[tutorial] Hey, let me into your computer now
Happy birthday, Pris! <3
Since I've convinced you to get into digital art more, oh yes, I have, I decided to show you... how I colour, and such? This was another one of your birthday presents, ideal_fairytale, but I didn't get around to properly finishing it. For digital art I prefer to use Paint Tool SAI (where you can download a cracked and translated version, easily) rather than Photoshop CS5. I find the tools nicer to work with, and it's easier on my computer, too.
#1 ;; Unfortunately I don't have my original sketching lines but I can describe, slightly, what I do for them. First of all: never use black. It's preferable to use a light colour, but still dark enough that it doesn't blind your eyes. My favourites are blue, red and green. That way when you create a new layer above it and lower the opacity, you will be able to tell which lines are on what layer.
#2 ;; Create a new layer, after you've lowered the opacity of the one below, and switch the mode to multiply. This generally helps while creating line art, or bolding strands of hair you add in later. Another rule for line art: never use black. There's a pattern here, isn't there? Black makes the picture look flat, and brings out how 3D you want to make it. I use a dark shade of brown with the pen tool with the density set to 100. It depends how big your picture is to the size of the pen, of course. I make sure the stabilizer is set to 14, rather than 0, as it helps a lot by smoothing your lines out as you work. The higher the number, the slower your lines come out, but smoother.
This is my line art: it's rough, but it'll do. Can you tell who it is yet? I don't think so as I left out some accessories.
#3 ;; New layer, above the last. For colouring the skin, I usually switch to the brush tool with a larger size, and roughly go over the areas I want to colour. I'm the type to erase the bits that are unwanted later, or simply get too lazy to do so and make it into a roughly sketch. Here are pictures of how I have my brush set up. By mixing up the blending, dilution and persistence bars it can either make the strokes soft, harsh or barely visible. I like to have it so it's slightly bold, but blends in with the rest of the colours. This way if you mess up, instead of selecting a colour again, you can place the brush on the previous colour and get rid of your mistake, easily, by smudging it away.
I forgot to take screenshots of step-by-step colouring, so I've just got the final. There are brush strokes beside showing what colours I'd used to create it. Tip: never use white. A light shade of blue, or pink, words strikingly well. For the same reason as before, it makes it look less flat. I started from the second to last on the bottom of the colours provided, worked my way up and then gently blended in the blue in the areas that needed it.
#4 ;; I usually don't draw lipstick or some kind of gloss, as I like to have a neutral colour or the natural one. For this picture, though, I decided it needed a little touch. On a new layer, again I've included what colours were used and the way I did it was exactly the same as before: slowly working my way up, I applied the different colours and blended them where they needed to be.
#5 ;; On one layer, draw the whites of the eyeball (which should be done in a purple gray, or blue) and then create another one above it. For the eyes, it's best to start of with irides instead of pupils, of course. I slowly built up the blue, and then blended in the dark shades of blue to replace black. A dark shade of brown works well for the pupil, and, of course, makes it not appear flat. The light blue for the shine gets added on another layer, this time one that's above the line art, too.
I'll save the tutorial for colouring hair for another time, maybe, as it'll be longer since I do random things to the strands. So this counts as half of one of your birthday presents, ideal_fairytale! I hope this helped you, even just a little, even though you don't have SAI. The picture so far is just below.
