DC Conspiracy[dots pattern]

7.16.2007

Color

I've been experimenting with some new coloring techniques in PhotoShop and this what I've worked on so far.

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Strip 3

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Strip 3

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Strip 3

Edit:
These are some of the techniques

For these I've been separating the line art by selecting all the black and then filling it in on a layer above the drawing (and lock that layer). For a lot of things I duplicate the layer and just switch it to multiply, but I can't use the technique for filling in the lines with color that way.

I then go back to the first layer
Lately I have been putting my flat colors in using plug-ins for Photoshop called MultiFill and Flatten they can be found here http://www.bpelt.com/psplugins/flatting.html
I convert the file to RGB
And then use the MultiFill filter on the first layer. This fills all the white space with random colors. I then go through and close-up and separate any parts that are separate but have the same color and sometimes I make things I want white, white again.
I then use the Flatten filter. This takes the layer and removes the majority of the black and makes the colors larger lumps, eliminating the halo you sometimes get around colored parts.
Then it is just a matter of going through the layer and changing the colors to the ones you want.

To color in the line art:
I create a layer above my line art
Now I am going to make this a clipping area for my line art
On a Mac you hold down the Option key on a PC you hold down the Alt key
While holding the proper key down I place the cursor arrow on the line in-between the two layers.
When I click on it the top layer will move to the left slightly.
Now when you draw on that layer the color only shows up where the line art is.

I've then been trying to use the brush tool as more of a brush to create the shapes of the face. This is less something I can explain and more something I just worked on.
I mainly just use the main fuzzy edged brush at different opacities and different widths. Often I try to eliminate bleed by selecting the background color I'm going to work on.

These are some sites that helped get me to some of these techniques.
http://www.tonycliff.com/tutorials/tutorials.htm
http://www.bigtimeattic.com/blog/index.html

ETK at 4:06 PM  |  link to this   

3 Comments

A method I've been experimenting with is making a color range selection of all the black lines from an inked drawing I've scanned, then copy and paste the lines into a new transparent layer. Then I lay down the "paper" layer under that, generally something creamy but darker if the mood of the illustration warrants it. I lock those two layers and create a fresh layer in between them as my "painting canvas." With the preset brush #100 (watercolor) set anywhere between 50 and 90% opacity I then go ahead and "paint" in the color. This is what I get:
Zombie illustration

Blogger Mike O'Brien at 7/17/2007 9:02 AM   

Nice work, fellas! Evan, could you give some details on what you were playing with?

Mike, I really like how you gave the illo a silkscreen feel with the color going outside the boundaries.

Blogger Dembicki at 7/17/2007 10:23 AM   

I really enjoy the first one. Great energy Evan.

Blogger maraROCK at 7/18/2007 8:53 PM   

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