Preserved Topic: photoshop painting

lately, I've been drawing stuff, scanning it, and painting it in photoshop. I think the effects are excellent. I almost have one finished, it took tons of time. I drew the image on 12x18 paper, loaded it into photoshop and began to color. I'm really looking for other peoples methods of going about this. I set up 2 layers. one was the sketch, and the other was a color layer on top of it, set to multiply. I put in the rough color (on the multiply layer) threw out the image, then I merged the layers, and tediously painted each part, and smudged like crazy. Is this how you go about this? Is there any certain trick or method you would suggest I use? here is an example of what I got done gix arm Its not completely done, I would like to show wear and rust in the metal parts and gears... If your not sure if you understand my question, please let me know.

Here is a tutorial I wrote on coloring line art. Its kind of convoluted and didnt make sense to some ppl who read it....but I honestly dont know how to word it better. Take a look....It may help.
http://www.chrisandjay.f2s.com

P.S. dont look at the code.........please.

Good start Gix. Yea, that`s pretty much it. Start with the base color and work out ( lighter and darker ) from there, useing harder and smaller brushes as you go, til you get to the 1 px hard for the details on top.
Looks like you`re getting it. Keep at it. I`d like to see the updates on this one.



I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.

This was just the email I sent to Erik (Gix) after a request, but I thought I'd share it here, just in case it might help someone else. There's been a dream around here for a while about "painting" help areas, and this might be a catalyst for that happening someday.

Erik,

All right buddy, let's see what I can do here. You've got some good work going so far, separating by colour, making sure that your defining areas are relatively shaded. However, let's talk about the VERY first thing you need to "paint": LIGHT.

Right now you have shapes...nice shapes..but flat shapes. You're shading your edges to gives some depth, and highlighting your rises to bring them "up"...however you have no established light source yet.

By "light source" I mean that you need to define the direction and intensity of the light that's falling on the arm. Remember that all shapes and tones are defined by light...so if you have a source coming from the top left, then your main shadows will fall to the bottom right, while the greatest highlights ("phongs" for spheres) will fall in the top left of your shapes. If you have an overlapping piece (such as where your "muscles" run over top of each other in your arm there) it will cast a shadow on what's underneath until it hits an area where the light can hit the muscle underneath and your phong area will fall there.

Getting it so far?

Light sources will define shade, as well as where your white and black points fall (the area of highest highlight, and lowest lowlight). If you decide on a second light source from the bottom right, but not as intense, and shaded green (let's say) then your shadows will fall more toward the bottom right, but not at the absolute backside. This sense of dual lighting is more realistic, especially on rounded shapes due to the way light bends. This is secondary, however, and I'd like if you focused on the singular light source first.

So, let's take your arm and start fleshing it out (per se). Your highlights will fall almost spherically over the shoulder area. Keep in mind the "plates" that you have there will each have individual highlights, however, the farther they are down the arm (away from the angular light source) the less of a white flare area they will have. Let's not work on texture yet (which will define reflection, gloss, etc.) but mainly just shapes. Think of the shoulder as one singular shape..shade for it on a new layer...deeper tones toward the bottom right, (a good rule of thumb is to use your main colour flatly over the whole area, then do your shadow work in two levels. The first being a bit darker than the main colour, with a larger area of the bottom right shaded, and then a second painting of shadows in an even darker tone..not black...that blends into the lighter shadows, but takes up less area, more toward the bottom right than the lighter shadows fill). Highlights work in much the same way..lighter shade..then an even brighter tone more focused in the area where light will fall directly.

Once you have that shape shaded for, start breaking it down..highlight the separation areas, and shade where appropriate to the light source (A nice test is to get a sphere, a cylinder, and a cube and shine a light on them from different angles, and then sketch that out..you'll learn the "behaviour" of light on objects that way, and ultimately be able to build complex structures from those simple shapes.)

Remember again, that anything that falls "back" from the light source (in comparison to the shoulder, etc.) will receive less light, and therefore seem darker all around. Weadah always suggests painting in greyscale tones first before adding colour over it. It's a great method, and one that I think would beneift you greatly. Before worrying about the behaviour of colour (a whole different kettle of fish) try being able to "paint" realistic lighting in greyscale first. Colours can always come afterwards, but good lighting will be noticeable from the get go.

This is getting a bit lengthy, uh?

Let's wrap it up for now then...deal with a consistent light source (if it falls at 22 degrees on the shoulder, it had damn well better do the same on the biceps, the forearm, etc.) If you can work one singular consistent light source, then we can start working in multiple sources, and then colours to bring it all up to scale. Work in a high resolution allowing yourself plenty of room to play, and areas to keep your shadings "harder" edged, and not as "brushy" and faded. Be confident, and keep updating me on this, I'd really like to see it redone in grey, and fleshed out for your light before heading onto anything else. This could be a great piece to learn perspectives, shapes, lighting, and consistency for textures etc. So let's see it evolve.

Hope it helps.

Peter

DG... thank you!

/ complaining /
/ that was not long enuf /
/ more! /

Izzy..for you..anything

I'll see what I can do about going through more steps soon (remember, this is just my methods, YMMV.) I think that establishing consistent light sources is hellishly hard for beginners at times, though...so this needs to be respected first

errmm... thankyou?

That was very interesting to read. I have never tryed sketching such basic objects... I must do that. I remember you have talked about painting heads, using a box and a sphere...

I think I am going to have to pass this along one one mi friends who is takin an acrylics class... I kinda touched up one of her painting last night that was due today...

I realized that many people are not sure about CONTRAST. They are afriad that if they make this too dark and that too light they will loose detail... or atlest I was. But, as you were saying, lights and darks make depth.

but then again, if the contrasting colors are painted in the wrong places... it will screw the image. SSo, I usually start with the base image and slowly build on it.

well I'm really glad I wrote that email. This is basically the very first time I ever worked with color. I'm very well aware of the importaince of light (though I didn't show it in the image). I have a few shadows by the cables and hoses. Its kind of hard to imagine good light sources since this is just a close up of a concept I'm working on. I'm working on a couple more concepts of scenes. These scenes will have very obvious light sources (the sun, torches) and I believe I'll be able to make them look profesional. But with the image I have now, it looks like it will need to be revamped. So making it grey scale makes sense. The image right now looks very unskilled, mediocre. the size of it makes it hard to work on, but DG's post incourages me. I'm working on a websight right now, and the html to go with it... lets see if I can get an update out by the weekend. Thank you.

here is a mini update. DG, I read every word of your post, but this is what I did. I decided to stay with color for now, so I get as much experiecne with color as possible (though I will make mistakes). I have a single light source, it should be (hopefully) obvious where it is. I made every effort to make it look 3d, and get the light source set.

Erik: Nice...getting much better.

The first "problem" I see is that the shoulder mass still seems to be dealt with as single strands first and foremost, and that you tones seem a bit flat right now. As Izzy mentioned, contrast is very important when dealing with rounded shapes and light. Your light source seems a bit diffused, casting a white light over everything, but not from a specific directional area. It looks almost as though you have "dome" lighting right now, coming from a large area of light and around the shapes. I think the under-cables are starting to flesh out better, but (again) the flatness seems prevalent. Work the depth by using darker tones, and remember that some areas will reflect more light back to the viewer than other (anything DIRECTLY against the path of the light source will be much "higher" in the lightness scale than things that are along it, or opposite to the light direction. Remember that anything falling 90 degrees to the light will exhibit those light properties.)

Again, I'd say deal with the shoulder as a single shape at first (or a compound of two or three, tops) then do your detailing for the separations and the weaving of the structure. Always flesh out progressively, and keep in mind that contrast and depth are sooooooooo important to the finished product.

In other words...looking good..now gimme more

Peter