Coloring a Drawing on Photoshop

[Samias]

So in half an hour I put together a bunch of examples of why colouring with burn/dodge gives significantly inferior results, and why shading with pure black is also not a good idea.

[spoiler=Burn/Dodge]

Lack of control over colour value gives the artwork a really dull look. If I made a mistake, it's harder to correct because I'm soiling my colour layer. Also, the burn tool has troubles shading the edges.

[spoiler=Soft Brushes + Adjustments via Layer Properties]

I worked on multiple layers so if I made a mistake, it was easier to correct. Shading fills where I want it to fill. I didn't try particularly hard here but the tones were placed faster AND look more natural, because I preserve the saturation levels to my liking. After putting down a tone, I can go through layer properties and change the blending modes until it looks like how I want.

[spoiler=Shading strictly with black]

Here I am just using the flat shading for convenience. The black is on a multiply layer and the desaturation of the hair and skin gives her a zombie complexion.

[spoiler=Shaded with a colour]

Like above, I shaded the entire thing with a single colour, in this case an orange yellow. It took the same amount of time to do (in fact, the above example was just a complete desaturation of this), but the shading just looks especially better on the hair and face.

[spoiler=This would be impossible to do with burn/dodge and I never used black]

I took the lineart off of this so the colour theory applied can be appreciated better. If you don't think critically about choices made while colouring, people are going to call you out on it.

[Anacybele]

I would've put more contrast in the hair shading for the dodge/burn one. Also, in the brushing one, the hair looks too glassy thanks to the bright highlights.

I like the last image of the girl best though.

[Prax]

I don't know why you're all discussing different techniques so much in this thread when all the original topic creator asked for was to achieve a look similar to Senri Kita work. XD

I'm pretty sure I gave the easiest/simplist way to achieve SOMETHING like it. (flats + shading on top in browns + overlay of texture)

As for different colouring methods, some people just like the way a certain colouring method looks. Can't account for taste, people!

Though my own recommendations would be:

- study lighting and drapery (ambient and reflected lighting too)

- study colour theory in general (contrast, saturation, etc.)

- invest in a tablet (larger sized tablets --at least 6x8 drawing area is recommended! Small ones will give you more hand cramps over time!)

- if you MUST use a mouse, learn to use the pen, lasso, selection, and masking tools to get more precision (I never truly got the hang of masking. ONE DAY THOUGH!)

- learn more about the tools the program provides and how they work (I am guilty of only using/knowing maybe 5% of the tools in any program usually lol)

- do NOT shade airbrush style with black/grey unless you know what you are doing! Very few people can pull this off! (you can get away with celshading with black due to the extreme stylization)

- Oh yeah, get a decent scanner! You can get an all-in-one scanner printer copier for dirt cheap these days! Around $50 or less usually!

I myself usually use harder brushes (I really dislike soft brush edges) and lower opacity to layer the colouring. If I ever use the dodge or burn tools, it's very sparingly. I more rely on layer modes to get extra highlights or shades in. These days, I often also do all my flats + shading on one layer because too lazy to keep switching layers (plus lower risk of colouring on the wrong layer as I switch between them). XD I also hate using Photoshop to colour because it over-corrects my lines or doesn't render the strokes quickly enough (though I love using it for adding text or blending options such as a stroke around things). Paint Tool SAI on the other hand is pretty good with rendering my strokes and having the feel I want from a brush tool. Plus the pen/vector tool in SAI is the easiest of its kind that I've ever laid my hands on! The only unfortunate thing is how limited it is because it can't do any shapes (like a rectangle box! or circle!), no tools for adding even super simple text, .. and for some reason, the "delete" button can't be used to clear/erase the contents of a selection.. .__. Hopefully a new version of the program will include these things.

Edited December 4, 2012 by Prax

[Inactive Account]

I'm pretty sure discussion turned into general coloring techniques because a) nothing ever stays on topic ever and 2) because we're all afflicted with Munroe's curse and the burn/dodge suggestions set it off.

[Teapot]

Here's the way to get work like Kita:

- Take a gallery of artwork done by Senri Kita

- Recolor and splice other parts of different everythings to make your character

- Sell it off as your own shit

</murdered forever>

Edited December 4, 2012 by · j e a l o u s y ·

[Prax]

Here's the way to get work like Kita:

- Take a gallery of artwork done by Senri Kita

- Recolor and splice other parts of different everythings to make your character

- Sell it off as your own shit

</murdered forever>

I think this might actually take a lot more work than just drawing and colouring something yourself. XD

Splicing and successfully recolouring and mending images back together is hard work!

[peener weener]

I would've put more contrast in the hair shading for the dodge/burn one. Also, in the brushing one, the hair looks too glassy thanks to the bright highlights.

I like the last image of the girl best though.

but they still straight-up look better than the smudgy one up top

sup nigs

[Anacybele]

I'm pretty sure discussion turned into general coloring techniques because a) nothing ever stays on topic ever and 2) because we're all afflicted with Munroe's curse and the burn/dodge suggestions set it off.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I never actually SUGGESTED that the person use the tools. I merely said that that was how I did my coloring. I didn't say he should use the same technique. I was trying to imply that he should experiment and find which one works best for him. I apparently didn't do a good job with that though, so I apologize. >_<

[Sundus64]

Does anyone know how to color like the official art characters in Fire EMblem. Like their outline before coloring. For example look at a picture of any character from Fire Emlem RD. How do you guys think they colored them? How did they outline the characters? Black? brown? Haaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyylp!

[Thor Odinson]

Layers and very thin brushes for the outline, presumably very dark grey or black, doesn't look brown to me. Colouring uses one of those brushes that adjusts opacity to pressure rather than thickness. The artist also have a good knowledge of anatomy, colour theory, and how lighting affects different materials. Nothing in art exists in a vacuum.

I'd recommend actually studying what I mentioned above instead of trying to copy the artist's work, if you want to get a similar style to hers. It's okay to reference (not copy) her work, but it'll benefit you a lot more in the long run if you actually get the foundations down.

[Sundus64]

Is there another way of outlining rather than going over it in brush, I mean I remember when I use to have Sai Paint tool there is this curve and line tool and adjust how the size I want and outline my picture.

Does anyone know how to color hair? Like black hair?

[Teapot]

1) It's the Freeform Pen Tool in PS, but I recommend using a brush and hand-inking it. The pen tool takes ridiculously longer than it should.

2) References, mate.

[Thor Odinson]

Elaborating on AK's points:

As far as I've heard the SAI Pen Tool is better than the PS Pen Tool in that it gives you more options and more natural looking lines. PS pen tool I'd only really recommend for outlinling if you don't have a tablet to work with, or if you're really good with it, because in all my years of using PS I've discovered that hand-drawn lines look more natural. You could always use a thicker brush and erase bits of it for line weight variation.

There's a bajillion ways how to colour hair depending on style. Colouring hair in my style is sure to clash with someone else's style (hell my style disregards outlines completely these days, so any style with outlines doesn't work with it) so yeah. Just look at pictures of how black hair works.

[Prax]

Does anyone know how to color like the official art characters in Fire EMblem. Like their outline before coloring. For example look at a picture of any character from Fire Emlem RD. How do you guys think they colored them? How did they outline the characters? Black? brown? Haaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyylp!

I am sure I already told you how they do it roughly.

Please read my post in your thread since it was almost step-by-step.

You can use the pen/curve tools in SAI to do an outline, but it's better if you do it with a TABLET (pen mouse) and brush tool.

It's also better/easier to use a tablet to use the pen tool because changing the line weight (thickness/thinness) is easier that way.

Here is an example of a picture I inked using SAI's pen line/curves tool (I think this was one of my first times playing with the widths and colours). It actually looks like how I might ink in real life with technical pens:

You can colour the outline to be dark grey-brown and put that layer on MULTIPLY to get roughly the same kind of line colours they did for RD.

Colour black hair like you would colour any hair if you want it consistent. Pick a base shade, pick a darker shade to make the ends darker. Make a ring of highlights around the head with a lighter shade. Or use the highlights/multiply layers like I told you.

ALSO: PRACTICE. A LOT. It is almost impossible for you to get it to look right or nice on the first few tries.

Edited December 22, 2012 by Prax

[escroc]

gotta call the firefighters for this right here house-sized burn

and crawl back into your mother's womb too

[Sundus64]

Here is some ideas I got from reading this thread. Finish the whole outline, add basic colors to everything. Then make layers for shading, highlight etc.... I will finish my outline and anyone can show me the next step.

[Sundus64]

I actually learned alot from Prax. I should read his/her guide again.