Kohdoku
12-18-2007, 10:44 PM
Hey, guys! I figured I'd bequeath you all with some of my knowledge of the art world. For those of you who like to get more involved with their hentai than just looking at it, this might be just the thing you need to help you get your favorite black-and-white shaded pictures into full color!
The original tutorial, which mine is based on, can be found here (http://www.drunkduck.com/community/view_topic.php?tid=26626&cid=238). (Go down until you see the one by Adi Granov)
Anyway, Here's the basic version of the tutorial.
Let's say you have a really awesome shaded pencil drawing, like the first picture on the attachments. Man, it looks SOOOOO GOOOOOOD, but it's a real shame that it's in black and white. There is, however, a quite simple way of adding color without even having to do a lot of erasing or even removing the white.
Here's how you do it.
Step 1: bring your image up onto Photoshop or another picture editing program that allows layers.
Step 2: Go to the "Layers" menu and select "Duplicate layer" to make a copy of the image. Take the eraser and clear off the bottom layer.
Step 3: Take the background copy and set it to "Multiply" in the Layer's window. This has set it up so that the colors on that layer merely add to the colors below it, rather than overlapping them. That's the trick to eliminating the white.
Step 4: Create a new layer underneath the background copy. This is your color layer. Now, while having that layer selected, fill in the areas you want with flat colors. See how it appears under the original artwork? The second picture in the attachments is the image after the initial color, with Tea and Dark Magician Girl colored in (I'm leaving Serenity alone for comparison). The third one is just the color by itself.
Now, some might be tempted to call it a day after this step. I mean, the color's been put in and it looks okay, so what more is there to do? It's images with that look that let you know that the colorer was being half-assed. The image doesn't look much better than the original, actually.
So we need to add highlights!
Step 5: Create another layer right above the color layer and set it to "Screen". Now here's the trick. To do it one color at a time, use the "Select"-> "Color Range" tool. Since it's flat color, it should be pretty easy. Then, go over the areas that were white on the original pencils with some highlights. On dull or satin objects like clothes or skin, have your brush color be the same color as the color you're coloring. On shiny or metallic objects, use white or another quite bright color. You might want to turn down the opacity of the layer once you're done to make the highlights not so strong.
Now we're getting somewhere. The image looks less flat and its looking pretty damn good (See the fourth attachment). Often, we can call it a day with this level of work. However, there is still a problem with the blacks and grays on areas like skin and lightly-colored cloth, which looks weird. In this case, take the color you are using and lightly go over the top layer on the gray areas to dull them out and make them look good.
The final image is an example of all three major steps: The original image (Serenity), The flat colors (Tea) and the finished work (Dark Magician Girl)
The fun thing about this is that pretty much all you have to know how to do as far as art goes is color inside the lines and you can color these images pretty good. This technique was originally developed by the guy above in conjunction with his penciled drawings and I was actually just goofing around with it. I hope you find it useful!
The original tutorial, which mine is based on, can be found here (http://www.drunkduck.com/community/view_topic.php?tid=26626&cid=238). (Go down until you see the one by Adi Granov)
Anyway, Here's the basic version of the tutorial.
Let's say you have a really awesome shaded pencil drawing, like the first picture on the attachments. Man, it looks SOOOOO GOOOOOOD, but it's a real shame that it's in black and white. There is, however, a quite simple way of adding color without even having to do a lot of erasing or even removing the white.
Here's how you do it.
Step 1: bring your image up onto Photoshop or another picture editing program that allows layers.
Step 2: Go to the "Layers" menu and select "Duplicate layer" to make a copy of the image. Take the eraser and clear off the bottom layer.
Step 3: Take the background copy and set it to "Multiply" in the Layer's window. This has set it up so that the colors on that layer merely add to the colors below it, rather than overlapping them. That's the trick to eliminating the white.
Step 4: Create a new layer underneath the background copy. This is your color layer. Now, while having that layer selected, fill in the areas you want with flat colors. See how it appears under the original artwork? The second picture in the attachments is the image after the initial color, with Tea and Dark Magician Girl colored in (I'm leaving Serenity alone for comparison). The third one is just the color by itself.
Now, some might be tempted to call it a day after this step. I mean, the color's been put in and it looks okay, so what more is there to do? It's images with that look that let you know that the colorer was being half-assed. The image doesn't look much better than the original, actually.
So we need to add highlights!
Step 5: Create another layer right above the color layer and set it to "Screen". Now here's the trick. To do it one color at a time, use the "Select"-> "Color Range" tool. Since it's flat color, it should be pretty easy. Then, go over the areas that were white on the original pencils with some highlights. On dull or satin objects like clothes or skin, have your brush color be the same color as the color you're coloring. On shiny or metallic objects, use white or another quite bright color. You might want to turn down the opacity of the layer once you're done to make the highlights not so strong.
Now we're getting somewhere. The image looks less flat and its looking pretty damn good (See the fourth attachment). Often, we can call it a day with this level of work. However, there is still a problem with the blacks and grays on areas like skin and lightly-colored cloth, which looks weird. In this case, take the color you are using and lightly go over the top layer on the gray areas to dull them out and make them look good.
The final image is an example of all three major steps: The original image (Serenity), The flat colors (Tea) and the finished work (Dark Magician Girl)
The fun thing about this is that pretty much all you have to know how to do as far as art goes is color inside the lines and you can color these images pretty good. This technique was originally developed by the guy above in conjunction with his penciled drawings and I was actually just goofing around with it. I hope you find it useful!