Jeanox
09-13-2005, 11:18 AM
Some of you were suggesting that I make a tutorial about coloring/painting in photoshop. I have already explained to some extent how I navigate in ps7/cs via shortcuts here (http://www.polykarbonbbs.com/showthread.php?t=5854) , if you have not read that.
Every time I color something, I find that I do it slightly different. There is never really one way to do one thing or some magical formula that will solve your problems. You kind of have to just dive in and find out slowly (often painfully so), what works for you.
With that said, here's a walkthrough of a speedpaint I did a couple weeks ago. It was short enough and simple enough that I thought it illustrated my general process quite nicely.
One last thing before I begin: I know the water sucks. I hate it too. And also like to apologise in advance for my long-winded explainations. I talk too much. :S
Oh yeah, and anothe thing. This was done with a MOUSE. My tabby pen got stolen by Delimetrius, so I've gone back to basics.
Step 1: Concept
First Attempt (http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/artwork/sketchbook/lg/cgsketch_49.jpg)
The concept I had for this was inspired by CA.org's DSG awhile back called "Unearthed Dormant Creature." I did a concept for it and submitted, but have ever since been intrigued by it. I liked the colors, idea, and the environment, but felt that the actual picture was lacking something. Perhaps it was static, there was nothing really in the foreground to catch the viewer's eye...it was just all background with no interesting foreground (something I'm notorious for).
So, one day, I decided to give the same concept another shot. The same idea, but presented in such a way that the viewer could further sense the enigmatic and huge nature of the "Unearthed Dormant Creature."
Step 2: Laying down blobs
I am a person who thinks in terms of blobs. My lines suck, especially if I don't have a reference. It's just the way I operate. So, I began by just laying down opaque blobs of black on a white background. I went through several drafts, all done very very quickly, just to get some kind of design going that I liked.
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/1.jpg
Step 3: Defining the blobs
After I got a series of blobs that i liked, I started refining them a little bit and adding some foreground blobs. I didn't know what these blobs were going to be, I just kind of layed them down and then saw something in them.
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/2.jpg
Step 4: Creating a focus/primitive lighting
After generally working the blobs out, I decided to work on some primitive lighting. I knew I wanted the light source to be shining from the mid left, so I focussed my fuzzy shading to the right. I unfocussed my eyes (made them all blurry) so that details wouldnt distract and just painted with a very large soft brush on low opacity and flow. After I was satisfied, I just left it alone.
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/3.jpg
Step 5: Background and layering
Looking at the picture, I noticed there was a kind of bald spot off to the left, so I thought some mountains would look nice. They took very little time. Then, I decided that I needed to start to add depth to my foreground blob in front of the Creature.
To do this, I made my brush smaller with the color totally black. I turned the opacity of the brush to...uh...i dont know, probably about 30% and then drew a bumpyish line of blobs. After doing the first line, keeping the same opacity, I drew a 2nd line. I did this with several blobish lines, each one getting darker and darker because each new line/stroke overlapped the last.
It looked a little choppy in some areas, so I turned the opacity then to about 60% and used the eye dropper tool to smooth out some areas so that it wasn't riddled with hard lines. If you want an example of where I did NOT do this, check out the taller figure to the left. I was going rather quickly and forgot him. :tear:
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/4.jpg
Step 6: BS Texture Overlay
The picture was missing texture, so I went to my library of texture brushes, picked one I liked, and painted at 100% opacity over the entire picture. This looked rather silly/ugly, so, I just adjusted some layer properties like opacity, then scrolled through the blending modes until I found the best looking one.
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/5.jpg
Step 7: Color Overlay
At this point, I deemed my quick little picture sufficient in the realm of black and white. Sure, there were obvious flaws, but this is a quickie, remember. Don't want to sweat the small stuff.
I referenced the color used in my original picture, and on top of ALL the other layers, filled the entire screen leaving nothing viewable but a giant sea of green. Then, I messed with the layer's opacity and changed the blending mode to color (color and hue work nicely)
This approach is kind of different to the tutorials that I have read. They always said to color underneath the lineart, but with painting I found that kind of bothersome, so I prefer to color on top.
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/6.jpg
Step 8: Adding color to the monochrome overlay
Again, referencing some colors used in the original picture, I took a very large, soft brush and set the brush to color dodge, or something like that. Then, I pretended that I was light and just started hitting all the major surfaces that I thought that light would hit coming from the left. I added some hue to the shadows (a dull purple) and just a slight hint of blue for the mountains.
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/7.jpg
Step 9: Foreground Color
Nothing special. Just added some color to the guy praying to the right and the shizzy water nearest the viewer.
If you color over black and white, the layer must have its properties changed. Which setting you want depends entirely on the circumstance. What I did to color the dude to the right was, get a bold red color, scribble over his coat a little, then clicked on the layer blending dropdown. From there, I just scrolled through the options with my arrow keys until I found one that worked. Then, I pressed ctrl + U to scroll through some alternate colors to make sure that was the red I wanted.
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/8.jpg
Step 10: Going crazy with color dodge
I have a basic picture. I have a black and white that doesn't look too aweful, colors on top to make it pop...but there was something else missing. So, I thought about it for about 3.141 seconds and decided to add small spheres of energy above the worshipping masses of blobular people. Why? Because it's cool. :D
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/9.jpg
::::Summing up::::
1. Create black and white picture that could pass on it's own. If you don't have your black and white up to par, you might just end up with a bloody mess. :D
2. Fill a layer with color and change it's properties to whatever looks best.
3. Continue coloring like a madman.
4. When you think it looks good, STOP! Do not touch it again for a couple hours, or however long it takes for your perspective to refresh itself. Overworking pictures is tempting and easy to do.
Every time I color something, I find that I do it slightly different. There is never really one way to do one thing or some magical formula that will solve your problems. You kind of have to just dive in and find out slowly (often painfully so), what works for you.
With that said, here's a walkthrough of a speedpaint I did a couple weeks ago. It was short enough and simple enough that I thought it illustrated my general process quite nicely.
One last thing before I begin: I know the water sucks. I hate it too. And also like to apologise in advance for my long-winded explainations. I talk too much. :S
Oh yeah, and anothe thing. This was done with a MOUSE. My tabby pen got stolen by Delimetrius, so I've gone back to basics.
Step 1: Concept
First Attempt (http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/artwork/sketchbook/lg/cgsketch_49.jpg)
The concept I had for this was inspired by CA.org's DSG awhile back called "Unearthed Dormant Creature." I did a concept for it and submitted, but have ever since been intrigued by it. I liked the colors, idea, and the environment, but felt that the actual picture was lacking something. Perhaps it was static, there was nothing really in the foreground to catch the viewer's eye...it was just all background with no interesting foreground (something I'm notorious for).
So, one day, I decided to give the same concept another shot. The same idea, but presented in such a way that the viewer could further sense the enigmatic and huge nature of the "Unearthed Dormant Creature."
Step 2: Laying down blobs
I am a person who thinks in terms of blobs. My lines suck, especially if I don't have a reference. It's just the way I operate. So, I began by just laying down opaque blobs of black on a white background. I went through several drafts, all done very very quickly, just to get some kind of design going that I liked.
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/1.jpg
Step 3: Defining the blobs
After I got a series of blobs that i liked, I started refining them a little bit and adding some foreground blobs. I didn't know what these blobs were going to be, I just kind of layed them down and then saw something in them.
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/2.jpg
Step 4: Creating a focus/primitive lighting
After generally working the blobs out, I decided to work on some primitive lighting. I knew I wanted the light source to be shining from the mid left, so I focussed my fuzzy shading to the right. I unfocussed my eyes (made them all blurry) so that details wouldnt distract and just painted with a very large soft brush on low opacity and flow. After I was satisfied, I just left it alone.
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/3.jpg
Step 5: Background and layering
Looking at the picture, I noticed there was a kind of bald spot off to the left, so I thought some mountains would look nice. They took very little time. Then, I decided that I needed to start to add depth to my foreground blob in front of the Creature.
To do this, I made my brush smaller with the color totally black. I turned the opacity of the brush to...uh...i dont know, probably about 30% and then drew a bumpyish line of blobs. After doing the first line, keeping the same opacity, I drew a 2nd line. I did this with several blobish lines, each one getting darker and darker because each new line/stroke overlapped the last.
It looked a little choppy in some areas, so I turned the opacity then to about 60% and used the eye dropper tool to smooth out some areas so that it wasn't riddled with hard lines. If you want an example of where I did NOT do this, check out the taller figure to the left. I was going rather quickly and forgot him. :tear:
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/4.jpg
Step 6: BS Texture Overlay
The picture was missing texture, so I went to my library of texture brushes, picked one I liked, and painted at 100% opacity over the entire picture. This looked rather silly/ugly, so, I just adjusted some layer properties like opacity, then scrolled through the blending modes until I found the best looking one.
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/5.jpg
Step 7: Color Overlay
At this point, I deemed my quick little picture sufficient in the realm of black and white. Sure, there were obvious flaws, but this is a quickie, remember. Don't want to sweat the small stuff.
I referenced the color used in my original picture, and on top of ALL the other layers, filled the entire screen leaving nothing viewable but a giant sea of green. Then, I messed with the layer's opacity and changed the blending mode to color (color and hue work nicely)
This approach is kind of different to the tutorials that I have read. They always said to color underneath the lineart, but with painting I found that kind of bothersome, so I prefer to color on top.
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/6.jpg
Step 8: Adding color to the monochrome overlay
Again, referencing some colors used in the original picture, I took a very large, soft brush and set the brush to color dodge, or something like that. Then, I pretended that I was light and just started hitting all the major surfaces that I thought that light would hit coming from the left. I added some hue to the shadows (a dull purple) and just a slight hint of blue for the mountains.
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/7.jpg
Step 9: Foreground Color
Nothing special. Just added some color to the guy praying to the right and the shizzy water nearest the viewer.
If you color over black and white, the layer must have its properties changed. Which setting you want depends entirely on the circumstance. What I did to color the dude to the right was, get a bold red color, scribble over his coat a little, then clicked on the layer blending dropdown. From there, I just scrolled through the options with my arrow keys until I found one that worked. Then, I pressed ctrl + U to scroll through some alternate colors to make sure that was the red I wanted.
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/8.jpg
Step 10: Going crazy with color dodge
I have a basic picture. I have a black and white that doesn't look too aweful, colors on top to make it pop...but there was something else missing. So, I thought about it for about 3.141 seconds and decided to add small spheres of energy above the worshipping masses of blobular people. Why? Because it's cool. :D
http://wiggle.howarddesigns.biz/backup/info/tutorials/walkthrough_01/9.jpg
::::Summing up::::
1. Create black and white picture that could pass on it's own. If you don't have your black and white up to par, you might just end up with a bloody mess. :D
2. Fill a layer with color and change it's properties to whatever looks best.
3. Continue coloring like a madman.
4. When you think it looks good, STOP! Do not touch it again for a couple hours, or however long it takes for your perspective to refresh itself. Overworking pictures is tempting and easy to do.