Nature Girl Natalie, a coloring tutorial!
So after making this graphic for a challenge in landofart, I was asked how I created the top image. Unfortunately I can't remember how I did it, BUT i did some tweeking in Gimp and went from this to:
or
Step one (optional): you want to get your base ready. You can do this by resizing the image or even just sharpening or fading it. Me personally, I want more of a header look so I'm going to leave it at it's original size :)
Step Two (optional): Sharp/Fade. For this I duplicated my base image (two way to do this, either ctrl+D or by clicking the duplicate icon on the layers tool box-> example.
Now that you have the duplicated image (make sure the copy is selected) got to Fliters->Enhance->Sharpen. A dialog box will pop up. This is where you enter how much sharpness you want. For my purposes, I set it at 35.
Step Three: Now we get into the tweeking of the image beginning with a color fill. (Layers->New Layer. When the dialogue pops up, I used transparency) In your color palette you want to use ffc36c then fill the new layer (layer 3) with this orange-ish color. Once your layer is filled, set the mode to "Soft light" on the layers tool box.
You should have something like this now:
Even with just this step I think the picture is beautiful!
Step Four: Now we're gonna add a curves layer. This layer is going to brighten Natalie up a bit. What I did was go to Layers-->New layer from visible. This creates a layer that looks just like what we had before but makes it easier to adjust coloring without losing the integrity of the previous layer.
Now go to Colors -> Curves. In the dialog box I used:
point one - X: 53, Y:35
Point two - X: 95, Y:75
(should look something like this)
Step five: We're going to do another color fill (Layers-->New layer) using ffbed2. Again you want to set this at softlight on your layers toolbox, and bring the occupancy down to 49% (feel free to play with this number to see what looks best on your picture.
As you can see, this layer brightened it up again. It also made Natalie's skin tone a bit rosier :)
Step Six: Remember how we got the new layer in step four? Well, we're gonna do that again (Your layers tools should be similar to this). One you have the new layer, we going to adjust the levels. Go to Colors -->levels. Again another dialogue box will pop up and I entered:
0|1.25|238
(Example)
Once again, we've just brightened up Natalie a bit but she's looking pretty no?
Step Seven: Now we need to make a copy of our base layer and drag that to the top. Once the copied layer is above all the layers (example) set the mode to color and the opacity to around 17 to 40%. Remember this is going to darken the image in various spots so use this however you like for your image :)
I set my layer to about 32.7% to achieve this.
Step Eight: Now we're going to add a color balance layer (again getting the new layer from visible).
Midtones:
-22,-27,36
Shadows:
-43,-37,48
Highlights:
-22,-27,47
Make sure Preserve Luminosity is checked!
Okay so now you're like "Oh God! She's a Smurf!" because you image should have gotten really blue. But that's okay! We're going to change the layer mode to softlight and set your opacity to 61%
Much Better! ^_^
Step Nine: Another color! This time we're using a Burgundy color (964f50). This color we're going to set to softlight and 43% opacity. What this does is it gives Natalie more of a pink color and the greens pop a little more.
Step Ten: We need another layer from visible so we can adjust the hue and saturation
Using:
hue = 16
saturation = 35
lightness = 0
I got this
Step Eleven: We're almost done! This step we're going to duplicate the base once again, drag the copy to the top. Once there, we want to set it to screen and place it anywhere between 21 - 50%.
I set mine to 21 to get this
Step Twelve: Remember the pink layer fill we created in step five? Well to give Natalie some more pinkish color (so she looks less sickly) we're going to duplicate that layer and bring it up top. Adjust the opacity to how you like it (I did 15%)
Final Step: This is completely optional. if you like the look of the previous step, feel free to stop here. I however, thought it was a bit to harsh so I created a new layer from visible and set it to multiply 86% and voila! You are done :)
~Comments are ♥
~Got a tip? Love to hear it!
~Feel free to share what yours looks like! I'd love to see it!
This is image heavy, jsyk
or
Step one (optional): you want to get your base ready. You can do this by resizing the image or even just sharpening or fading it. Me personally, I want more of a header look so I'm going to leave it at it's original size :)
Step Two (optional): Sharp/Fade. For this I duplicated my base image (two way to do this, either ctrl+D or by clicking the duplicate icon on the layers tool box-> example.
Now that you have the duplicated image (make sure the copy is selected) got to Fliters->Enhance->Sharpen. A dialog box will pop up. This is where you enter how much sharpness you want. For my purposes, I set it at 35.
Step Three: Now we get into the tweeking of the image beginning with a color fill. (Layers->New Layer. When the dialogue pops up, I used transparency) In your color palette you want to use ffc36c then fill the new layer (layer 3) with this orange-ish color. Once your layer is filled, set the mode to "Soft light" on the layers tool box.
You should have something like this now:
Even with just this step I think the picture is beautiful!
Step Four: Now we're gonna add a curves layer. This layer is going to brighten Natalie up a bit. What I did was go to Layers-->New layer from visible. This creates a layer that looks just like what we had before but makes it easier to adjust coloring without losing the integrity of the previous layer.
Now go to Colors -> Curves. In the dialog box I used:
point one - X: 53, Y:35
Point two - X: 95, Y:75
(should look something like this)
Step five: We're going to do another color fill (Layers-->New layer) using ffbed2. Again you want to set this at softlight on your layers toolbox, and bring the occupancy down to 49% (feel free to play with this number to see what looks best on your picture.
As you can see, this layer brightened it up again. It also made Natalie's skin tone a bit rosier :)
Step Six: Remember how we got the new layer in step four? Well, we're gonna do that again (Your layers tools should be similar to this). One you have the new layer, we going to adjust the levels. Go to Colors -->levels. Again another dialogue box will pop up and I entered:
0|1.25|238
(Example)
Once again, we've just brightened up Natalie a bit but she's looking pretty no?
Step Seven: Now we need to make a copy of our base layer and drag that to the top. Once the copied layer is above all the layers (example) set the mode to color and the opacity to around 17 to 40%. Remember this is going to darken the image in various spots so use this however you like for your image :)
I set my layer to about 32.7% to achieve this.
Step Eight: Now we're going to add a color balance layer (again getting the new layer from visible).
Midtones:
-22,-27,36
Shadows:
-43,-37,48
Highlights:
-22,-27,47
Make sure Preserve Luminosity is checked!
Okay so now you're like "Oh God! She's a Smurf!" because you image should have gotten really blue. But that's okay! We're going to change the layer mode to softlight and set your opacity to 61%
Much Better! ^_^
Step Nine: Another color! This time we're using a Burgundy color (964f50). This color we're going to set to softlight and 43% opacity. What this does is it gives Natalie more of a pink color and the greens pop a little more.
Step Ten: We need another layer from visible so we can adjust the hue and saturation
Using:
hue = 16
saturation = 35
lightness = 0
I got this
Step Eleven: We're almost done! This step we're going to duplicate the base once again, drag the copy to the top. Once there, we want to set it to screen and place it anywhere between 21 - 50%.
I set mine to 21 to get this
Step Twelve: Remember the pink layer fill we created in step five? Well to give Natalie some more pinkish color (so she looks less sickly) we're going to duplicate that layer and bring it up top. Adjust the opacity to how you like it (I did 15%)
Final Step: This is completely optional. if you like the look of the previous step, feel free to stop here. I however, thought it was a bit to harsh so I created a new layer from visible and set it to multiply 86% and voila! You are done :)
~Comments are ♥
~Got a tip? Love to hear it!
~Feel free to share what yours looks like! I'd love to see it!
This is image heavy, jsyk