and levels (all found under "adjustments"), though you need to have a range of colors before the first two are of any use. If you want to shift the color of multiple layers at a time without making a permanent change, try Layer->New Adjustment Layer.

Another thing to consider is creating different physical layers to scan in and convert to Photoshop layers. For instance, if you wanted a the figure to be immersed in water, you might create a separate ink wash to scan in. If you stick with it, you'll find it can get all kinds of complicated.

[Claw Soup]

Awesome, thanks for the advice guys. I'll give each of these things a go and post the results here when they're done. A lot to get on with!

[si3g]

I also think if you added some more shadows and highlights, really defining where the light is coming from, it would look a lot better but great work, keep it up.

[Claw Soup]

And another thing - regarding the line art itself, is there any advice any of you guys could give me about getting that up to scratch? Maybe parts you can see that are a little off, or things you may have drawn/approached differently? I guess like everyone else here I'm just looking to improve on as many levels as possible.

@Bette: The link you posted has been really useful - nice one.

Thanks again to all for the advice so far, some rehashed images (per your instructions) to follow...

[Bette]

hi Claw

If you want to improve on as many levels as possible, the best thing you really can do is study the fundamentals. Your lineart is restricted by your knowledge of form and anatomy.The more you know the better you can shade and use line-weigth to indicate form.

If you are specifically interested in learning more about lineart, start googling and look around at all that great lineart art out there. Study the pictures and try to mimic them.