Hey Guys,

I'm trying my hand at this PS coloring, and i'd like some input. Plze remember this is my first shot at doing this and it's a WIP. I'm kinda stuck on where i should put more shadowing and highlights (if any). This i just a small part of a full page panel i'm working on.Plze give me your C & C. Thanks

Lineart is by Alex Milne

 

A good start... I would work with a harder brush though.

Best advice I can give you is take a TF you have and put it next to a lamp and see where the light hits it and where it doesn't and work from there. It's a little tip some bum named Burcham gave me like three years ago.

 

Wow, Such a simple idea. I'm going to have to try that

 

sounds like a good tip, also definitely use a harder brush.. hard stuff has hard-edged highlights, and soft stuff has soft edged highlights.. have a look at the highlighting on the picture in your avatar for example, the hard edges make him look shiny and metallic

 

or for anoher example compare the shading on the two gi joe dudes in the left of your sig

 

also three more tips, both inspired by mr burcham, which are firstly have some balls and go for high contrast really light highlights and really dark shadows (see his megatron in my sig for a good example), if it looks too much then you can always make the layer a bit transparent... and secondly if you want glowy electric effects, make the thing white, and then roughly draw over it on a new layer with the colour you want it to glow, making sure to go outside the edges of it a bit, with a soft brush.. and then set the layer blending mode to 'linear dodge' (again see his megatron in my sig for an example, he did meg's eye by using this method). thirdly, pick a light source and stick to it ruthlessly.. again in the megs picture, the light is coming from the top left, so all the highlights are on the top and left of the shapes, and the shadows are on the bottom and right of the shapes. apart from arond the eye, where his eye is lighting up the bottom edge of his eyebrow.

ok well i'm not a colourist, i've only ever tried colouring one thing before, and also i'm using a laptop touchpad at the moment haven't unpacked my mouse yet, so here's my quick crappy attempt at illustrating some of the above, hope it's helpful, i can give you the psd if you want -

 

Dude, If that a quick crappy attempt. I'd hate to see you take your time, DAMN, Right clicked and save as a reference
Thanks for the tips guys

 

hope its helpful, do you want the psd

 

If you don't mind. That way i can look at the layers. and see what your talkng about with the glowing look.

Thanks

Btw what did you set your brush hardness at , I've been playing around with different levels and i'm not sure if i found the "right one"

 

haha well actually i didnt, just selected areas and filled them in with the paint bucket tool, so 100% hardness i guess.. apart from the lightning, which was a bit of scribble with a small hard brush and then drawing over with a big fat brush to make the glow, and then guasian blur on the glow to make it a bit softer. whats your email addres sso i can send the psd

 

is anyone else about? it would be good to get some input from some more real colourists as well as drew, i'm jsut making it up as i go along!

 

This is truly amazing work although the second picture as a little too light in the coloring...but still AMAZING work..
The first coloring looked like it belonged in a comic book.

The second one looked like it was a cartoon still.

Heather

 

KJ, Send it to [email protected].. Thanks

 

thanks, the idea was that the light colouring is because of the light from the lightning

 

"I think I know just who might have the answers!" - JYB.


And yeah KJ you are giving him some good advice. I like to select and then use brushes instead of the bucket tool though.

 

yeah the fill thing is just because im stuck with a laptop touch-pad at the moment, so using brushes isnt really an option

 

Thanks for all the tips, and kind words guys. I'll post it when i'm done. I have a feeling i'll be work on this for a while, Going to take my time on it