Wheeee its a tutorial! Or tips and tricks... which was a good magazine. (is it still?)


Anyway, there are two versions of this... sorta. I tried to be nice to the 56k people, who would have to wait 59 seconds for my full version to load. (that's a long time, I'm really sorry.) So the preview is only the picture screenshots. If you really like me, you'll use the full version, but if not...
There's a repeat of all the type under all the "===" down there. The preview version is laid out and marked out differently. So you'll have to deal with referencing between the two. I also don't care if you save either version (and this text) to your hard drive for not-online use (like I'm able to stop you anyway).
And if the 59 second waiters do that, you'll never have to wait again >D

Now to rant.... I spend a full freakin' day doing this. Mostly for because she needs help. She told me I needed to teach her, and because she didn't invite me over for personal help (the wench), I worked on this. You, of all people are going to wait for the full-view version. If not.... I will hurt you. You know I will. *evil laugh ~pyo ~pyo*

Comments and questions and "you sucks" are welcome, but don't make the latter too often or use colorful words. I already know I'm not the best. *looks up to her superiors* Darn, I'm short. Anyway... I have limited intarweb access, so please don't be angry if I don't answer right away. Especially during the weekend. I have classes (internet access) Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday only. That's the only time I'm here.


And if I help in any way... tell me... just so these 10 hours are worth something *whine* *cheese* *crackers*


Shiro finished (with tweaks) is being posted before or afterwards this one. (I'm writing this Weds. night at.... 11pm... ug... I gotta finish my homework...) Please go say hi to his poor poor miserable self.


---------------------------------------- -----------------

Techie things I didn't mention

-You know you got good coloring if the outside of the colored areas are smooth if you hide the line-art. Try it sometime.
-Paint bucketing is tacky most of the time. Know when to use it if you do.
-There are other ways to color and do this. These are my preferred ways. The magic wand tool is a quick way to color, but I find issues with the lines not being colored all the way. Like for the paint bucket. If it works for you, do it. These are only hints on how I color stuff.
-Create your own style!
-Everything I say here can be done with the mouse. It just needs to be executed a little more creatively. Actually, the pen tool is easier to control with the mouse. Tablets are for cheater machines anyway. *blinks* I took a little more care in my drawing when I used the mouse....
-SHORTCUTS!!!! Seriously, the space bar and all its incarnations will be your best friends.
-Put good music on. No TV. It's just a distraction. Music sets a good mood. I had Shinwha and Se7en playing. MMmmMmMMm Korean-pop....
-Mac users: Command=Control (Cntl) you wierdos.

======================================== ==================

Sailor Nova's Phophoshop tutorial!!!

A)Create your line-art. Either draw it in Photoshop, or in a sketchbook. If you scan it in, it probably looks bad. (green! ah!) I tend to throw it into Grayscale Mode, and adjust with Brightness/Contrast.

B)I did a really bad job of erasing, making my numbers unusually high. (avg. 32/50)

C)Crop, clean-up, and return to color-mode.

D) Color-modes: RGB for screen, CMYK for print. Also, Make sure you scanned in or drew rather large. I’m going to make you zoom-in close for details and accuracy. I color zoomed-in at about 300% to 500%, just so I don’t miss anything or color over the lines. Ctnl+Space is Zoom-in, Ctnl+Alt+Space is Zoom-out. “[” and “]” (brackets) increase and decrease the brush size! Ctnl+Alt+Z is “Step Backwards” aka SUPER UNDO!!! Space alone is the grabby hand, which lets you move your canvas around. I ALWAYS have my left hand on the keyboard. ALWAYS.

D) Duplicate your background layer, or whatever layer your drawing is on. Hide the original, and plop a clean white layer in between.
IF YOU SCANNED: Select the duplicated layer, then go to Select>Color Range. Sample the white area. Make sure you’re on the duplicated layer now, or else the next step won’t work. PRESS DELETE. All that’s
left in the line art scan is... the line art! No paper, no mess. You can even turn off the
white layer and see “transparency” underneath!
Remember, the larger you work, the less pixelly this will end up being.

The ants go marching one, by one, hurrah, hurrah. The fuzzyness of 200 grabs all the white.

Edit>Fill. Fill with dark, preserve transparency. You can also change the layer to “Multiply”, but you can’t change the lineart colors later. There are two ways to color. The brush tool, for patient mouse users and us tablet users (whee) or the pen tool, if you’re in the right mode, that is. I’ll cover both, because I can. Anyway, Separate each color into different layers. I always keep skin the lowest color layer, because I hate coloring skin, so I do it last. Also, coloring between the lines is less important at the bottom, so fingers become a little easier.

E) Look carefully in the darkness of the line-art. Come closer, reach for the darkness, and grab its anchor points... O.o eeh? The anchor points are a sign of the pen tool. You can adjust the levers at each point to adjust the lines between them. If you’ve worked in vector ( i.e. Illustrator, Flash, Freehand), this isn’t new. It’s not all that hard to pick up either. For this, make sure you are in the paths mode. It’s the second choice, located under and to the right of Edit. Top-middle of the screenshot, highlighted, too. Trace around the lines you want to color. The color you want to fill with should be in your forground color picker. Right click, and select Fill path (or sub-path). Whee! neatly colored in! Press Esc a few times, to delete the paths, and continue to fill the areas of color with new paths. This way can be really really fast, if you get used to it. Play around with it for a while. Just remember to zoom in REALLY REALLY CLOSE!!! 300% works rather well. I used 400% here.

F)These here are the pen modes. The pen tool works like a really fancy selection tool. (technically, it’s meant to be) the first mode is “add to” and will fill in anything selected. The second is “subtract from” and will not fill in anything selected. The third is “intersect”, and whatever intersects fills. I think it goes opposite every time you overlap. “Exclude” is the opposite. You only really need the first two. Or one. Eh. ...Lost yet? Then there is our wonderful bitmap, pixel-based friend, the brush tool. It colors closer to pencils, crayons, markers, and paints. If you color by hand, just remember to keep the lines smooth, and change brush size when necessary. I personally color OVER the lines, then erase them away.

G) What an ugly background color.... We’ll fix the background later. Okay, now we have the base colors. I used the pen tool, mainly because his shapes are simple. Next is highlights and shades. For the sake of simplicity, and everyone’s sanity, except Shiro’s, we’ll have him staring at his source of light. Notice he’s already consisting of his middle values, neither his lightest nor darkest colors. His black shirt is grey, and his white robe/cape/thinger (how technical) and his eyes are not pure white. Set all of your colored layers to locked transparency. Pick a layer, and have at it. Pick your shading colors, NEVER use the burn tool. The dodge tool is only useful for making shiney things glow. You can still use the pen tool to fill, or a brush. Just be sure of the light sources, and where shadows hit.

And, with locked transparency, you don’t have to worry about coloring over other colors! You can shade and “color over the lines” without doing so! YAY for lazyness!


(Anchor) Points of interest: (these are focused on better in the full version)


Hard brush strokes, for shines and hair. Remember, hair is a mass of lines. Or a blob, it really doesn’t matter. Pen is okay too.

Translucent hair: One application of soft brush erase tool, Edit>Fade... and a low fill number. Just remember to properly color underneath.

Notice the lineart is now blue. And very crispy. I like unique. If you want a softer line, Filter>Gaussian Blur at 0.5 pixel. Or less.

Shiney eyes. Shiney things should have the only pure white highlights.

Brush hardness is “[”+Shift and “]”+Shift.

VERY soft shading on the face. Layers of Edit>Fades

The background looks okay now... I guess.... *curses bgs*

The Dodge tool makes things glow. But the burn tool makes things muddy and dark. Ew. (Soft Brush!!!~)

Apply the reflected color, then Edit> Fade. Oooh SHINEY! (28)

White doesn’t even have pure white highlights.

Soft, large brush = airbrush. mmmmm airbrush.



Shiney©Sailor Nova. And the rest of this tutorial....and SHIRO!!!!