Coloring a character sketch

[Utum]

Step by Step coloring of sketches in photoshop. This thread is intended at documenting my attempts to color one of my sketches.

Disclaimer: I really do not know what I am doing. I have never used PS before and all my artistic experience comes from a pencil, any pencil, and a piece of paper. Do not blame me if you get crappy results, maybe that is because I do too.

Now to the fun part. I decided recently to put some colors in my drawings. I always wanted to try, but never got to it. Anyways I have visited some tutorials on the net and started trying on an old sketch. Given that I have no scanner with me, (nor at work) I will be working over the same sketch. In this thread I will post the step-by-step I followed to try and put some colors to my pencils. The coloring is done with the mouse, as I cannot afford a grafik tablet, I hope I can get one in the future.

Because I still want to improve, I will keep posting all the step-by-step I follow each time I try to do it again. This would serve as a reminder for me, and as help to anyone trying to color their own sketches.

If someone out there is trying by her/himself to do the same, maybe you can learn from my errors what not to do. If there is someone who really knows how to do things, please fell free to drop a line or two explaining what we are doing wrong, or even do a step by step yourself.

I really hope all you visitors like the thread, and find something interesting here.

So here it goes, the sketch I am using is a Dwarf Guardian from a game of my own that has not been coded yet, nor do I know when will it be.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/dwarfs/Kentor.jpg

The first try is very simple, as I did not know how to use photoshop, I just used the simplest tutorial I found, (I seem to have lost the link).

The first step was to apply a gaussian blur (going to the filters, select gaussian blur) and test with the percentage. The expected effect is to soften the pencils so that they dont show too scratched.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/tutorials/kentorI/ekwip1.jpg

Next step was to add a layer. Change its mode to color and, using some selection tool, mask and color each part of the image. I used the default brush set at 50% oppacity to do it.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/tutorials/kentorI/ekwip2.jpg

The result was very strange, when adding colors to the color layer they do not seem to be the same color I select with the picker. The added colors look very degraded and poor.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/tutorials/kentorI/ekwip3.jpg

I decided to duplicate the color layer, and change its mode to Multiply (any of the shadow modes: Darken, Multiply, Color Burn or Linear Burn would work, depending on the desired result). This layer added some strenght and weight colors.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/tutorials/kentorI/ekwip4.jpg

This is almost the final result. I added 2 more layers, one for the shadows in Multiply mode. In this layer I painted with a normal brush using shades of gray some parts that I thought needed shadows. I also added one layer for the lights, in Screen mode at 50%oppacity. And painted with a yellowish color where I thought the light would be hitting the Dwarf

The final result was.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/KentorI.jpg

I know, it leaves you with this sour taste. But the methodology had no solid foundations. Lets see how I fare next time.

[coolgraphs]

Nice try Utum.
The final out put is looking good. There are some useful tips in your tutorials. Those tips really help to newbies. Thankyou for the tutorials. Hoping to see more on this subject. After seeing your tutorial I got some inspiration to compose some photoshop tutorials. I will do it soon.

[Utum]

Lights and shadows, forgotten in some other dimension. The colors alone leave much to be desired. In the next try I was trying to follow a step by step tutorial done by Steven Ståhlberg for his
url=http://www.androidblues.com/JealousyStepbystep/jealousystep.html


Of course my understanding of the tutorial, and of photoshop itself fell short, and I ended up using a mixed method to try and get some pleasing results. I would come back later to that tutorial, and try to mimic it again, but that is a post for later.

Since I posted the sketch before, I'll skip it this time. One thing I wanted to do was to soften the pencils I got. They are showing too much in the final result, but I did not like the result of the gaussian blur in the last try. This time, I added a layer in Multiply mode, selected the whole canvas and filled with gray tone. This shaded some of the pencils.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/tutorials/kentorII/ekwipb1.jpg

Now, I needed to do some light separation. According to the tutorial, first fill some areas with differen shades of gray to mimic the light in those areas. This is very helpful for managing the problem with lights and shadows I had before. Thus I added another layer in Multiply mode. This time, using the default brush set to 50% oppacity I filled completely black areas, dark gray, gray and light gray to mimic the light effects I expected to achieve. I decided that the hammer would have a dim bluish light, and thus some areas are light gray near it.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/tutorials/kentorII/ekwipb2.jpg

The following was to add highlights. I decided to use a new layer, as I read that this helps not spoiling results completely. If I make a mistake in a layer I can always deactivate it, going back to before I added it, whereas by adding all changes to the same layer, there is a limit to how much undo is possible.

The new layer in screen mode 50 % oppacity had some strokes where I thought light would be falling over the dwarf. You can compare it with the one above, to see the shadows and lights.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/tutorials/kentorII/ekwipb3.jpg

This four layers provided a better shaded sketch. They didn't actually take much time, far less than writting this text.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/tutorials/kentorII/ekwipb4.jpg

Finally it is time to add the colors. I decided to add one layer for each diferent piece of color. For example I used one layer for skin, another for hair, another one for the hammer etc. Having many layers enabled me to select different blending modes for each, depending on the results and by trial and error. In this way I discovered, for example, that using the layer in overlay mode, gave better results for the clothing.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/tutorials/kentorII/ekwipb5.jpg

The last step I did was to add the actual lights on the drawing. As I said the hammer has a dim bluish light, and of course the torch has a light. I used 2 layers, one for each. Both layers were set to Soft Light. The Hammer Light layer was painted with celeste, and the torch light was yellow as before.

Here is the result

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/KentorII.jpg

Still far to go, at least for my expectations. But it looks somehow better than before. I hope you all like it. Let's see how I fare next time. I will be happy to see yours too.

[Utum]

Nice try Utum.
The final out put is looking good. There are some useful tips in your tutorials. Those tips really help to newbies. Thankyou for the tutorials. Hoping to see more on this subject. After seeing your tutorial I got some inspiration to compose some photoshop tutorials. I will do it soon.
Thanks coolgraphs, I am glad to be of help. I hope to see one of yours here soon. To do the tutorial I just used the Print-Screen button on my keyboard to capture the whole screen. In the simple Paint application from windows I pasted (Ctrl-v) and saved as jpeg. Then you have a screen from your work to show everyone.
Cheers

[coolgraphs]

Yes, this one is looking better than previous one with finished background. Good improvement.

[coolgraphs]

Thanks coolgraphs, I am glad to be of help. I hope to see one of yours here soon. To do the tutorial I just used the Print-Screen button on my keyboard to capture the whole screen. In the simple Paint application from windows I pasted (Ctrl-v) and saved as jpeg. Then you have a screen from your work to show everyone.
Cheers

Sure, Iam working on some tutorials about sketching, scanning and coloring. When I finished with Iam going to post here. Normally everyone uses print screen method to capture photshop working platform images. You are doing right thing. carry on creating tutorials. Presenting step-by-step method is really useful. I wish you all the best Utum.:^^:

[Utum]

One of the things I do not like from the two previous versions is the way the lines show. This, I know, is a scanning error. However I am separated more than 10000km from the original so, at the moment, I could not rescan it; not considering that I dont have a scanner.

The next attempt was focused on getting a softer base. I was still looking for tutorials on how to color in photoshop, and run accross http://www.robertocampus.com/n_tutorials_intro.shtml?type=tutorials
In Roberto Campus tutorial, I realized that he started with a shaded bw image, which was then added color.

I decided to do similarly this time. With this goal in mind I duplicated the pencil layer, made the new layer grayscale and started painting on it with the brushes. I attemted to bring out all the volumes in the drawing with the black and white.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/ekwipc1.jpg

Next I rescued all the color layers from the previous try, to see how they would merge with this new drawing. Most of this layers are flat, taking the volume from the underliying BW layer.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/ekwipc2.jpg

The merged layer shows some difficulty I already experienced before. Although the colors merge well, and blend with the underlying BW layer as if adopting its volume, they still look very pale, and without any strength.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/ekwipc3.jpg

I added again, as in the previous version, 2 layers, one completely gray in linear burn mode 100%:

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/ekwipc4.jpg

and another one, which I called "graySeparation" in multiply mode 100%:

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/ekwipc5.jpg

The drawing is now closer to the style I wanted to imprint on it. It still lacks lights and brights. I did things in reverse, now I realize, adding first some highlights, in a new layer screen mode 50%

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/ekwipc6.jpg

Then adding the lights themselves, and some bright reflections of them, efects that I wanted to try.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/ekwipc7.jpg

For the reflection effects of the hammerlight in the edge of the hammer and in the boot I used the following method. In the layer for the hammerlight, which is set to screen with 50%. I made a mask for the reflection effect I wanted to achieve.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/ekwipc8.jpg

Next I used a brush in color mode to paint with a light celeste over the selection. Try doing this in overlay, soft light or screen and see which results suit you better.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/ekwipc9.jpg


The resulting didnt came out much better than the previous one.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/KentorIII.jpg

Although it does not completely fulfill my expectations. Among the things I do not like myself are the way the Tunica looks, it does not look heavy at all. And I still cant quite get the lighting correctly.

In this version, the only color layers that are actually set to Color mode are the skin and tunica layer, the rest are all in overlay, as they looked better to me. I tried setting the tunica in overlay and found that I liked the result much better, it even ended in making me switch off the graySeparation layer as I found it unecessary.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/KentorIIIb.jpg

In an attempt to fix the lighting problems, I added a levels layer, obtaining as result a very darkened version, but which does not look so bad.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/eduveas/KentorIIIc.jpg

I personally liked it better without the levels, but they give a nice effect too. I think the coloring has improved a little compared to the previous one. Lets see if I can get a better one next time.

Cheers