How Do You Shade in Digital?

[J.Z.Castillo]

I'm not mainly asking people who make comics traditionally but if you want to chime in, go right ahead lol

Anyway, how do you shade your digital? I first add flats and then use a layer (linear burn or multiply) to darken colors, however I use different colors instead of only one. what I mean by this is that I will use individual color to shade, which can take me HOURS like wtf.

Do you use one color (like a shade of gray or w/e) on the entire page or individual colors? I am trying to optimize my production so maybe the answers here will give me some ideas. (I'M IN COLORING HELL RIGHT NOW!!)

[69Michi]

I actually use individual color, as in individual layer for each color part and individual shading on each one of them. This method is fast for me because by now I already have an idea of how many layers I would need to color the entire panel. Like character would need 7 layers (skin, hair, 3 for clothes and 2 for eyes), after flat shading everything I just go over each individual layer, lock it and start shading by picking color and go a tone darker or lighter. Lighting and shading from environment are added last through luminosity or multiple layers.

This methods might limit your sense of shadow and lighting during the shading process but it works the fastest for me ; v ; )/

[Potoh]

I use a brush called "colour magic 2" from Kyle T. Websters brushset (link for anyone who's interested) . The brush mixes two colours with each other and composes a sort of pattern (I put a page as example, because I don't know exactley how to explain it. All the colours are made with only one brush in one go, I didn't shade or mix them myself. I always use black with one brighter colour (in chapter 1 it's orange, don't know for chapter 2 yet). I do it that way because I really suck at chosing good colour combinations, but I didn't wanted to do only black and white. It takes a while, but I think it's worth the work.

[60Six]

CURVES!!! Curves is where it's at. I'll have to come back later to add images to explain myself better but basically I use a curves adjustment layer to make my shadow color. Then on top of it, I bring up the colors I brought down to make the shadow to make the lighting color. Then with a mask, I erase the lighting curve to reveal the shadow underneath it. It's fantastic because I essentially only have to work with two colors (black and white for the mask) so all I have to do is hit X to flip back and forth adding or erasing the lighting.

I'm sorry if this makes no sense without any images to explain myself. OTL It's a technique I learned in school and I absolutely love it.

[Kayke]

I flat and then individually pic colors to shade with, usually one darker and one lighter than the original color, but sometimes more or fewer depending on the surface, like metal gets 2 highlights sometimes and clothing doesn't get a highlight unless it's a shiny fabric.

It can take a really long time when I'm first picking colors, but once I have the colors set for one page I just use that as a pallet for the rest of the pages in that scene to keep the shade consistent. I love color, so it's important to me that the colors are specific and deliberate, even if it's a time suck -_-

As far as layers go, I actually use really few layers. I'll color the background on one (shades and highlights and everything) and then the characters and foreground objects on another and patterns on a layer above that. I used to do each thing as it's own layer but I realized I was making files huge for no real reason since my cell shading isn't that complex.

[Michelle]

I do a flats layer, then a combination of gradients and multiply layers to add in quick shading (for a greyscale comic).

I will say for colour comics, I greatly prefer when an artist takes the time to pick individual colours for shading. Or if they do shade with one colour, just don't pick grey! Shading with only grey/black on a colour comic makes the colouring look so muddy and barfy @_@

[joannekwan]

Because I wanted to work on my color theory, I'm doing the "going in individually and picking colors lighter or darker than the flats" way. Sometimes when I'm lazy though I'll do a multiply/overlay layer.

[shazzbaa]

I do use multiply layers, and I use one colour for each scene! Shadows in real life are often the opposite of the colour of the light -- an area with warm yellow-orange light is gonna have blue-purplish shadows (which is why so many people shade in purple by default), but the colour I use will also be affected by how I want the scene to feel -- I might pick a warmer kind of purple if I want it to feel warm, or something weird like green if I want the lighting to feel unnatural and spooky.

In illustrations I'll try to paint and colour-pick without using multiply layers, which gives you more control over each element individually, but it takes me too long to use that for my comic pages, haha!

[El_Psy_Congroo]

I do a multiply layer and use a bluish-grey since shadows are supposed to be blue grey. But lately I've been noticing that doesn't have the greatest effect on all the characters. Jun (the blue haired one) especially looks kinda... unhealthily gray in some panels... but I may up the saturation on the color I use for her flat skin tone.

I've also been putting on an overlay layer (blue or orange depending on lighting) to harmonize the colors and establish the brightness of the scene. I also sometimes add/glow or glow dodge some highlights lightly with a spray paint brush. Usually I'll use the same bluish gray I use for the shadows for an indoor highlight. I might change to orange for outdoors.

[keii4ii]

Am I the only person who usually adds LIGHT instead of shadows... :'D Sometimes I'll add both (especially if I have time and really want the picture to look polished), but when I add just one, 9 times out of 10 it'll be the light.

(Deleted above post because I accidentally quoted someone's post without any reason, OTL)

[GesuGesu]

I colour-pick my shading for each layer! I've never gotten used to using a multiply layer on top unless it was something like a patterned shirt or a background object. Picking individual colours off the colour wheel lets me make the art more colourful and have a sense of depth where some things are shaded towards cool colours, and some things are shaded towards warm colours.

I do add another grey-purple multiply layer on top for extra effects (like drop shadows, or adding mood).

[J.Z.Castillo]

@69Erocento OOOH HELL NO, too many layers too much work, jeesus crust, crazy!

@junorunow oooh I might check this out!

@Riko YEESSS please! This sounds actually kind of fast! Mini tutorial maybe????

It can take a really long time when I'm first picking colors, but once I have the colors set for one page I just use that as a pallet for the rest of the pages in that scene to keep the shade consistent. I love color, so it's important to me that the colors are specific and deliberate, even if it's a time suck -_-

As far as layers go, I actually use really few layers. I'll color the background on one (shades and highlights and everything) and then the characters and foreground objects on another and patterns on a layer above that.

I pretty much do the exact same thing but I feel like I just take SSSSOOOOO long doing it, like wtf man!

Shading with only grey/black on a colour comic makes the colouring look so muddy and barfy @_@

Yeah I have never shaded with only gray (warm, cool, toner, and neutral grays) for comic pages, but I have done it for quick illustrations and it just makes everything so quick, but you're right, it makes things look a bit toned down.

@joannekwan that's what I do, multiply and linear burn all the way! lmao

Shadows in real life are often the opposite of the colour of the light -- an area with warm yellow-orange light is gonna have blue-purplish shadows (which is why so many people shade in purple by default), but the colour I use will also be affected by how I want the scene to feel -- I might pick a warmer kind of purple if I want it to feel warm, or something weird like green if I want the lighting to feel unnatural and spooky.

I never thought of that!! Changed my life! So you do use one single color for the shading, mmh, I'll try it out soon! Right now actually lol!!

@keii4ii So do you start with a darker base?

[isaacfriedman]

Sometimes I use multiple colors on one layer, but usually I color an entire area and then create layers on top of that that are just black with different levels of opacity:

[Kayke]

Yeah it's the most time consuming thing in my whole process! But at least it's not something that needs intense concentration so I can do it while talking to people or watching TV shrug

[60Six]

YEESSS please! This sounds actually kind of fast! Mini tutorial maybe????

Once you understand how curves work, it's a very easy work flow and I've been meaning to put together a small tutorial for a while. I especially like it because it's very consistent. I have three curves adjustment layers (1 for shadow, 1 for lighting, and 1 for highlights), and just duplicate them onto each page. It's great because I just keep a document with all of my curves layers for different lightings and just open up each one as I need it. So like when they go outside, I just open the "day time outside" folder and duplicate it, or when it's a night time scene, I just open the "night time apartment" folder, "day time apartment," "sun set," "street lights at night," ect. Keeps things very consistent!

[J.Z.Castillo]

@Riko

[Nyamesis]

uwoh this indeed sounds like a neat trick!

but then I always just wing my shading at the moment so its probably not the best workflow for me hahah ^^'

[JessJackdaw]

Ahh! No, you're not the only one! I do that too!

I start from a really dark base then color in the light areas! Depending on the lighting situation some of the bases might be a really strange color. Usually I paint people with dark warm color bases for a faux subsurface scattering effect! Haha, so I guess I don't really "shade" much at all. XD

[Nyamesis]

speaking about winging some options would be:

draw in everything at once

draw in one grey flat and then shade+colour that with locked opacity

draw in greyscale and then use an overlay layer to colour, and afterwards fix the colours with balancing and a normal colour layer

draw in flat colours and then shade with several layer types (mostly multiply/luminosity or dodge/overlay) to achieve shades

ANYWAY the type of shading I use really depends on the style. And I just want my layers to be only a few, so I always merge them to avoid confusion

There's indeed a whole lot that can be done with adjustment layers such as curves, saturation, levels, gradients to play with just experiment more!

[Michelle]

If you ever do a tutorial I'd love to check it out! D: That sounds like a great time-saver for colouring!