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Shinerai β Tutorial: Adding Color With Gradient Maps
Published: 2013-02-08 22:34:11 +0000 UTC; Views: 101077; Favourites: 4400; Downloads: 1581
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DescriptionMy progress image for the Yoi painting seems to have been well received, and I've gotten questions in the past about how I add color to my monochrome images. I tried to find some good Gradient Map tutorials to show other deviants, but I had no luck. So I made one myself.I'm not that great at making tutorials, so I hope it isn't confusing. It's probably not the best for beginners at Photoshop. I hope you enjoy, regardless.
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Comments: 231
xD and this is why many digital artists have a hard time learning traditional. looks awesome though, didn't know your technique was so simple. :3
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you can apply a similar technique easily with markers.
This isn't my primary technique but I do use it sometimes c:
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the difference is you really gotta know your craps with markers XD there's no turning back.
and I'm aware, I meant the average digital artist.
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Oooh, nice. I've had this sitting in my inbox waiting to be looked at for awhile, and now that I've finally taken a look, I can't fathom what took me so long! This is an utterly brilliant coloring technique. I really want to try it out. I hate coloring my stuff because...well, coloring really isn't a strength of mine. 
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You're very welcome c: I hope it works well for you!
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I hope it does, too.
With me being as lazy as I am, though, it might be awhile before I actually try it out...
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woooooooow *^*
I love drawing.
I love well-coloured pictures.
I FREAKING LOVE DRAGONS.
And that is perfect.
I tried and tried and tried to colour like that with Photoshop CS, but I'm definitely not good with the pen tablet XD
Just how and where did you learn to colour such wonderful digital paintings? I can't, every time I try I end up ruining the drawing I made
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Thank you so much for your compliments! I'm glad you like my work. To be honest, I have been drawing digitally since 2006 and, trust me, I wasn't good at first either. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of failure to make progress.
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In only 7 years I would never reach that level XD
But did you attend any lessons, with any teachers? Or did you just learn drawing on your own?
Because I try to do it myself, but I don't know how to use Photoshop, and even if I look for tutorials on the Internet I never find what I'm searching.
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I just learned on my own and from friends
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Just as I thought, you're really amazing
I'll try too, someday I will succeed ^__^
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This is a cool-looking technique that I will have to try!
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amazing. do you color all of your pics this way?
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No, not all the time! Lately, I have been but i seem to do whatever I'm in the mood to do xD
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aw very cool. i've been using this technique 
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You're very welcome! I'm glad it was useful to you. I remember the selection brush from PSE2, and it was so hard to get used to not having it when I moved to real Photoshop xD. I think the most comparable replacement is the Quickmask tool. If you press the letter Q, you can draw and paint on the canvas, but it'll do so in a weird overlay red color. It'll still sense pressure and everything. Then, when you're done, press Q again and it'll turn it into a selection!
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OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU. Thank you!!! Wow.... I'm so bad with photoshop because there's so much stuff to learn I just get overwhelmed so I put it down. Ahhh, you've made my month <3
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Hahaha. You are so welcome! I know what you mean. There are some programs that I'll just tableflip within 15 mins. And this is what Illustrator makes me do. [link]
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LOL! I feel the same way about illustrator, haha. I only ever learned the very basics of that program, enough to make some vector stuff.. the simple stuff.. when I tried to make anything more involved or detailed, yep, everyone will die.
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Hahaha. The thing about Illustrator is. . . well the only reason I wanted to use it in the first place is when I got my new job, I actually got a cubicle right? And I'm like man, I gotta decorate this ting. I need to make a giant vector image of my lizard's face. And I feel that the people that made Illustrator and the people that made Photoshop just all decided to use the same icons and make them do different things. So everything I was used to just got turned totally up-side down. ffffff
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Wow this is a really good tutorial. Do you ever do paintings just from scratch without using gradients?
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I'm glad you found it useful!! I have before. I did this one here [link] In full color. and this one [link] is painted partially in color with an overlay/color layer for editing. I haven't really messed with painting in full color since that Galidor one but I should seriously try it again.
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This makes coloring sooo much easier! Thanks sooo much for sharing! ^^ I doubt I'll ever get used to painting an image on the computer, even with my tablet. Some odd reason, drawing by hand has always been easier for me.
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Yu're very welcome! I thought I'd never get used to digital art either, but now it's the other way around xD I'm not so good with traditional art.
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That's how I feel. xD I used to always use prisma things and make a few realistic pics, but now I mostly draw like an anime/cartoon-like style. I still love to use prisma markers, I'm just picky when I use them. Lol.
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I didn't know you could do that in photoshop! 
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Awesome! I always wondered how you colour. I assumed you used a glazing technique but this seems much nicer
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I just started using this technique starting that painting there. I typically either painted the image in color from the start or would attempt to add colors using an overlay layer, but this seems to work the best for me so far. I hope it works for you too!
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Thanks! Well it looks like a great technique, i've always loved your colours
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Holy hell I cannot thank you enough for making this. Gradient maps have confused me for ages and you've just cleared everything up in two minutes flat. Man, you make it looks so easy!
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I'm sorry for the late replies on all your comments, but I really appreciate all of them cx I'm so glad this tutorial was useful to you!
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No worries at all, I appreciate you taking the time to make these tutorials!
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Wow, thank you so much for this tutorial! It's really awesome :3 I have played around with gradient maps for changing the overall tone of the picture but never really got the idea of using them to color a character P: This will definetly be helpful in the future! The tutorial itself is great, too, it's easily understandable since you put all the relevant windows in there and explained what everything does and how it can be used. The simple layout and color scheme choice is pleasing to the eyes and does not distract from the information the tutorial provides :3 Great job! (The image itself is gorgeous, too, but I'd rather comment it seperately at some point :3 )
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You're very welcome c: You know, I'm the opposite! I've never really played around with them to change the tone of a picture so maybe I should give that a try too!
I appreciate the compliments and feedback on the presentation of the tutorial itself as well cx thank you!
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Okay, I actually only tried that because I've seen it in a few tutorials/walkthroughs of speedpaintings P:
No problem :3
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Shinerai - thank you so much for sharing this. I've never used gradient maps before and now understand and appreciate their usefulness. I've been stuck in a digital art world still coloring the traditional art way (permanent colors applied to different layers and tweaked individually - VERY time consuming). Next time I draw a picture (which will probably be months from now, sadly), I'll give this a try.
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I know what you mean about the layers. I'm kindof the opposite; I work on 1-3 layers so when I need to change colors, it's nearly impossible XD I actually came up with this in order to add color to a character reference sheet I'm doing as a commission so that the colors (which are gradients) would be easily editable if the commissioner decided. Didn't think it was gonna be so useful on regular art too, but boy am I pleased
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It works really well and gives your art a unique flare. I do have one question - what is the eye-dropper? It must be a tool I never use b/c you mentioned it several times but didn't understand how you were using it to shade your piece.
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Oh, I didn't think to explain that, I'm sorry! I hope not too many others feel left in the dark. The eyedropper is this here [link]
The eyedropper allows you to change the color you're painting with by selecting it straight from a point on your canvas. Like if I have a dragon that I've already painted red eyes on but I don't have that swatch, I can just eyedrop the red to paint with that color on other parts of the canvas.
You can access the eyedropper by clicking on it, by holding the "alt" key while the brush is your active tool, or by pressing the letter "I" on your keyboard
I never keep swatches for my artwork so I abuse the eyedropper constantly during all of my work XD
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It's funny, I use it now and then but not as well as you have suggested with your tutorial. I plan to color up a new version for Bladewind sometime, and I think I'll give it a try. I used to not keep swatches, it's still a chore to set one up b/c it doesn't come naturally, hehe.
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This helped me out sooooo much thank you!
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You're welcome c:
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This is useful. I shall tinker with it in the future.
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what's a ΓΌrpgramm ? o-o
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