I've had more than a few emails/comments about my colouring technique...here is an abridged excerpt from an e-conversation with Winnipeg's
formerly-most-eligible-bachelor:
My colour work has changed a lot, and quickly! I was snooping around in a used book store, and struck gold: 3 Keith Knight books! Anyways, the same trip I found an old mag called "Draw!" that wasn't very interesting, except for an insert with a tutorial by
Dave Cooper himself on colouring in photoshop.
I coloured step-by-step with Dave's tutorial many times...until I got the hang of his steps and fully understood his reasons for each. Once I understood why I was setting this to such-n-such number, or doing this before that...now I can start to stray a bit and find my own personal adaptation. This is happening slowly, and I now find myself drawing on paper with a mind towards colouring, and this is saving me a lot of time. I'm getting faster and more confident, but it does take practice.
That's the technical...as far as colour theory...If colouring was cooking, I'd be the guy putting ketchup on ice cream. I have a lot to learn.
My colour study has greatly benefitted from two particular sources:
John K's blog (particulary his bg posts and the review of
Kali's Flintstone study)Mary Blair's Golden Books (quit laughing).
Here are a few captures of the poster I made this morning...which is coloured based on Dave Cooper's tutorial.
Sketches involved researching the musician, which revealed some very amusing pictures...including a closeup of his trademark instrument. I quickly traced a photo to get a feel for the construction of the bass.
These were sketched while listening to his tunes on his
website.
Once I'd settled on the pose, composition and likely lettering...the poster was drawn with
Pitt brushpens (I wrecked 2 pens on this piece) and finework was done with my trusty
Tradio. No worries about mistakes, I scan the inkwork, blemishes and all.
I use photoshop to clean up the b/w file as a bitmap (no grayscale fuzziness...). I scan at 800 dpi, clean up in 800 dpi and compress to 300 dpi for colouring. Here is the cleaned up version. The date "flame", opening act and venue info were drawn separately and added to the initial file.
As per Dave's tutorial, I create new layers and drop his signature colour blend (C:11 M:4 Y:40 K:1 ) into the entire picture. Using the Hue control, all of my colours more or less originate from this colour.
I don't get too complicated at first. I make my way around the picture, selecting areas and creating a basic colour relationship.
Re-selecting colour shapes and starting to manipulate hues.
Using quickmasks of a shape (i.e. a finger or leg) to "deselect" portions with control...not unlinke relief printmaking. Once an artfully selection is ready, I'll adjust the hue again to create a shadow with a closely related colour.
Using Dave's techniques, I then create a Color-Range-Select layer from the linework (follow his instructions carefully or you'll screw it up royally). I colour the lines the exact colour of the basic colour schemes...and adjust their hues accordingly. I was very hesitant to give up my black linework at first, but the results have made me very happy these days...
The checker background was created by cutting/pasting 8 hand-drawn checkers, selecting them and using that selection to manipulate the hue of the yellow background...gotta love photoshop.
In hindsight, I'm thinking that my skeleton's fingers owe
Tim an apology. Thanks, man.
Thank you for all the feedback everyone...
The lanky kids are a few of the many skinny-jean-Ramones tee-shirt wearing under-fed punk teenagers that wander Moncton's down-town in a daze. I could spend all day analyzing their gait in my sketchbook...
Yes, this actually happened to me...sigh...
rainslickers seen on concer-goers out the window...
I particularily like the two owls carrying the stretcher in the background...
Hey IF folks!
These were sketched while listening to his tunes on his website.
Once I'd settled on the pose, composition and likely lettering...the poster was drawn with Pitt brushpens (I wrecked 2 pens on this piece) and finework was done with my trusty Tradio. No worries about mistakes, I scan the inkwork, blemishes and all.
I use photoshop to clean up the b/w file as a bitmap (no grayscale fuzziness...). I scan at 800 dpi, clean up in 800 dpi and compress to 300 dpi for colouring. Here is the cleaned up version. The date "flame", opening act and venue info were drawn separately and added to the initial file.
As per Dave's tutorial, I create new layers and drop his signature colour blend (C:11 M:4 Y:40 K:1 ) into the entire picture. Using the Hue control, all of my colours more or less originate from this colour.
I don't get too complicated at first. I make my way around the picture, selecting areas and creating a basic colour relationship.
Re-selecting colour shapes and starting to manipulate hues.
Using quickmasks of a shape (i.e. a finger or leg) to "deselect" portions with control...not unlinke relief printmaking. Once an artfully selection is ready, I'll adjust the hue again to create a shadow with a closely related colour.
Using Dave's techniques, I then create a Color-Range-Select layer from the linework (follow his instructions carefully or you'll screw it up royally). I colour the lines the exact colour of the basic colour schemes...and adjust their hues accordingly. I was very hesitant to give up my black linework at first, but the results have made me very happy these days...
The checker background was created by cutting/pasting 8 hand-drawn checkers, selecting them and using that selection to manipulate the hue of the yellow background...gotta love photoshop.
