Help! To Layer Or Not To Layer?

[Rat]

Okay, if anyone has browsed through my gallery then you'll know I'm a full-fledged traditional artist. Sure, I've dabbled with computer art programs (even took a class on it) but not as much as I wanted to. Or should I say, I didn't get the effect I wanted from the program I was using. Of course, I was using Paintshop Pro and from what I hear, it's the reject version of Photoshop. :P

Anyway, I really want to learn how to color my drawings effectively using Photoshop (yah! I've finally got access to it through my new school!). For example, there are some drawings I've seen on websites and here that look like paintings. Then I discover they were done in photoshop! I want to know how they get that effect? About the only coloring I've done for my drawings are pretty basic cartoon-like shadow. No matter how hard I try, my "blending" of colors comes off "cartoonish."

I also got a question in regards to layers. Do you guys work in layers? What exactly do you layer? Do you put the coloring of the drawing in a seperate layer?

Also, I've got a black and white comic strip I plan to color (I first inked it black and white, BTW). Because I use a ton of hatching and cross hatching (ie, Jim Lee hatching, lol) it's too tedious for me to use the magic wand and fill in every blank spot. Any alternatives for me? I tried converting my image into a black and white image so I could highlight all the black lines to put it into it's own layer. In doing so, I could color "beneath". However, the image became a bitmap and for some reason, Photoshop wouldn't let me use tools like the magic wand. Only when it was in grayscale could I used them. This sucks since when I use the magic wand on the grayscale image, there are "specks" of gray spots. Therefore, it doesn't highlight the entire blank area I want colored in. So, long story short, is there a way to convert my image as a black and white without it becoming a bitmap? If not, then how do I color my drawing if it's a bitmap?

[Lizkay]

I use photoshop since I started working as Layouter, that was two years ( or longer I don't remember) ago, and yes it's a great tool!

There are a few different ways how you can color in Photoshop, well known ones are: Pixelizing, Cell or Soft-tone Shadings and Paintings.

Pixelizing works with 1-pixel hard brushes, you make shadings there using hand-drawn gradiends and or surfaces, but no smooth lines are possible if you use the pixelized method (But hey... why should you pixelize something if you want smooth colorings or shadings...) Pixelizing is practical if you want to animate the pic later!

Cell or Soft-tone Shadings use surfaces for shadings ( mainly used also in Animation movies, were the name Cell comes from) You take you drawing and give it flat colors, than decide were the light comes from. After that you take the same flat color and make it a few % darker, than you add the shading as surface. If you let the shading area with a sharp edge it is cell-shaded, if you blur it it is Soft-Tone shaded.

Paintings... the technique which takes you for a while.
Just to answer the question with the layers... USE LAYERS they are there to help you! For example, I use a own layer for every color I add to a pic, when I color a human for example there is one layer named skin, in this layer I put all my colored skin parts, also one layer for the red clothing, the hair, etc. Why? If you want to blur just one color ( just check the chequered quadratic symbol in the layer) you can blur this layer and JUST this layer without destroying the other colors. And for example hair... if you have a hair hanging down over a face you can give it a bit transparency so that you can see the face through the hair, that is just possible if the hair is on a own layer, because if not also the face gets transparent...

To make a digital pick look like oilpainted or watercolor painted you should play around with the brushes. You can get good results if you change the opacitiy of the brushes, take a ground color and paint the surface, than take the darkest color you want to use and start to paint the main shade area, to get a smooth shading make the brush more and more less visible (darkest shading 100% opacity, next brush step 80%, next 70% etc.) You still see the lines of you brushes, now to get that finally smooth you can use the blur-tool (the finger) to refine it... you see... quite a lot work. For reality Paintings, I would recommend Painter from Corel.. it hast much more brush-options than photoshop.

Yup that's all from me for now, hope I was able to help a bit!
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- hmm... did someone say "MUFFIN"? -

[Rat]

Thank you sooooo much for this incredible info! This is a goldmine! Thank you! I'll definitely mess around with this program and take up your suggestions. Your advice on how to apply layers are VERY helpful.

[Lizkay]

Thankies! Oh and I forgot... the thing with the black outlines, I already posted a tutorial which solves this problem (easily useage also with older photoshop versions) can be found HERE, it's not really much work ^_^
and some examples for layer-amounts:
Pixelart: Alpha = 10 layers
Cell-Shading: SuperHawk - Illustration = 25 Layers
SoftToneShading: Lizkay in Space = 36 Layers
Painting: Morcathul = 7 Layers
Outlined Painting (heavily much work and still unfinished): Injured = 45 layers (!)

For example, concerning effects like glowing stuff, that green shine on my SoftTone shaded pic is a own layer were I just painted some green lines and blurred them heavy with the gaussian blur filter than I gave the layer just 20% opacity and you are finished! ^_^ The same helps you with bloody stuff, wet surfaces etc.


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- hmm... did someone say "MUFFIN"? -

[Rat]

My gosh, you're as talented as you are smart! I'm so honored to have you give me the heads-up on Photoshop as well as looks to your pics! (immediately faves artist)

Oh, and thanks soooo much for addressing the b/w issue. I'll head over there right now. If I have any more questions I know who to ask.

[Lizkay]

Thanks a bunch!
But hey! Your Art is also really awesome! Just try Photoshop... you will see its THAT FUN, and if you are skilled in traditional media you will get also skilled in photoshop, you just use a mouse/tablet instead of a pencil or whatever ^_^
... and I think I can say that... your digi art will be great!
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- hmm... did someone say "MUFFIN"? -