nineteen; a gift and a tutorial
Hello.
I received several requests for manga colouring tutorial. Honestly, I am not good at writing tutorial since I don't always follow the tutorials I read. I do, however, take the important points.
I'm going to show you how I colour Hades from Olimpos by Aki in a series of unknown parts. Ask me to complete a tutorial from A to Z and you shall see me not finishing even a single step.
There will be a better tutorial when I find a better subject to colour, I promise! For now, since this is also a colouring request, I'm doing two things at once.
Let's begin!
This is the original image. It's from an online manga reader. While I understand the difficulties in retrieving an image in its original quality, especially if it's licensed or the scanlator requires you to register in their forum (or join a community) before downloading their releases, please try your best to get the highest image quality possible. MQ or HQ preferrable. As for the size, even the normal size for scanlation is perfect. I used to prefer raw pages because it's large and easier to clean (during my days as a scanlator) but now, I prefer the scanlation-sized, unless the quality is bad and I rather clean it myself.
In other words, get a good quality of image before you start colouring. Sometimes, the end result depends on how you choose your image.
First, crop the image. You do not need the "Olimpos 1 - End" or the text bubbles, so crop them. Unless you are good at cloning / redrawing, you may clean them instead.
Next, mess around with the Curves setting.
Image > Adjustments > Curves...
You can also use Level or both to improve the image quality. Most of the times, since I'm using scanlation, I usually skip this step. Be careful with how you tweak the settings.
I don't recommend using filter unless you are good at it. I tried Topaz Denoise once out of curiosity. I didn't like it. It seems much easier to do it manually.
You should get something like this...
Next, increase the canvas size so there's some small space to redraw Hades' cut off hair.
1. Let's say the current size is 715 px and you assume you need 15 px more to redraw the cut off part. In the new size, write 730 px for width. Adjust the height if needed, or else, leave it as usual.
2. Since the cut off part is on the left side of the panel, click on the center right arrow. This will make sure the canvas extend to the left side of the panel.
ps; sometimes you might click on the wrong arrow and wrong things occur but that's OK, just redo the step again.
Click OK.
This is the fun part. Judging by my recent colourings, I have the tendency to have an empty background and for unknown reasons, if the subject is at the bottom, there's always an empty area above it.
1. Clean the background! Be careful not to remove everything, though. I didn't remove the place where Hades' sitting because it'll look odd without it.
2. Redraw the hair. This part is tricky since his hair curved but do it as many times as you like until it look good enough. People won't stare at it and notice the small difference you added anyway.
This is what you should get!
You are now done in preparing the image for colouring. You may now start colouring.
I'll stop here for a while. For the next part, I will teach you about making colour palette. Stay tuned!
Here's a present. It's a different image but it's the panel before the panel for the tutorial.
If you think I have started colouring (or even finished) the colouring for the tutorial, you are sadly mistaken. I'll start it when I feel like starting the next part of the colouring tutorial.
deviantArt
It doesn't look that nice -- for a speed colouring, that is!
Until then.
Feel free to watch this community for updates!
I received several requests for manga colouring tutorial. Honestly, I am not good at writing tutorial since I don't always follow the tutorials I read. I do, however, take the important points.
I'm going to show you how I colour Hades from Olimpos by Aki in a series of unknown parts. Ask me to complete a tutorial from A to Z and you shall see me not finishing even a single step.
There will be a better tutorial when I find a better subject to colour, I promise! For now, since this is also a colouring request, I'm doing two things at once.
Let's begin!
This is the original image. It's from an online manga reader. While I understand the difficulties in retrieving an image in its original quality, especially if it's licensed or the scanlator requires you to register in their forum (or join a community) before downloading their releases, please try your best to get the highest image quality possible. MQ or HQ preferrable. As for the size, even the normal size for scanlation is perfect. I used to prefer raw pages because it's large and easier to clean (during my days as a scanlator) but now, I prefer the scanlation-sized, unless the quality is bad and I rather clean it myself.
In other words, get a good quality of image before you start colouring. Sometimes, the end result depends on how you choose your image.
First, crop the image. You do not need the "Olimpos 1 - End" or the text bubbles, so crop them. Unless you are good at cloning / redrawing, you may clean them instead.
Next, mess around with the Curves setting.
Image > Adjustments > Curves...
You can also use Level or both to improve the image quality. Most of the times, since I'm using scanlation, I usually skip this step. Be careful with how you tweak the settings.
I don't recommend using filter unless you are good at it. I tried Topaz Denoise once out of curiosity. I didn't like it. It seems much easier to do it manually.
You should get something like this...
Next, increase the canvas size so there's some small space to redraw Hades' cut off hair.
1. Let's say the current size is 715 px and you assume you need 15 px more to redraw the cut off part. In the new size, write 730 px for width. Adjust the height if needed, or else, leave it as usual.
2. Since the cut off part is on the left side of the panel, click on the center right arrow. This will make sure the canvas extend to the left side of the panel.
ps; sometimes you might click on the wrong arrow and wrong things occur but that's OK, just redo the step again.
Click OK.
This is the fun part. Judging by my recent colourings, I have the tendency to have an empty background and for unknown reasons, if the subject is at the bottom, there's always an empty area above it.
1. Clean the background! Be careful not to remove everything, though. I didn't remove the place where Hades' sitting because it'll look odd without it.
2. Redraw the hair. This part is tricky since his hair curved but do it as many times as you like until it look good enough. People won't stare at it and notice the small difference you added anyway.
This is what you should get!
You are now done in preparing the image for colouring. You may now start colouring.
I'll stop here for a while. For the next part, I will teach you about making colour palette. Stay tuned!
Here's a present. It's a different image but it's the panel before the panel for the tutorial.
If you think I have started colouring (or even finished) the colouring for the tutorial, you are sadly mistaken. I'll start it when I feel like starting the next part of the colouring tutorial.
deviantArt
It doesn't look that nice -- for a speed colouring, that is!
Until then.
Feel free to watch this community for updates!