How do you digitally color you panels and covers and thing, like how do you guys color in general. I know I personally just flat color everything then slap a gradient on but like what techniques does everyone else use?
Dec '15
Dec '15
Well, I flat color everything, then add two layers: A lighten layer at max opacity, and a multiply layer at 50% opacity.
The lighten layer mainly used for highlights on shiny surfaces (like hair for example), and the multiply layer is for shadows.
Sometimes depending on if I have the time, I have the brush used on those layers set to a low opacity for a gradual shading.
As for the eyes, I mainly slap down a gradient, pick the color on top and blob it down a bit into the lighter area, pick a darker version of it and use it as the pupil, and using a watercolor brush set to white, add in the shine to the eyes.
Very interesting topic. I do the typical flats, simple values, and paint in textures where they're needed. Then, I scan in some watercolour splashes I make (which are wholly free to anyone who wants to use them, no credit back needed ever!) and layer them in over the base colours. Sometimes, just de-saturating them and putting them on soft light or multiply makes for some awesome quick texture. I'll link to my pixiv for anyone interested!
So yeah, I just layer those ink/watercolour splashes in over the flats to give it a bit of a painterly feel. It's nice!
I typically just lay down flats, color those in the correct base color, and then draw the shadows directly on top on that same layer. Occasionally if the lighting in a scene is weird, or I'm tying to accomplish something a little strange with the colors I'll add a layer on top t fix it (shade, overlay, luminosity, etc.).
I use the same brush on the same settings for all of it as well. It's incredibly easy honestly.
For Demon House I do line art, then flats, then shadows and any highlights.
As for my illustrations, I have three coloring styles.
The first of which is lines and flats, maybe I'll add in some watercolor textures or gradients, like so...
Then my second style, I use the lasso tool and this one brush to fill shapes with colors. Then I accent it by drawing certain lines or details with this other brush...
Then lastly is just full on digital painting. I don't do this one very often because I don't think I'm very good at it. But I like to practice when I can.
@joannekwan Those are some incredibly versatile painting styles, man alive. I love how you paint digitally, it certainly doesn't look like you feel insecure, hah! It's really impressive to see that your work is strong both with and without lineart, too. Way rad stuff!!
I didn't have a sample prepared but I do now! Here's a couple pages from TNSTAJ IT featuring just flats and then after I add values and textures. It's really fun, I could end up spending hours just tweaking things with different ink splashes.
Thanks!
I really like the subtle effects the watercolor textures add to your work! It complements it nicely~
My method is kind of convoluted, and never exactly the same each time, but it goes something like this:
Then do the same for hair.
2.) Flat colours on all the clothes+accessories for the characters+stuff in the foreground. Just plain flat colours, no frills.
3.) Flat colours on everything in the environment/background.
4.) Paint highlights/shadows on some stuff in the background - like water, or trees and bushes, or anything else that is complex and needs some definition.
5.) Add a layer set to overlay, break out the airbrush and start adjusting the atmospheric lighting/ambient light to enhance the general mood of the scene. If everyone's sitting around a campfire, the atmospheric lighting will be warm, yellow-orange tones for the areas that are well-lit, with some complimentary blue lighting for the areas that will be in shadow.
6.) Add another layer set to multiply and draw all the shadows in. This is where the previously plain flats on the character-flats-layer get shaded, and the already shaded areas of skin/hair get some stronger drop-shadows and stuff.
7.) Yet another layer set to "glow dodge" for all extra-intense highlights, like rimlighting or glowy magical stuff or reflected light from fires, etc.
8.) Lock+multiply the lineart layers and colour the lineart. Outlines of characters and stuff in the extreme foreground stay black, but everything else gets coloured. I keep character-outlines black to make them stand out from the background, but colour everything else for atmospheric perspective - stuff farther away from the camera has lighter lines/colours than stuff closer to the camera, etc.
Optional extra steps - patterns, tattoos, markings/bloodstains, hand-written soundeffects, etc., all on separate layers.
I, like @joannekwan, have other methods of colouring that I mostly use on illustrations - like digital painting (yours is looking gorgeous, Joanne - don't worry about it!), where I paint over the lines, but I don't use that on Grassblades because it takes a LOT of time. It looks nice, but man, is it ever a timesink.
Sometimes, I colour without bothering to ink first, leaving the sketch visible:
Aaand here's a better view of what a picture coloured with the step-by-step method I described above looks like. It's got the glow-dodge rimlighting and everything:
Comic wise, I stay inside the boundary of lines and use a hard brush to lay down flats.
Any other art I do...I have no idea how to describe it but here's a gif! Obviously if I'm rendering I slap on some kind of shading, but for the most part this is how I do my flat-colors outside of my comic.
In coloring, I'll either do this style.
where I cleanup the sketch, put in flats (recently, I'm using gradient colors instead of plain flat colors for more nice effects), shading and highlights. I use pen tool in doing this.
or this:
and something in between these two
where I clean-up the sketch, add flats then just brush in the shading.
I just adore doing cell-shading. Or at least I like the looks of crisp and clean lines/edges (this will probably be the death of me).
Art Process!!!:
Other stuffz!:
I do simple cell shading. Usually I flat color everything and then do a shadow and a highlight (where applicable). I also don't use a lot of layers when I color. I'll put all the background coloring on one later and then the characters on another, but I'm not one of those people who makes a layer for each different item.
Sometimes I add some texture by overlaying a scan of some old paper.
My comic Lemongrass is cel-shaded. The way I colour the characters is generally quite straightforward, but I like to create very high-detail textures for my backgrounds. These are also cel-shaded. Aside from a few extra effects with gradients or a softer brush, everything is done with the same hard round brush.
Flats and shading:
Finished page:
Textures at 100%:
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