I'm asking this on a friend's behalf, but I'm pretty interested myself.
In the process from sketch on paper to finish digital art; what processes do you go through, and which programs do you use? Are there any cheats and tricks to it? Or methods that you use to get a unique style out of your inking?
I believe he's also interested in colouring methods, so if anyone has information on that, you get a bonus gold star.
Thanks in advance!
I mostly go completely digital or completely traditional when I work.
But I use Photoshop and a hard round brush, coupled with my tablet. If you don't have a tablet, it's much more difficult, but it can be done, you'd just have to erase more.
A tip: Layers. Layers, layers, layers. Layer masks, layer effects, blending modes, learn them, I'm sure there are tons of tutorials online. I use a layer for sketching (size guidelines and whatnot), and then work on another layer on top for the actual inking, with the sketch layer around 80% opacity.
For coloring, layers come in handy as well. I color a layer underneath, assigning one layer per object or color, depending on which one is simpler. I always paint PAST the border my inking has dictated. This is so I'm sure there is color underneath all that lineart. This will come handy if ever I decide to do effects with the lineart (like lower opacity, colorize, etc). And then I use layer masks on the color layers. MASKING IS BETTER THAN ERASING. Why? It doesn't really mess with that layer, it just makes things visible/invisible. So if I decide to make things rounder or bigger or longer, I'd just have to edit the lineart and the mask.
I also use Preserve Transparency when I'm already shading the flat colors.
Also: LEARN SHORTCUTS. Doesn't matter what the program is, shortcuts and hotkeys are your best friends. If you'll be doing it at least once during your workflow, see if there's a shortcut for it. Pretty soon it'll be second nature.
Hope this helped.
I tend to do a bit of what Baboy already said, although I use Paint Tool SAI since I don't have Photoshop.
I usually do my sketching digitally, although a digital sketch or a scanned one works fine either way. I'll set up a bunch of layers beforehand and keep the sketch itself on the bottom layer, or the second from the bottom if I want to go ahead and set up a background color. Depending on how dark the sketch is, I'll also usually decrease the opacity until the lines are lighter but still visible. Otherwise I sometimes will make kind of a wonky line but won't be able to tell right away because it blends in with the sketch.
Once I move onto the lineart, I tend to work on multiple layers instead of just trying to do it all on one. That way you can do quicker lines if you need to (Which helps if you want a line to come out smoother.) and then just erase anything that overlaps with another object if you need to. You can also toggle the opacity on different lineart layers too, if you need to work over one part of the lines and don't want to get mixed up as to where exactly the lines you're drawing are going.
While this is a SAI-only thing, it's a good idea to try playing around with the vector-like linework layers you are provided. While drawing lines manually doesn't always look too great (Since the program tends to make them a bit too angular due to setting up nodes for the line that was drawn.) you can use the line and curve tools to make base lines and then tinker with them until they do what you want. Plus, since it's vector stuff, you can resize things easily without them losing quality. One thing I like to do with this is do my lineart, scale it up so that it's much larger, edit the weight of the lines, and then once I'm finished will all the coloring, save it as one big image and then later resize the whole thing since shrinking it down hides mistakes that you might have made.
I won't go too much into coloring since Baboy is probably better off with explaining that. Heck I hardly even use masks, I just do this sort of "color like a preschooler and then just erase anything that went out of the lines" thing. Plus my coloring isn't always very consistent because of how often I play around and emulate other styles.
Hopefully this helps enough; I'm not too great at explaining things. Maybe at some point I could record a video of me doing a basic drawing if seeing these things done would help more than being told about them.
I take whatever I've drawn on paper, scan it in, open it up in Photoshop and go over the whole lineart with the pen tool in a new layer. Then colour it from the layer below. It isn't fast, and there are tricks and tips to doing it faster. But for the best result you should always do it like that.
On my end, after I've scanned an image in, I go into Paint.net and use the line tool to retrace over my lines in a new layer. Paint.net lines have little points that you can move around to bend the line, so you can use it fairly well, though it really only works well if you need lines of pretty much the same width.
When I need to taper lines off or change the size smoothly, I usually go in and do it manually at the pixel level with the pencil and eyedropper tools.
Like others, I also simply color in another layer under the line art. I haven't quite figured out a good way to shade though, other than simply having yet another layer for laying shades down.
Since I have rather shaky hands and dislike Photoshop's pen tool, I typically trace over my sketches in Flash with the pen tool. it's also possible to use Flash's line tool to draw a straight line from one point to another then, by clicking and dragging along the edge of the line, pull it into a curve. This method is similar to Sploder's Paint.Net technique in practice, but there's no limit to the image resolution once you export the Flash drawing (File->Export->Export Image)
When inking, I try to ensure that I can tweak important aspects of a drawing (like a character's arm that overlaps the body in some way) so I make a group for the specific lines that I may come back to fix and fiddle with.
To colour, I lay out the base colours in flash before I export, then in photoshop, I make shading layers and lay out the dark and light regions then I fiddle around with blending modes to see which one looks best for the image.
Really helpful, Devicho, esp about lineart on SAI. So that's how you do it.
Sketch, are you having the same problems with Flash+tablet? My lines always turn out wonky, like the thickness randomly juts out when I'm using the brush tool.
Moved to Creativity for the time being for better visibility.
This is some really useful advice so far, thanks a bunch!
The way I ink is pretty basic, and with all these posts I'm sure someone went into it well enough.
A way I use to color, a lot of people ask so I'll share it here.
I use photoshop, and there are other ways to get into it but I find the easiest way is in the layers tab.
At the bottom is a circle half of it darkened, click on that and a dropdown menu will pop up, go to curves...
For darker colors, move the graph down, for lighter, move it up.
I usually have 3 of these layers for shading, one for shades, 1 for lights, and 1 for any other color effects I'd like to add.
You will need to paintbucket the each of the curve layers black so they dont mess with all the colors isntead of where you want the shading, and then just paint on white on the curve layers.
I'm very bad at explaining this so I'll post up some screens if people want more details.
^Blending Modes, I think is the term for that, though I have to check.
It's a great way of avoiding permanently changing the colors of the whole thing via Image>Adjustments, because in this way the adjustments are in layers.
New in Inking Digital Artwork in-fact start from last month and I was wondering how I go about doing ink washes in photoshop? Does any one know suggest me.