Coloring Tutorial
Program: Photoshop CS2.
Level: Moderate. You need to know how to change layers and know where stuff is in your menu.
Uses: color layers, color balance, selective colors, brightness/contrast, saturation.
Warning: Semi-image heavy. Probably not dial-up friendly.
Crossposted: phoenix39, abstract_angst, icon_tutorial, icon_coloring.
01. Crop your image. Duplicate and screen if nessecary. I thought my base was bright enough, so I didn't.
02. Create a new layer, fill with a dark blue (#00001e). Set to Exclusion. Duplicate.
>>
03. Create a new layer, fill with a dark tan (#644d10). Set to Soft Light.
04. New Color Balance layer.
Midtones
Cyans/Reds: -43
Magentas/Greens: -5
Yellows/Blues: +38
Highlights:
Cyans/Reds: -9
Magentas/Greens: -8
Yellows/Blues: +4
Shadows:
Cyans/Reds: +15
Magentas/Greens: +6
Yellows/Blues: -11
Make sure that Preserve Luminance is checked. The Luminance makes the image more crisp and less pixelated.
05. New Seletive Colors layer.
Reds: -22/0/+24/0
Yellows: +23/0/-100/0
Neutrals: -8/+1/-6/-1
Put the Method on Relative.
06. New Brightness/Contrast layer.
Brightness: +10
Contrast: +4
07. Finally, make a Hue/Saturation layer.
Saturation: +6
Now, you are done! I would love to see what you come up with and don't forget to play around with the numbers and layers, but it works differently with each image.