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GreyRadianTraditional Colouring Tutorial

Published: 2012-12-17 01:38:49 +0000 UTC; Views: 44002; Favourites: 2695; Downloads: 624
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Description THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 1000+ WATCHERS! And here's my gift to you!
I figured that a tutorial will be the most beneficial for most of the people who watch me regardless if they draw or not.

So this is the way I colour. I thought doing of doing a digital tutorial but there are already many tutorials that explain most of the techniques i use (which is just painting, blending and using layers such as multiply,overlay on top). However I dont think there are very many tutorials that explain how to use copics AND colour pencils as one material. And that's how I colour

I'm sorry, this is my first time making a tutorial so I was being dumb (and photoshop too) and friggin merged all the layers because the file size was too big to work on ps. Then I realised I forgot to change the colour of the bg! DX So that's why the colour is horrible, hopefully you can read it clearly
And maybe the photos are a bit blurry also;;; OTL

I swear I was going to add a better design after I've finished placing anything but too late now >_>

Anyway hope you all enjoy this, hope you learn something! ^^

P.S Sayoko's legs at the bottom should be much darker and I completely forgot about that DX

Things I forgot to add (because im such a ditz)
I used A4 Smooth Bristol paper
For the white highlights I used a small brush and Copic Opaque white ink: [link]
On tracing: "I trace the digitally-fixed sketch to clean paper and do it lightly. Of course by tracing you won't get all the details but you will get the basic shapes and position which is all you need, and you can stop tracing and re-draw all the details in again."

Sayoko's Ref: [link]
Final artwork: [link]

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Comments: 196

Wait0wat [2015-01-16 01:53:39 +0000 UTC]

These things are EXPENSIVE!

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FishingJB [2015-01-06 08:39:13 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for sharing it! Much appreciated

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JuniperArcticSpirit [2014-08-29 13:17:03 +0000 UTC]

You use Faber Castell? Wow, i have that too ... but in your traditional artworks..do you use a scanner to scan your drawings? But anyways, I still love how you shade ^-^ And it was really helpful

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GreyRadian In reply to JuniperArcticSpirit [2014-09-02 09:37:47 +0000 UTC]

YUp I use a scanner, glad it helped

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JuniperArcticSpirit In reply to GreyRadian [2014-09-04 08:41:00 +0000 UTC]

Your welcs

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Ergonomic-Wasteland [2013-04-26 21:25:36 +0000 UTC]

Thank you for making this! It really helped me~

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GreyRadian In reply to Ergonomic-Wasteland [2013-04-27 01:03:51 +0000 UTC]

I'm glad it helped you!

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limymaru [2013-03-20 01:10:38 +0000 UTC]

thank it is very usefull

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prechoco [2013-02-12 03:30:09 +0000 UTC]

Great tutorial! Now, if only I had the money to buy some copics...

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Kitten-Bubblepuff In reply to prechoco [2014-01-15 23:26:53 +0000 UTC]

I know the feeling...but I have Prismacolors which work well for me. They're still pretty expensive, but not as expensive as Copics.

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prechoco In reply to Kitten-Bubblepuff [2014-01-15 23:48:24 +0000 UTC]

Yeah. I keep telling myself that good art is NOT limited to top-quality supplies, but I can't help but feel a little jealousy every once in a while

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Kitten-Bubblepuff In reply to prechoco [2014-01-15 23:50:09 +0000 UTC]

Ah yeah, I know the feeling. Jealousy is okay, as long as you're not being mean because of it, which you're not. 

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alphabetsoup314 [2013-01-09 01:10:29 +0000 UTC]

Lots of nice tips and tricks, and I like the tip about fur.

Also, Pinkie Pie. Because Pinkie is relevant to everything.

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GreyRadian In reply to alphabetsoup314 [2013-01-09 03:12:18 +0000 UTC]

haha thanks!

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RocCenere [2013-01-08 11:25:38 +0000 UTC]

Very useful, thank you.

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GreyRadian In reply to RocCenere [2013-01-08 11:41:43 +0000 UTC]

no problem!

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GOTHICbutAcronaLover [2013-01-05 08:39:52 +0000 UTC]

THANK YOU FOR THE ADVICE AND HELP!!!^^ i was wondering how i should color my art^^ thank you so much

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GreyRadian In reply to GOTHICbutAcronaLover [2013-01-05 09:13:42 +0000 UTC]

no worries

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GOTHICbutAcronaLover In reply to GreyRadian [2013-01-05 09:18:32 +0000 UTC]

^^

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samana15 [2013-01-02 22:42:25 +0000 UTC]

Amazing!

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8arah [2013-01-02 06:34:54 +0000 UTC]

Thank you this helps me a lot this is a really great tutorial!

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GreyRadian In reply to 8arah [2013-01-02 06:38:25 +0000 UTC]

No problem I'm glad!

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ToddNTheShiningSword [2013-01-02 01:53:13 +0000 UTC]

This is amazing.

I totally couldn't do those first steps you have here about tracing your own sketch before coloring though. I can imagine it must work for you, but I can't imagine why. I can understand how software could help you fix mistakes, but every time you put a pencil to paper and trace another line is another chance to mess your drawing up when you had it right before. I guess it can help fix more major mistakes, but then the tracing opens the floodgates for new subtle mistakes to be made.

If I tried to do it this way my drawings would all get worse. To me it seems that the number of mistakes tracing would introduce- especially in a finely detailed piece such as this example- would exceed the number it fixes, and prevent me from drawing on the type of paper I want to draw on. I... can't understand why it isn't better to just fix the pencil sketch on paper in the beginning and save the digital editing for it's spot at the very end of the tutorial. Simply getting things off to a good start and getting things right at the very beginning of anything you try to do that has multiple steps has a cascade effect through all the other steps of whatever it is you're doing, right?

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GreyRadian In reply to ToddNTheShiningSword [2013-01-02 02:30:54 +0000 UTC]

Maybe it's just me, but when I sketch I sketch pretty messily, and that screws up the paper for colouring so I want the final artwork to be on very clean paper to make sure that the colouring does go smoothly. I scan it first, fix the anatomical mistakes there (so i dont have to draw everything all over again or make the sketch less readable). If I do this at the end it is much harder because then you'll need to also make sure the fur/detail line up so it doesn't actually look like it's been cut up.

And now since I have a more accurate version of the sketch I trace it to clean paper and do it lightly. Of course by tracing you won't get all the details but you will get the basic shapes and position which is all you need, and you can stop tracing and re-draw all the details in again.

Sorry I just looked at the tutorial and seems like I didn't explain that I didn't trace the whole thing OTL;; um hope this explanation is more clearer!

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ToddNTheShiningSword In reply to GreyRadian [2013-01-06 13:51:18 +0000 UTC]

I thought you traced the whole thing!!! That's why I didn't understand!


Now that I know you don't retrace every last detail, it makes much more sense now. I see you updated your Artist's Comment on this now with something from your reply.

Ah, and you're one of the messy sketchers, huh? I showed a fan of mine a pencil sketch I did that needed inking, and she commented on how clean the lines were and how the sketch made so much visual sense. I don't like to work with messy sketches, and I also have to have everything right at the end of the sketching phase to ink it, so I guess I'm a neat sketcher and measure everything out before I even start sketching if I really want the drawing to be right.

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GreyRadian In reply to ToddNTheShiningSword [2013-01-07 02:24:58 +0000 UTC]

haha, yeah i updated the artists's comments to make it more clear

i dunno, im both actually. but since i don't care about the paper i just draw everything on the paper first since it wont matter if i trace it over to the better paper.

but for non-serious drawings i just keep it on the same paper.

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ToddNTheShiningSword In reply to GreyRadian [2013-01-07 22:41:45 +0000 UTC]

It won't matter if you trace it to better paper because you're going to finish it digitally, and then you'd you'd be printing out the final picture if you wanted it on paper?

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GreyRadian In reply to ToddNTheShiningSword [2013-01-08 01:49:27 +0000 UTC]

Um... No, i did everything traditionally. I only scan it at the end and digitally touch it up to restore it's proper colours and show it online. I still have the original hardcopy so i dont need to print out anything

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ToddNTheShiningSword In reply to GreyRadian [2013-01-08 01:57:03 +0000 UTC]

But in the tutorial it said you added something digitally...

*looks*

Yeah, it said you added some digital paint splatters and stuff. I didn't know if you do stuff like that all the time or not.

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GreyRadian In reply to ToddNTheShiningSword [2013-01-08 02:27:13 +0000 UTC]

Yeah but thats only for decoration. I dont do it all the time its just because i thoought the picture still looked empty. Nonetheless its still not something major that I should print it out when I did everything on hardcopy

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samana15 [2013-01-01 22:51:40 +0000 UTC]

I can't see it ... I really wan't to sse bug i see only in little...

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GreyRadian In reply to samana15 [2013-01-02 02:31:11 +0000 UTC]

Click on the Download button

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samana15 In reply to GreyRadian [2013-01-02 22:33:33 +0000 UTC]

I have already try this I will retry now ^^

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Meadow-Frost [2013-01-01 22:44:54 +0000 UTC]

Step one is to make something worth coloring, I fail at that part a lot.
Thanks for making this, it actually helped me out.
Congrats on the DD, you so deserved it

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GreyRadian In reply to Meadow-Frost [2013-01-02 02:32:13 +0000 UTC]

Haha yeah I was actually gonna put in a 'how to draw' part but Photoshop couldn't handle such a big file for me so I had to take that part out and just call it a 'colouring' tutorial XD
And thank you so much!

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Meadow-Frost In reply to GreyRadian [2013-01-02 03:56:21 +0000 UTC]

Photoshop just couldn't handle the awesomeness. ; )
You're welcome.

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joeltonongkh [2013-01-01 07:11:34 +0000 UTC]

Blow me away...completely...A lot of effort there!

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GreyRadian In reply to joeltonongkh [2013-01-01 07:15:23 +0000 UTC]

thank you so much!!

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animefangirl69 [2013-01-01 06:44:50 +0000 UTC]

awesome

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Killer-Sweet [2013-01-01 06:06:54 +0000 UTC]

Sweet! Thanks for sharing!

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GreyRadian In reply to Killer-Sweet [2013-01-01 06:10:26 +0000 UTC]

no problem!!

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ImperfectlyAdorkable [2013-01-01 05:48:55 +0000 UTC]

I think you're a very talented artist, and I have nothing short of admiration for your work. I do think however, that video tutorials would be better suited as learning tools for works like these. When I read your tutorial, I felt that I was missing a lot of explanation. If I were a novice, I would not be able to do much of anything constructive purely given your tutorial. I do thank you for taking the time to create one however. And I'm sure it's helped other people given specific situations. I speak merely in a broader general sense. Congratulations on the DD, you deserve it 100%.

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GreyRadian In reply to ImperfectlyAdorkable [2013-01-01 06:10:12 +0000 UTC]

Hi! thanks for your feedback ^^ I know I could have included A LOT more things like how to actually draw at the beginning, also lighting and anatomy, but I couldn't fit it DX So I only focused on how to achieve the colouring making it a colouring tutorial only, assuming that there probably are other tutorials out there that explain anatomy etc. So yep, you're right; it's only helped people who are in a specific situation, and something like this is best for a video tutorial. But thank you very much!

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Airabee [2013-01-01 05:29:10 +0000 UTC]

*ahem* i love you.......*glomp*

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GreyRadian In reply to Airabee [2013-01-01 05:32:01 +0000 UTC]

<3

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Bansini [2013-01-01 04:35:55 +0000 UTC]

Congrats on getting the DD on this! You deserved it. I love this tutorial, it has helped me alot!

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GreyRadian In reply to Bansini [2013-01-01 04:42:43 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much! Glad it helped a lot

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Bansini In reply to GreyRadian [2013-01-01 09:50:56 +0000 UTC]

Always welcome. I love your art, keep on improving!

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NamelessOkami [2013-01-01 03:47:48 +0000 UTC]

This is amazing!
But, what would you use if you didn't have copic markers or the blending materials?

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GreyRadian In reply to NamelessOkami [2013-01-01 03:50:47 +0000 UTC]

I'd just use the colour pencils by itself, using the white pencil for blending which works nearly quite as good. The only think i dont like with the white pencil is that it desaturates the colours a bit, so u gotta keep adding a lot of layers to keep the nice colour and make it smooth

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