CG Colouring
Posted: 26th February 2008
Difficulty: Intermediate
I've been asked a lot about how I create my CGs. It's quite hard to explain because my methods can vary quite a bit from one piece of artwork to another. Anyway, I've taken screenshots for one of my chibi wallpapers made in Photoshop 7 using my tablet to show you how it was done (so I suppose this is more of a walkthrough than a tutorial, but oh well) X3
Contents
6. Colouring the Hair
Colouring the Hair.1
The first layer of shading I've done a very light touching of brown-ish-purple, this is just to give it a bit of a purple tinge.
Colouring the Hair.2Now I've brushed in a darker layer of brown for the shadows. I had to also erase parts from the shadows where the loose bits of hair get hit by the light.
Colouring the Hair.3Now for the first layer of detailed shadows. These are drawn with the Pen Tool and then parts erased to blend them out (like the previous sections).
Colouring the Hair.4Now for a layer of highlights. This is drawn in the same way as the shadows from the previous step >> These two layers of shadow and lighting make up a lot of the detail within the hair.
Colouring the Hair.5I finished the highlights around the hair (still on the same highlight layer) and also lightly used a large airbrush on the very outsides of the hair where the light would be strongest.
Colouring the Hair.6Now we have the second layer of highlights - I've done these more sparingly than the last because they're used to complement the previous layer of lighting.
Colouring the Hair.7Now I've made a new layer and set it to "Multiply". I brushed in brown areas to darken around the part in the hair and where the shadows would be strongest.
Colouring the Hair.8Another new layer - highlights this time. Using a large brush and a pale beige, I've brushed in a halo-like sheen around the top of the head.
Colouring the Hair.9Another new layer - highlights this time. Using a large brush and a pale beige, I've brushed in a halo-like sheen around the top of the head.
After another layer of highlights drawn using the Pen Tool and then ANOTHER halo-sheen brushed in (that's now 3 I think?), I'm ok with the results of the hair XP
The hair took the longest to colour out of all the parts on the image XD Chibis (or at least this one) tend to have large heads, so the hair is quite a significant part~ I probably could have left it at the previous step, but because the background lighting is so...shiny, I just had to make the hair that way too XD
Now, onto the final touches (which includes yet more steps on the hair - yay)!
7. Finishing Touches
Remember how we locked the transparency on the line art layer in the first section? Well now we're going to colour on the line art layer - this helps blend the lines into the picture rather than having stark black lines sticking out.
Leave the transparency locked and grab a small solid brush (I use between 9-19 pixels for this - maybe larger if there's a large area of one colour, like the hair).
Brush over the lines using a dark version of the colour inside it - for example, the hair, use a darker brown for the lines rather than black. For the skirt, I've used dark purple. For the cloud and potions, I went the opposite and used white XP
Next, I use the dodge tool (yes, I know, the dodge tool XD) on "Highlights" mode (sometimes I switch to "Midtones" if Highlights is too strong) and dodge the lines where the light is strongest. Just be careful not to overdodge >.>
Finishing Touches.1
I finished dodging the overall line art and grabbed an airbrush, brushing in even lighter colours onto the line art of the hair because I found the dodge tool wasn't giving the right effect there.
Finishing Touches.2
More on the hair! Using varied small brushes, I draw in loose hair strands with a light colour. I find it helps the hair to lose it's anime-like clumpiness and look more freeflowing and light.
Finishing Touches.3
You can't really see it here, but I've added shadows underneath the loose hair strands I just drew - it lifts them up just enough so that they don't look painted on.
Leave the transparency locked and grab a small solid brush (I use between 9-19 pixels for this - maybe larger if there's a large area of one colour, like the hair).
Brush over the lines using a dark version of the colour inside it - for example, the hair, use a darker brown for the lines rather than black. For the skirt, I've used dark purple. For the cloud and potions, I went the opposite and used white XP
Next, I use the dodge tool (yes, I know, the dodge tool XD) on "Highlights" mode (sometimes I switch to "Midtones" if Highlights is too strong) and dodge the lines where the light is strongest. Just be careful not to overdodge >.>
Finishing Touches.1I finished dodging the overall line art and grabbed an airbrush, brushing in even lighter colours onto the line art of the hair because I found the dodge tool wasn't giving the right effect there.
Finishing Touches.2More on the hair! Using varied small brushes, I draw in loose hair strands with a light colour. I find it helps the hair to lose it's anime-like clumpiness and look more freeflowing and light.
Finishing Touches.3You can't really see it here, but I've added shadows underneath the loose hair strands I just drew - it lifts them up just enough so that they don't look painted on.
8. That's it!
Ok, I did actually add a few last minute overlay layers (one of yellow, a light one of pink and a light one of purple) and stopped at that ^^
Add your signature and / or watermark and you should be ready to go!
If you're after the full wallpaper version of this image to look at parts in detail, or to use for your desktop wallpaper (o.o), you can download it from my DeviantArt gallery.
And if you would like to colour this picture yourself, you can download the Photoshop lineart here. Please remember to keep my copyright and website on the image if you're going to post your coloured version online.
