Coloring Technique Sharing

Townie · Post by **Townie** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 3:49 pm

Copied it to a new layer a couple times, set it to multiply, and merged it down. Then I just used a layer style outline to give it some oomf

Bluebug · Post by **Bluebug** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 4:56 pm

Levi-chan wrote:Whoa, Bluebug. That is so freakin awesome! I wanna bear your children now!

How did you do the hair, B? And the lips! And the shading! And everything! Just...wow.

-L

The girl's hair was a bunch of layers set to multiply for the shadows and linear dodge for the highlights. I tried to achieve the strands of hair using a combination of the polygonal lasso tool and the paintbrush tool.

By comparison, the lips were pretty simple. For the upper lip, I used a darker color, and for the lower lip I used a lighter color. Then I added a highlight to the bottom lip.

To be honest (and hopefully this doesn't make me sound all uppity), I'm not too happy with her hair. It's a bit too messy and kinda flat looking for my liking. I wanted to do this with her hair ...

... which is an old image I did this year, but I was in the zone or something cuz it turned out much better ^^;; I hate it when my art actually regresses!

Humbug · Post by **Humbug** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 6:50 am

Love the effects, Bluebug. Very nicely done.

William G · Post by **William G** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 8:28 am

I started working on Townie's pic the other night, and then I realized that I was screwing up some fantastic lineart that needed color like Brad Pitt needed help getting women.

So I stopped.

Townie · Post by **Townie** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 8:57 am

Aww, thanks, William G. I must say I really enjoyed coloring your sample. I'm still working on getting nice clean art and backgrounds like that. (Lately it only seems to work when I do flashbacks to the 20s for some reason.) Feel free to show us what you've been doing, anyway. I really like seeing other artists doing stuff with my work. And here's another for anybody that wants to play with it. I just resized it so it might be easier to get something out of it -

Levi-chan · Post by **Levi-chan** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 5:05 pm

Holy damned crap, Bluebug! I am much too awesomed. I tried to do the strands-of-hair coloring thingie, but ended up fubaring it pretty bad. it looked cel-ey.

Also, you know the ambient lighting that you used for the hair? Did you use like, any 'principles' or rules with regards to that?

-L

Taiwanimation · Post by **Taiwanimation** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 8:02 pm

must get a tablet

Eunice P · Post by **Eunice P** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 11:31 pm

Awesome work, BB. I wish I had the time to do coloring practice. >>;

Uh? What's this strange bar thing on top of my avie?

Bluebug · Post by **Bluebug** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 4:11 pm

In answer to your question Levi-chan, I'll just quote myself:

bluebug wrote:As for ambient lighting, I think of it as emanating from the floor .. and then I wing it from there I find that the key is to slap some on the chin and underside of the face, which really goes a long way to "flesh out" a character on screen. Then I add lighting to the underside of arms and the backs of legs. I didn't quite follow my own rules in this pic, but you get the idea. And I just noticed that some of the lighting from his legs is missing ... musta disappeared when I was merging all the layers ...

LAGtheNoggin did the best job on ambient lighting/back lighting in this thread so far.

You'll notice the lighting hits the underside of every body surface. I tend to make my backlighting more graduated, so the effect isn't as dramatic. It depends on the effect you're going for.

Oddly, the thing I'm most proud of in this picture is that little cloud in the top left hand corner. It's so perfectly ... cloudlike. And gotta love the fire. You have to do more fanart of Colonel Mustang, Soap (nudge nudge) I love that guy.

So yeah, sorry Levi-chan, but I'm marrying Mustang. Unless you're a dog-loving pyro ... Mmm. Fire.

Hey ... you asked this question before!

Hope the answer helps this time.

Bluebug · Post by **Bluebug** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 4:13 pm

Eunice P wrote:Awesome work, BB. I wish I had the time to do coloring practice. >>;

Uh? What's this strange bar thing on top of my avie?

My guess is that it gives you your progress towards the next level in the forum (ie. it gives an estimate of how many more posts you need to move from say, "forum lurker" to "forum denizen".

Levi-chan · Post by **Levi-chan** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 4:23 pm

GAH. Meep.

I mean, well, the hair. Since it's not as consistent as say, skin, my brain's kinda wonking out on where to put it in. It just looks goofy when I do it.

Oh well, to the references! *goes to Kurenai Mashin site*

Bluebug · Post by **Bluebug** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 7:52 pm

Well, I basically use the same principles whether coloring hair, skin or clothing. I think of the light source as coming from the floor. The only "trick" with hair isn't really a trick at all. Just like everything else, the ambient lighting must follow the contours/textures of the shape. So for example, for skin, the lighting would be smooth and slightly rounded. For clothes, the lighting would be a bit straighter. For hair, the lighting would have "strands" (look carefully at the orange-haired elf in my pic ... you'll notice blue "strands" of hair - that's the ambient lighting).

The basic idea is that light, just like shadow, follows the shape on which it sits. I suppose the easiest way is to think of light like a liquid. Imagine how this "liquid" would sit ON TOP of your skin, your clothes etc.

I hope that makes sense. I don't pretend to be an expert or anything ... that's all just what goes through my head when I'm doing ambient lighting.

It would be awesome if you checked out my comic. It would be even cooler if you could give me some comments on it in my critique thread. Yeah, yeah, none too subtle am I

. But I've only got 1 reply so far so ... yeah *sweatdrop* Perhaps I was asking for too much ... but really, any comments will do!

Sput · Post by **Sput** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:06 pm

levi:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=259468
http://seegmillerart.com/images/tutoria ... hair1.html
2 that really help me out X3; i still can't get it quite right. hair is ahrd to follow. no pun intended.

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:37 pm

*commits her first act of thread necromancy*

BUT I had to. 'Cause I did this:

It was much fun. The kilt-skirt-robe thing was fun to do, although the "dark" effect hides most of the shading I did.

CW

Humbug · Post by **Humbug** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:17 am

Oh wow! That totally rocks! I love the light/shadow effects, it was beautifully done.

Nightgaunt · Post by **Nightgaunt** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 12:20 pm

bump

because this thread should never die

Bluebug · Post by **Bluebug** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 8:37 pm

Nightgaunt : lol.

chris: Love the coloring job you did on Humbug's pic.

Here's random fanart if anyone wants something to color. It's from http://shiningknight.drowtales.com

In case it's not clear, the dragon is made out of pure metal.

Townie · Post by **Townie** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 9:41 am

Yes, this thread should be stickied or something. It's much more fun than a simple tutorial. I'm gonna have to try giving that dragon some color once I get caught up on my own work

Humbug · Post by **Humbug** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:04 pm

*EDIT: Uploaded completed art.*

Just thought I'd post this little something I was coloring last night. I was trying out a simple coloring style. I'ts only 3 tones with a very soft airbrush. It looks very pastel and glowy. ^^

I'm also practicing inking with the brush tool in Photoshop, it's hard work, but I love the clean crisp lines it gives.

Townie · Post by **Townie** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:35 pm

Very nice, Humbug. I really like the rendering on the skin, scarf, and skirt. It'd be kinda nice to see that on the flatter surfaces, too. Here's my latest attempt. I'm trying to do a wee about face and see if I can develop another coloring style