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I'm doing this tutorial using an illustration I did for a story I'm writing. So this is an original character. I started out with a pencil sketch. I didn't ink this drawing because I had decided that I was going to put forth some effort, and do all of the black outlines with the computer. There are essentially 2 ways to get the black out lines. I will discuss both ways. The way that I choose to black-line this image is the most effective, however it takes much more effort with the computer. I scanned this pencils sketch, which I had prepped by going over all of my final lines twice to make sure they were all the same shade, and bold enough for me to be able to know what to trace. I didn't resize the image after scanning it. It is best if the image is left fairly large. I scanned the image in Grayscale and then made the line art darker and the background whiter by adjusting the levels. To do this go under [Image] and [Adjust] and [Levels]. In levels, I usually click auto levels first. Then I move the setting on the far right by dragging it in slightly closer to the center marker. Make sure to have preview on. This will make the background whiter, and make it easier to see the lines. Then I created a new layer over this one, and, using the line tool (set at 2 pixel weight - under options) traced over the entire pencil sketch. To make it easier to tell the difference between my lines and the lines of the pencil drawing, I changed the opacity of the pencils layer to 50%. I was usually zoomed into 200%, but with the more intriquet work, I would zoom in even more. The tracing step is a long one, but if you do this, you will get the best results.

The 2nd way to make the line art for a coloring piece, is to inke your original pencil sketch and erase all of the pencil marks afterward. When doing this, it's best if you use really white paper, and don't use that 'for pencils or charcoal' sketchbook types of paper, because those leave too many left-over pencil marks when your done. It is also more difficult to ink a piece that is drawn on that type of paper because the finer pen tips can get caught in the tiny hairs of the paper and make the ink bleed. After you've inked it, and erased all of your pencil marks scan the picture in grayscale and proform the same Levels technique mentioned above. Once again, make sure that the preview option is marked so you can adjust it until you are really happy with the contrasts. To get the black lines on a seperate layer, under [Window] -> Show Channels and load the channel as a selection. Then under [Select] -> click inverse. Go to the Layers window and create a new layer. ( [Layers] -> [New] -> Layer ) and fill the selection. (just use the paint bucket) After you've got all of the line art on a seperate layer, go back to the background layer and [Select] -> All (Ctrl+a) and Fill it with White.

Okay! Lets add some color! First thing you need to do is change the picture from a grayscale image to a RGB image. [Image] -> [Mode] -> RGB Color Next, create a new layer between the background layer and the line art layer [Layers] -> [New] -> Layer. We can call this layer the Flats layer. (Side note: to rename a layer, just double click on it in the Layers window) In the Layer we will only place flat, solid colors. We won't add any shades until later. Some people like to make a seperate layer for each flat color. It is really up to you how you end up doing it. Just practice with different techniques to find out what works best for you. The quickest way to add solid color to an area is to use the magic wand tool. Note this does not catch everything, and will require touching up later. However it does save a lot of time. Make sure you are on the line art layer to do this. Find a solid area, and make sure it doesn't have any gaps where the selection could escape and end up including something things you don't want to use. Use the magic wand tool to select all of the areas that will use that color (to select more then one thing, hold down the shift key) After you have the basic areas selected, go back to the flats layer. Under [Select] -> [Modify] -> Expand, choose to expand by 1 pixel. This way you won't end up with a thin white border between the edge of your color and the black outline. You may also want to zoom in at this point, and make sure that none of the corners were missed by the magic wand tool.

Once you've got all of the flats colors in place, it is time to begin with the shading. First, duplicate the flats layer - (Make sure you are on the flats layer) [Layer] -> Duplicate Layer. And rename the new layer Shades (for the sake of organization). You will soo begin to consider the Dodge and Burn tools as you closest friends ^_^. They are very helpful. Before you start to shade, though, you need to make a few decisions. First off - Where is the light coming from? The side? The front? The back? Left? Right? Second - How strong is the light? Is it really bright? Or is it dull? The brighter it is, the stronger and more intense the shadows will be. With this picture, I decided that it would be a fairly bright light source, coming from the front and right of her. I have found, from experience, that the more intense the light and shadows are, the better the result. - in most cases - This is not always true. Sometimes have very little contrast can give just the right effect to make the picture work. I usually shade each section, or color, independantly of the others. I made an exception to this rule when I shaded the bottom of the dress - even though the yellow border, and the yellow kanji were a different color then the rest of the red dress, I shaded them all as one piece (with the burn tool) to make sure that it was all shaded equaly. But I did shade the hair and face seperatly. this is a good idea since the hair reflects light very differently then skin does.

Sometimes, I think that coloring the eyes can be the funnest part ^_^ - She has large, cute anime-girl eyes, so I put large irises in them. Make sure that when you add the highlights that they are in the same places on each eye. The pupil on the iris actually sinks into the eye, so the deeper you get, the darker it is. There should be a darker rim that goes just beyond the edge of the pupil itself. Remember that the top eyelid sticks out the most, so the part of the eye under it is in shadow. I usually make a small selection and use the burn tool set on highlight along the top of the eye. Make sure this affects the white part of the eye too - not just the color! And since the top of the eye is in shadow, the lower part that isn't has more highlight in the iris. So I have a lighter yellow down there. After you have finished all of the shades, you can add a background to the picture. With this picture, I didn't put too much in. For the most part it is just a gradient, a shadow, and a glowey light thing. ^_^ But you can get creative with your background. I've done images where the background was just as important as the characters in it.