A very wordy tutorial... thing.
Hey, so this is the second part of the " ask the maker" questions and requests. I'm sorry it took me so long but... you'll see, there are a lot of words to make up for that.
I decided to go about this a little differently than I usually do with tutorials. I'll try to keep this things more general and not be icon-specific. I find coloring tutorials for specific icons always not very useful, because they rarely work on other images. And punching in a bunch of numbers isn't really what any of this should be about anyway.
I will only focus on coloring things here and not go into cropping choices and sharpening and things.
requested by shrimpy_19 and skydawnjade
I always start out with a curves adjustment layer or two to brighten the image. So far, I've only come across very few screencaps that I didn't need to make brighter.
I usually end up adding another curves layer later on, because the coloring process will often make the image darker.
I don't like using screen layers to brighten the image but they work fine too. Just use whatever you are more comfortable working with. However, in my experience, a curves adjustment layer allows you to play around more and make more subtle changes.
However, if you rather use screen layers I suggest adding another copy of you base. Desaturate this layer (until the image is black and white) and set it to soft light and lower the opacity. This will add a little contrast to the image.
Before:
After:
The next step depends on what kind of image you're working with and what kind of result you are trying to achieve. With the three icons here I wanted to mostly bring out the colors that were already there.
I do most of my coloring with selective color adjustment layers. And it's really easy, too.
I will focus on the second icon. The other icons were made using the same basic technique.
First thing you should do is look at the image (no, really) and try to figure out what colors are already there.
Here we have the red wall and the blue sweater. I try to keep the skin tones as natural as possible, because otherwise the people end up looking sun-burnt and radioactive.
So, red and blue. In the selective color adjustment layer you have nine channels. Reds, yellows, greens, cyans, blues, magentas, whites, neutrals and blacks.
So I will - for this icon - go to the red channel first. Here I can work on the red wall.
Here, it's helpful to know the color wheel. The first bar is cyan. In the color wheel, you'll find red opposite to cyan. So if you go to the negative numbers on this bar the red tones in the image will become more red. If you go to the positive numbers they will become more cyan. Same goes for magenta and green, yellow and blue, and black and white.
So, since we want to bring out the red, go take another look at the color wheel and see what colors are next to red. You'll find magenta and yellow. So, within reason, adjust the three bars accordingly. Push the cyan bar to the negative side (where the red is), the magenta bar to the positive side (where the magenta is) and the yellow bar to the positive side, too (where the yellow is). Or, you know, don't. It all depends on your image. See what looks good. If adding magenta in the red channel makes everything look wonky, don't go for the magenta. Play around, see what looks good. Add some black in the red channel to make the reds more intense. Keep an eye on the skin color. Don't push it too far. You can always add another selective color adjustment layer later on to bring out a certain color more.
Okay, done with the red channel. Now you can move on to the magenta or yellow channel and make some adjustments there. For this icon, however, I didn't, because the wall in the background is pretty much just red.
Sometimes what you see as red is a bit of a yellowish red or a magentaish red. It's a mix of colors that look plain red together. So it's helpful to make adjustments in the yellow and magenta channels, too. For this icon, I also worked in the yellow channel a bit, mostly to adjust the skin color.
Moving on to the blues. Same rules apply here. Increase the blues and cyans in the blue and the cyan channels. Keep the color wheel in mind and you should be fine.
In the neutrals channel you can make broader color changes. If you, for example, want to go for an over all warmer coloring it can be helpful to add some red or yellow in this channel.
I also like to add some black in the black channel to increase the contrasts. It will just make the black parts blacker. It works better for me than a brightness/contrast adjustment layer because it doesn't affect the brighter parts of the image.
I also like to make some adjustments in the white channel. If you push the black bar to the positive numbers it will darken the white tones in the image (i.e. make the bright parts a bit duller). This will make you image look a little flatter and lessen the contrast.
Before:
Changes made using just selective color adjustment layers:
And after adding another curves layer:
When I want to bring out the colors in an image, I also often use a hue/saturation adjustment layer. I usually raise the saturation in the master channel (this will raise the saturation for all the pretty colors in the image) and then go to the individual colors' channels to lower the saturation for some colors if needed (usually in the red and/or yellow channel, because the skin tones start looking weird.) Instead, you can also just apply a layer mask to this adjustment layer and erase certain parts. I did this for this icon where his skin is because it looked a bit unnatural with the increased saturation.
Before:
And after adding saturation adjustment layers:
Occasionally, it'll happen that there is a certain color already in the picture but you can't really get it to pop by using just adjustment layers. What I like to do is adding a new layer and draw on it with the color I want to bring out. Like in the Olivia icon, I added a big bright yellow blob on the left. I then set that layer to soft light and lowered the opacity a bit. Sometimes setting the layer to multiply will also work. However, setting the layer to multiply will make the image darker, while setting it to soft light will make it brighter as long as the color you're using to draw is brighter than the image you're working with.
Before:
After adding the layer:
And that is pretty much it. I know that this is pretty vague, so feel free to ask questions if something is not clear or if anything doesn't make sense.
darlingbones: You have such a distinctive and unique colouring style: what are your go-to tools for colouring and what habits (good or bad) do you have when it comes to colours?
My go-to tool is the selective coloring adjustment layer. And I'm not ashamed to admit it. I like to bring out the colors and I find the selective coloring tool is the easiest way to accomplish that.
I also like to use textures. I usually revert to this set made by navras_rheya. But I also use a lot of color fill layers.
I'd say one of my bad habits is that whenever I get uninspired or uncreative I either stop using photoshop (for months) or I get lazy and just use the same coloring on different pictures and see whether it works or not. I think some of my better icons are from when I had fun experimenting and started out from scratch on every new image I used and not tried to repeat what I did in the icon I had just made before that icon.
Another habit of mine is that I seem to always end up going for strong and vibrant colors. I love a soft and natural coloring but whenever I try to do it myself I end up unhappy with the icon and keep working on it until it's about 180° from what I wanted to do in the first place.
darlingbones: I love how your icons are often 'one colour' (like even the subjects take on the tone used in the background) but have such contrast like these:
any tips or tut's for something like this would be wonderful :)
I'm going to use the Fringe icon to try and explain this. I think it's mostly the textures that achieve that effect. I used a green and a yellow texture for this particular icon.
I smoothed them out quite a bit, so you could probably just use color fill layers instead. I usually use a texture because I'm so uncreative when it comes to what color I should use.
When you set them to soft light they will not only add color to the image but also make it brighter.
The base image + a curves layer to brighten the image:
Adding the textures I used for this icon:
Throughout the coloring process I used selective color adjustment layers to bring out the the greens and yellows, but also the other colors a bit more and to add some contrast.
With just the textures:
Adding some selective coloring:
It's a back and forth between the textures and the selective color adjustment layers. I don't add all the textures first and the selective coloring later because it'd be impossible for me to tell if anything I'm doing will work in the end.
In the end, I used the green texture again and set it to color burn at a lower opacity. This will also add some more contrast and make the colors a little more intense.
Let me know if something is not clear or doesn't make sense. Also, feel free to ask questions!
I decided to go about this a little differently than I usually do with tutorials. I'll try to keep this things more general and not be icon-specific. I find coloring tutorials for specific icons always not very useful, because they rarely work on other images. And punching in a bunch of numbers isn't really what any of this should be about anyway.
I will only focus on coloring things here and not go into cropping choices and sharpening and things.
requested by shrimpy_19 and skydawnjade
I always start out with a curves adjustment layer or two to brighten the image. So far, I've only come across very few screencaps that I didn't need to make brighter.
I usually end up adding another curves layer later on, because the coloring process will often make the image darker.
I don't like using screen layers to brighten the image but they work fine too. Just use whatever you are more comfortable working with. However, in my experience, a curves adjustment layer allows you to play around more and make more subtle changes.
However, if you rather use screen layers I suggest adding another copy of you base. Desaturate this layer (until the image is black and white) and set it to soft light and lower the opacity. This will add a little contrast to the image.
Before:
After:
The next step depends on what kind of image you're working with and what kind of result you are trying to achieve. With the three icons here I wanted to mostly bring out the colors that were already there.
I do most of my coloring with selective color adjustment layers. And it's really easy, too.
I will focus on the second icon. The other icons were made using the same basic technique.
First thing you should do is look at the image (no, really) and try to figure out what colors are already there.
Here we have the red wall and the blue sweater. I try to keep the skin tones as natural as possible, because otherwise the people end up looking sun-burnt and radioactive.
So, red and blue. In the selective color adjustment layer you have nine channels. Reds, yellows, greens, cyans, blues, magentas, whites, neutrals and blacks.
So I will - for this icon - go to the red channel first. Here I can work on the red wall.
Here, it's helpful to know the color wheel. The first bar is cyan. In the color wheel, you'll find red opposite to cyan. So if you go to the negative numbers on this bar the red tones in the image will become more red. If you go to the positive numbers they will become more cyan. Same goes for magenta and green, yellow and blue, and black and white.
So, since we want to bring out the red, go take another look at the color wheel and see what colors are next to red. You'll find magenta and yellow. So, within reason, adjust the three bars accordingly. Push the cyan bar to the negative side (where the red is), the magenta bar to the positive side (where the magenta is) and the yellow bar to the positive side, too (where the yellow is). Or, you know, don't. It all depends on your image. See what looks good. If adding magenta in the red channel makes everything look wonky, don't go for the magenta. Play around, see what looks good. Add some black in the red channel to make the reds more intense. Keep an eye on the skin color. Don't push it too far. You can always add another selective color adjustment layer later on to bring out a certain color more.
Okay, done with the red channel. Now you can move on to the magenta or yellow channel and make some adjustments there. For this icon, however, I didn't, because the wall in the background is pretty much just red.
Sometimes what you see as red is a bit of a yellowish red or a magentaish red. It's a mix of colors that look plain red together. So it's helpful to make adjustments in the yellow and magenta channels, too. For this icon, I also worked in the yellow channel a bit, mostly to adjust the skin color.
Moving on to the blues. Same rules apply here. Increase the blues and cyans in the blue and the cyan channels. Keep the color wheel in mind and you should be fine.
In the neutrals channel you can make broader color changes. If you, for example, want to go for an over all warmer coloring it can be helpful to add some red or yellow in this channel.
I also like to add some black in the black channel to increase the contrasts. It will just make the black parts blacker. It works better for me than a brightness/contrast adjustment layer because it doesn't affect the brighter parts of the image.
I also like to make some adjustments in the white channel. If you push the black bar to the positive numbers it will darken the white tones in the image (i.e. make the bright parts a bit duller). This will make you image look a little flatter and lessen the contrast.
Before:
Changes made using just selective color adjustment layers:
And after adding another curves layer:
When I want to bring out the colors in an image, I also often use a hue/saturation adjustment layer. I usually raise the saturation in the master channel (this will raise the saturation for all the pretty colors in the image) and then go to the individual colors' channels to lower the saturation for some colors if needed (usually in the red and/or yellow channel, because the skin tones start looking weird.) Instead, you can also just apply a layer mask to this adjustment layer and erase certain parts. I did this for this icon where his skin is because it looked a bit unnatural with the increased saturation.
Before:
And after adding saturation adjustment layers:
Occasionally, it'll happen that there is a certain color already in the picture but you can't really get it to pop by using just adjustment layers. What I like to do is adding a new layer and draw on it with the color I want to bring out. Like in the Olivia icon, I added a big bright yellow blob on the left. I then set that layer to soft light and lowered the opacity a bit. Sometimes setting the layer to multiply will also work. However, setting the layer to multiply will make the image darker, while setting it to soft light will make it brighter as long as the color you're using to draw is brighter than the image you're working with.
Before:
After adding the layer:
And that is pretty much it. I know that this is pretty vague, so feel free to ask questions if something is not clear or if anything doesn't make sense.
darlingbones: You have such a distinctive and unique colouring style: what are your go-to tools for colouring and what habits (good or bad) do you have when it comes to colours?
My go-to tool is the selective coloring adjustment layer. And I'm not ashamed to admit it. I like to bring out the colors and I find the selective coloring tool is the easiest way to accomplish that.
I also like to use textures. I usually revert to this set made by navras_rheya. But I also use a lot of color fill layers.
I'd say one of my bad habits is that whenever I get uninspired or uncreative I either stop using photoshop (for months) or I get lazy and just use the same coloring on different pictures and see whether it works or not. I think some of my better icons are from when I had fun experimenting and started out from scratch on every new image I used and not tried to repeat what I did in the icon I had just made before that icon.
Another habit of mine is that I seem to always end up going for strong and vibrant colors. I love a soft and natural coloring but whenever I try to do it myself I end up unhappy with the icon and keep working on it until it's about 180° from what I wanted to do in the first place.
darlingbones: I love how your icons are often 'one colour' (like even the subjects take on the tone used in the background) but have such contrast like these:
any tips or tut's for something like this would be wonderful :)
I'm going to use the Fringe icon to try and explain this. I think it's mostly the textures that achieve that effect. I used a green and a yellow texture for this particular icon.
I smoothed them out quite a bit, so you could probably just use color fill layers instead. I usually use a texture because I'm so uncreative when it comes to what color I should use.
When you set them to soft light they will not only add color to the image but also make it brighter.
The base image + a curves layer to brighten the image:
Adding the textures I used for this icon:
Throughout the coloring process I used selective color adjustment layers to bring out the the greens and yellows, but also the other colors a bit more and to add some contrast.
With just the textures:
Adding some selective coloring:
It's a back and forth between the textures and the selective color adjustment layers. I don't add all the textures first and the selective coloring later because it'd be impossible for me to tell if anything I'm doing will work in the end.
In the end, I used the green texture again and set it to color burn at a lower opacity. This will also add some more contrast and make the colors a little more intense.
Let me know if something is not clear or doesn't make sense. Also, feel free to ask questions!