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juuhanna — TUTORIAL 2: Adding Colors
#cs4 #digitalart #digitalpainting #meganerid #pscs4 #coloring #colors #form #greyscale #grisaille #juuhanna #lightsource #painting #photoshop #sword #tutorial #warrior #woman #howto #photoshoptutorial #topaint #warriorwoman #howtopaint
Published: 2012-12-26 17:35:11 +0000 UTC; Views: 83005; Favourites: 2943; Downloads: 1378
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EDIT! HEY ALL! Since I posted this tutorial, I have changed by technique a bit! I have realized that it's better to use SOFT LIGHT-layer style for the color-layers instead of overlay! Overlay can be too strong and garish, using soft light layers and making many of those can give a much softer result! Sorry for the inconvenience, I'll be making a new tutorial sometime that explains the soft light layers!
Here's tutorial 2/3!
I hope I was able to explain how I add the colors. And if you need clarification on some part, don't hesitate to ask!
I will try to finish part 3 soon, where I will show how I start to actually paint over this base I've created.
I used Photoshop CS4 with Wacom Intuos3 for this.
The brush is Photoshop's standard hard round brush.
The lineart was provided by MeganeRid , go see his gallery for awesome drawings!
TUTORIAL part 1:
TUTORIAL part 3:
@ TUMBLR: puhatiikeri.tumblr.com/post/38…
FINISHED IMAGE:
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Comments: 143
i'm not even on your level XD
It looks fantastic! Great job!
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Thank you very much!
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There's one thing that bothers me about painting in grey-scale first. I've been told by MANY artists to never shade with black, and instead, use different hues and saturations along with darkening. But this method uses only grey scale to lighten and darken, so how do you keep the painting from looking bland and de-saturated?
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Well, if you use pure black or pure white in the greyscale, those areas won't pick up any color from the transparent color-layers later on, and in worst case will look 'lifeless'.
Pure b&w can be used intentionally of course, but when it is used by accident it doesn't do the piece any favors most of the time. So they're not totally forbidden, they just should be used intentionally so that they support the piece as a whole.
I leave the greyscale layer on normal setting to the bottom and lay the colors on top of the greyscale, so all areas pick up some color. If some area looks too dull after the first color-layer, it's easy to create more soft light layers on top of the whole thing and add some more colors to whatever areas might need it. These days I have up to 10 color-layers, so I build up the color-scheme gradually.
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thx for this great tutorial, just one question: where can i get the color swatches you use?
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Thanks! I got the swatch from CGHub, you can download it here -> cghub.com/scripts/view/96/
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I don't remember if I already commented on this, but figured I should if I didn't. This was really helpful - thanks so much!! Even though I only use Gimp, the method worked just fine either way. Made this using its help: fav.me/d6utu4j . Even though I am a million year late - thanks again!
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That's awesome to hear, thanks for letting me know - and good job with the painting! Also it's good to hear that the technique can be used in Gimp also.
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Really helpful and thorough tutorial, thanks so much!
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Not a problem, I'm glad to be helpful!
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I have a dumb question but...well, sort of question.
When *I* do this, my hard fought-over shading washes out after I put the overlay layer with the colors. How do you maintain the shading? How do you make the colors so vibrant?
This is the only obstacle keeping me from doing this technique permanently.
Thanks for your help in advance! ^^
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As I build the color-layers I use a lower opacity brush; if you use 100% opacity brush it'll wash out the greyscale. Also, I've started to use more and more layers that are set on soft light instead of overlay.
Also you can try to adjust the greyscale layer a bit darker with curves-tool to make the contrast show better under the color-layers. 
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I'll have to try this. I've been desperately trying to improve my coloring and I just...can't seem to get it. 
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If you want to, you can stop by at my livestream someday and I can show you how I do it
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When I get reliable internet I'll certainly take you up on that if you're willing. I'm striving hard to imrpove my artwork so any help is greatly appeciated.
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Awesome, my LS is www.livestream.com/juuhanna , stop by anytime! I don't have any recordings yet but I try to stream as often as possible.
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can i ask something ? ... what will happen to line art ?... do you change the color of it ? or you just lower the capacity ?
anyway this tutorial is so good .. it helped me to learn so many things ... thanks XD
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I usually lower the opacity of the lineart 'till it looks good (usually 60~80%), and in the final steps I flatten the entire piece (greyscale+colors+lineart) and paint over the areas that need fixing, including the lineart.
And you're welcome! I'm so happy to hear it's been useful to you!
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i colored this with your tutorial .. any tips for me ? fav.me/d6h5knc
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I left you a comment! You've painted the lines real nicely!
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aww .. i saw it ... thank you very much for your helps XD
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Not always, sometimes I use more opaque brush, but sometimes I like to use more transparent brush and build many layers of color.
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I see... because when i try color the greyscale with 100% opacity brush the result was become high contrast... thanks for the tutorial here... it's a great help
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Ahh yes, sometimes it's better to make a lot of color-layers with transparent brush instead of just flat 100% layers. It's easier to get lots of lovely colors blend nicely that way!
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ok so I have all the layers done but could you please clarify for each layer what mode and what opacity level?
other than that I found this a wonderful tutorial you show each step and layer and that it can look really sloppy in areas but it will still turn out good. Most tutorials will seem to be miss some critical steps were suddenly their picture turns from amorphous blob to perfectly finished. That and I never thought to use a grey scale layer which I'm excited to try
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I think I'll try to make a quick tutorial about the differences between layer modes someday since I get asked about them a lot. And they are very different, some have huge difference and some only slight difference.
The mode and opacity I use changes and varies a lot, it's just a matter of what looks good really... but in a nutshell, and very simplified, I'd say that for greyscale I make
1 layer of flat medium grey on normal mode, 100% opacity. On top of it, three or four layers. Few that have slightly darker grey, those layers I have on multiply mode (for shadows, you can adjust the opacity 'till it looks good) and few layers for lighter parts (lighter grey on overlay mode layer).
Once the greys are done, I flatten them to keep things simple.
Then I add a new layer on either overlay or soft light, I usually start by painting some skin tone to it. As the layer is transparent, it will allow the shadows to show through, and I also use soft brush at this point. I make many of these layers, just overlay or soft light, and soft brush with 70% or so opacity, to keep things soft and not too refined. It's nice to let color-areas blend over the lines so the result looks more natural and not so paper-cutout like or anything. *__* And then once I have like... a dozen or so color-layers and it all starts to make sense in visual terms, I flatten the whole thing again, and make a new normal layer onto which I do the overpainting. As long as the layers are on multiply/overlaye/soft light, they will allow the shadows formed by the greyscale to show through!
PHEW! I hope that makes sense. It's a bit complicated to explain altho the method itself is easy, it's just... slapping transparent soft layers on top of each other 'till it looks good and then detailing and cleaning up. *__* If some part didn't make sense or I left something out, lemme know and I can explain further!
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I hope it works well for you! 
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KIITOS, mä oon miettinyt NIIN kauan, "Mitä layer mode:ia ihmiset käyttää kun ne lisää värejä mustavalkoiseen pohjaan?!?? Onko se vaan "color" vai mikä??" Mä en yleinsä maalaa näin, mä maalaan suoraan väreillä, mutta tämä on kiusannut mua kauan. Ja kyllä tämä auttaa mua kuitenkin, vaikka en maalais samalla tavalla! C: Kiitos!!!
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Joo, se on aika tärkeää että valkkaa parhaiten sopivan moodin - jos laittaa esim multiply moodilla värit niin koko hässäkkä tummenee huomattavasti ja se on hyvä ottaa huomioon harmaasävyä tehdessä. Itse käytän tosiaan overlay-modea joka vaalentaa pohjan tummuus-astetta pykälän verran, jolloin on hyvä ottaa se huomioon ja tehdä harmaasävyistä hieman tummemmat, ja niin päin pois. Kaikki riippuu niin monesta asiasta, tärkeetä on löytää itselle parhain combo.
Ja tällä tavallahan voi lisätä uusia kerroksia vaikka pohjalla olisi maalauksellisesti maalattuja kerroksia. Samalla tapaa kuin öljyvärimaalauksessa voi maalata ekaksi paksulla värillä ja maalauksellisesti, ja lopuksi vielä hienosäätää sävyjä ohuilla lasuuri-kerroksilla. Tämä on oikeastaan samaa meininkiä, mutta digitaalisesti.
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Niin onkin 
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No problem, I'm glad they're of use!
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hm, i don't understand the transparency lock.
So if used it'll make colors on that layer "pop" more?
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It locks the pixels, so when you paint over it'll only paint onto the areas you have added color to previously. I find it easy to make neat looking, consistent shines on objects that are apart from eachother by locking layer and then pulling the brushstroke over all areas. I hope that made sense, it's a bit difficult to explain. *__* But basically by locking pixels you won't be painting into areas that are transparent.
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oh alright, thanks for the explanation!
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No problem, if you have any more questions feel free to ask!
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I think I'm going to try this coloring method. This may be very nice way to do coloring...
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Awesome! And if any questions concerning the technique come to mind, don't hesitate to ask!
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