Preparing Line Art For Colors

Preparing Line Art For Colors (Part 1-Digital Color for coloring comics Tutorial) Welcome to part one of the two part Digital Coloring for coloring comics Series. In this tutorial we will explore how to prepare line art for coloring comics in Adobe Photoshop. This tutorial(s) makes use of the channels palette extensively, so if you are unfimiliar or uncomfortable with them you can use layers with some modifications, but it is recommended that you knuckle down and get into using channels as they are key to using Adobe Photoshop to its full potential. Since we recieved the line art as is (on purpose) we are just going to do a quick fix for our line art for illustration purposes in this tutorial (step 1). It is recommended however that you follow the 'Scanning Line art Tutorial' for best results. Original Scan (below): (Line art by John Rauch Jr. www.pensnpixels.com)
	1. Levels Adjustment. Brings up levels palette Slide the arrow on the right towards the middle until the grey noise (pencil marks in this case) is gone. You may notice some of the black in the line will fade, so you need to slide the left most slider a little ways towards the middle. This will help darken the line again, but don't over do it, as you do not want to lose the integrity of the original line art. Note: You should remove any dark flecks or aberrations first as to get rid of them with levels will degrade the line art too much. You can do this buy either using the eraser (h) or by using the brush (b) tool with the foreground color set to white.
Before After	Before and After Levels Adjustments.
	2. Lets make an alpha channel for our Line Art. Go to the channels palette and create an alpha channel. Click onthe little arrow beside the channels pallette and select New Channel, you must turn the color swatch to black, and make it 100%. Now you can name it whatever you like although I suggest you name it Line Art, as it will become easier to identify if and when you get many channels going. Select ok.
	With the new line art channel selected, fill it with white Alt+backspace (with foreground color selected as white). Your Line art channel should look something like mine to the left.
3. Now we need to make a selection of the Line While pressing the key, click on the little picture window beside the blue channel. This will load it as a selection. You should now have a marquee on white. Now inverse the selection.
	4. Fill the selection with black. Make sure your foreground color is black and then hit . As demonstrated in the figure to the left.
	To the left is what your channels palette should look like at this time.
	6. Remove the original Line art Okay now that we have the Line art stored in an Alpha Channel we can remove the original line art from the RGB channel. This is simple. Select the RGB channel - fill the channel with white (make sure the foreground color is white) and then press alt+backspace. Now you should no longer have anything in the channels R,G,B or RGB. 7. Make the line art visible (left diagram). Now at this point all you will need to do is click on the visibility icon on the Line Art channel and you are ready for the next step and tutorial - Digital Coloring Part II - The Render!
Thank you taking the time to read this tutorial/article, and I hope it helped you in some way.

How to Mold Paint Splatter to a Face in Photoshop

Preparation

First thing you will need to do to create this effect is find some nice paint splatter/spray brushes. For this particular piece I used brushes from Brusheezy: 842-Splatter. You'll also need an image to apply this to. In this case, I shot this image myself.

Step 1

Copy the background and paste it onto a new layer. Rename the new layer Subject and turn the background layer to white.

Create a new layer labeled "Extra Skin." Then using the Clone Tool, Alt-click on other parts of the face that best match the color of skin you want to copy. I suggest using a soft brush to blur out the edges.

For this I usually just play around with the Cloning Tool until I get close to something that looks right. This may take some experimentation, as you have to pay close attention to the light source in the photograph. To see a more in-depth tutorial on the cloning tool you can visit this page on Psdtuts+.

Step 2

Once we have covered all the facial features, select the "Extra Skin" layer and the "Subject" layer, then press Command + Alt + E on to merge the layers into a new layer. Rename this layer "Faceless Subject."

Step 3

Now we can start building our paint splatter area. Create a new layer and call it "Paint map." Select the Brush Tool and start to paint out the area you want the paint splat to appear in. This is where your paint splatter/spray brushes will come in handy.

It doesn't matter what color you use; here I have chosen yellow (#ffc924). It also helps to lower the opacity of this layer so that you can better line up the splats over the subject's face.

Make sure that you only paint where you want the splatter to occur, you may have to paint/mask/erase a bunch to get a nice paint splatter. Take your time with this Step; it may be the most important one of the process.

Step 4

Once completed you will want to get rid of any layer masks by right-clicking on the "Paint map" layer and selecting Convert To Smart Object. After that, change the layer style of the "Paint Map" layer to Overlay. You should now have something that looks similar to the picture below; keep in mind that no two paint splatters will be exactly the same.

Step 5

Next create a new layer under the "Paint map" layer, and name this layer "Extra Skin 2." With this layer selected Command-click the "Paint map" layer to select the paint splat you have created. Next click on the Add Layer Mask button at the bottom of the layers palette.

Step 6

Turn the visibility of the "Paint map" layer off. With the "Extra Skin 2" layer selected, grab your Cloning Tool again and start copying portions of skin into the area that has no skin.

Again try to match the lighting of the photo; you are basically creating an extra skin layer that will become paint once colored. I find it helpful to turn off the Aligned option for the cloning tool in the top tool bar.

Step 7

Once you've created a nice splatter area made from skin, turn the visibility of your "Paint map" layer back on. You should have something that looks like the image below.

Step 8

Create a new layer above the "Extra Skin 2" layer and name it "shadow." While holding down the Alt key, click between the "Extra Skin 2" layer and "shadow" layer to clip it.

Step 9

Grab a big, soft brush and paint some black to amp up the shadows needed for the "Extra Skin" layer.

Step 10

Turn the opacity of the "shadow" layer down to around 75%.

Step 11

Create a new layer above the "Faceless Subject" layer and name it "Paint Background." With the foreground color set to black, start painting some paint splats with the splatter brushes.

Step 12

All we have to do now is add a little bit of shadow to create the illusion the paint is lifted off the face. First create a new layer and name it "Shadow 2," then Command-click on the "Paint Map" layer to select it. Making sure you are still on the "Shadow 2" layer, fill the selection with black.

Step 13

Making sure the selection is still active, click on the Create Layer Mask button on the the bottom of the layer's palette.

Step 14

Select the mask for the "Shadow 2" layer and invert it by pressing Command + I, or going to Image > Adjustments > Invert. This should invert the mask and hide the black area we just filled.

Step 15

Disable the link between the mask and the shadow paint by clicking on the chain between the layer icon and the mask, as shown.

Step 16

Make sure the paint portion of the "Shadow 2" layer is selected and go to Edit > Transform > Warp.

Slightly adjust the shadow so that it peeks out from behind the paint splat. Depending on how much you want the paint to appear lifted, you can adjust it a lot or a little. Once you have the shadow right where you want it, apply the change.

Step 17

You are bound to have some unwanted shadow from the "Shadow 2" layer; to clean it up, simply paint over what you don't want in the layer mask.

Step 18

Lower the opacity of the shadow to around 72% and you should be all set!

Conclusion

The final image is below. Enjoy applying these techniques in your own work!