Art & Art Tutorials
Comic Book Coloring in Photoshop - Part 2 of 2
Select and fill with color
Arm yourself with a good load of patience, choose the polygonal lasso and make sure that anti-alias is off, then select your Flats layer. This is where you start to select the different parts you wish to color by selecting the different areas and fill them with your desired colors. Make sure that your selections are as close to the center of the black lines as possible. Once you have an area selected pick a color you desire and hit ALT + Backspace. Keep on doing this on all the elements of your page until everything is colored the way you want. You may need to zoom in and out as you go along to get an overview. This part takes alot of concentration. Take breaks if you need it.
Once you are done you should have a result similar to the one shown in the screenshot below. If you haven't already this might be a good time to save your work.
Flat color backup
At this time you need to backup your flat colors. To do this click the Channels tab on the layer palette and create a new channel. Next click either the Red, Blue or Green channel already there and do a select all (CTRL+A for PC's or CMD+A for Macs). Copy this selection and paste it into the channel you just made. That's our flats backup and don't worry, it's supposed to be in grayscale. If you ever mess up on your coloring or wish to change something, even after you have applied gradients go through these steps:
Apply color gradients
Let's make our colors a bit more interesting by applying color gradients. In the channel tab select your flats backup layer and use the magic wand to select the part you wish to apply a gradient to. Set the magic wand tolerance to 0 and turn off anti-alias. Once you have selected an area click the layer tab and select your flats layer while keeping the selection. Hit G to choose gradients and find a gradient you wish to apply. Choose linear, radial or whatever you feel is appropiate. Keep on repeating these steps until you are done and remember to save your work regularly as you go along.
The last words
That's pretty much the way to apply basic comic book colors in Photoshop. I hope you got through safe and sound and everything made sense. Be sure to check back soon where we'll take a step further in an upcoming tutorial dealing with shading and highlighting to make our comic book art look really professional.
Have comments, suggestions or critique? Sign up and share it here!
Arm yourself with a good load of patience, choose the polygonal lasso and make sure that anti-alias is off, then select your Flats layer. This is where you start to select the different parts you wish to color by selecting the different areas and fill them with your desired colors. Make sure that your selections are as close to the center of the black lines as possible. Once you have an area selected pick a color you desire and hit ALT + Backspace. Keep on doing this on all the elements of your page until everything is colored the way you want. You may need to zoom in and out as you go along to get an overview. This part takes alot of concentration. Take breaks if you need it.
Once you are done you should have a result similar to the one shown in the screenshot below. If you haven't already this might be a good time to save your work.
Flat color backup
At this time you need to backup your flat colors. To do this click the Channels tab on the layer palette and create a new channel. Next click either the Red, Blue or Green channel already there and do a select all (CTRL+A for PC's or CMD+A for Macs). Copy this selection and paste it into the channel you just made. That's our flats backup and don't worry, it's supposed to be in grayscale. If you ever mess up on your coloring or wish to change something, even after you have applied gradients go through these steps:
- Select the magic wand tool and turn anti-alias OFF
- Click the Channels tab in the layer palette and choose the layer you created
- Select the part you wish to change with the magic wand
- Then go back keeping your selection and choose the layer with flat colors and start applying colors or gradients
Apply color gradients
Let's make our colors a bit more interesting by applying color gradients. In the channel tab select your flats backup layer and use the magic wand to select the part you wish to apply a gradient to. Set the magic wand tolerance to 0 and turn off anti-alias. Once you have selected an area click the layer tab and select your flats layer while keeping the selection. Hit G to choose gradients and find a gradient you wish to apply. Choose linear, radial or whatever you feel is appropiate. Keep on repeating these steps until you are done and remember to save your work regularly as you go along.
The last words
That's pretty much the way to apply basic comic book colors in Photoshop. I hope you got through safe and sound and everything made sense. Be sure to check back soon where we'll take a step further in an upcoming tutorial dealing with shading and highlighting to make our comic book art look really professional.
Wait, there's more!
Have comments, suggestions or critique? Sign up and share it here!