Tutorial: Coloring Comics in Photoshop

[thebumshow]

I cant even select white space to colour on.. I use the wand tool and it just picks every white space =I

[captainlinalalaine]

does anyone now where i can download black and white comics like THIS one? :)

[kingjoeg]

you sound like fry from futurama

[WaterMedia]

@kingjoeg Thanks King! I think I sound like a ten year-old, so I'm moving on up. :)

[DrHornyDude]

i like!

[NearbyHermit]

This didn't explain jack shit, it's more like a show off !

[TheMoepProductions]

nice. im gonna try this.

[gotafacelikemurderx]

two inquiries:

- how did you manage to scan your work in and get the project to literally a white background and black art. regardless of how i import work, it's always a grey background and darker grey work regardless of the paper being white and ink being black. all tutorials seem to start out with this already fixed if there is a fix.

- ...how the fuck do you have a rainbow menu bar?! want.

[Falco544]

@gotafacelikemurderx what i usually do is sketch out my picture or whatever you're drawing, just a rough sketch, then i'll scan it in, and retrace the lineart in photoshop with a 4-7 size brush and stroke the paths that i've drawn out

[WaterMedia]

@gotafacelikemurderx Howdy Face o' Murder!

If you scan black & white, the scanner gets to choose what stays and goes. If you choose grayscale you do. At first a grayscale scan will look muddy and gross, but if you bring it into Photoshop you can hit adjustments > levels to bring up the contrast. Poof! Magic clean scans. (I did this art digitally though too, for extra clean lines.)

And the menu bar is an option in OSX, under Desktop. My wallpaper is the rainbow and is peeking through.

[cordearo]

@WaterMedia when i drop my hand draw image into photoshop it dosent give me the option to select and modify what do i have to do????

[mirenlotayo]

@WaterMedia How did you get the contour lines to differ in width? did you have to trace it twice to give the outline some style?

[WaterMedia]

@mirenlotayo I'm using a Wacom drawing tablet. This allows the pressure of my pen to create the thickness of a stroke. Highly recommended for digital inking!

[SalamenceKeeper7450]

OMG M79 :D Vampire Weekend <3

and thanx, helped me out alot, bro.

[ThingFish1979]

Great! I´ve done this for a while, but I´ve never found that "expand" thing before. In other words my coloring suddenly got much easier. Thanks for the tutoring!

[PCHavoc]

Where is the automatic re-size option....? Do you mean airbrush mode? And how did you get your dodge tool to look like a square tool with rounded edges?

[daileyimages]

oh my god you just helped me figure out one of my biggest problem. Thanks for this video.

[DanielHalkjaer]

Hey man! Thanks a lot for this video, I found it really useful :) - I'm kinda new to this, and i'm thinking of buying a drawing tablet. May i please have the name, of the one, that you'r using?

[DanielHalkjaer]

@DanielHalkjaer Oh, im sorry. I just now realized that you already answered that on another video ;) Keep up the good work!

[SuperMismo]

This answered a specific question I had for coloring comics, thank you very much for the informative tutorial.

[MrGambal]

ew, shading with burn

[WaterMedia]

@MrGambal People attack projects in different ways. Crazy huh? Love to see your approach! :)

[lash83n]

@WaterMedia I use burn to shade as well :)

[Amabar]

@MrGambal He called you out, you gonna take that? I guess you have no choice.

[MrGambal]

@Amabar I posted a link to something a couple days ago. Guess because it was a url youtube automatically deleted the comment.

In it I said it's cool if using burn/dodge to color is what works for him, but anyone with any talent in photoshop will tell you it's wrong. I don't do comic art, but the only thing that shows my process online is this: tinyurl dot com slash 5tycr7r

[codes90]

best way to advertise doing this tutorial super helpful and now i'm a fan of welcometopixelton.

[WaterMedia]

@codes90 Thanks so much Codes90! Kirby and crew are secretly your super fans as well!

[xXNHMXx]

I cant get dodge tool to work please help

[BlackedVideo]

i love your comics!!!

[peggyninja]

could i do this in photoshop cs3???

[WaterMedia]

@peggyninja Yes, dodge and burn are available even way back in Photoshop 5.5. (Yes, I'm officially an old man.)

[peggyninja]

excuse me but could someone please tell me how much photoshop costs ???? it would really help thanks :D

[XinBiDe]

@peggyninja Try googling it or searching on Amazon. No need for us to hold your hand. The internet is full of answers. It's a good skill to be able to find some yourself.

Best of luck.

WARNING: It ain't cheap.

[DanielBoa]

I never use the burn tool because I usually never like the soft looking result. But, I really do like the effect on the tree, looks really good.

[Monoshluk]

I must admit that your painting style is a bit too saturated for my taste. Both the background and characters are saturated and it causes the compositions to feel really crowded - again, for my taste :P but I did learn some valuable tools from your tutorial and for that I'm grateful. Thanks a lot! keep up the great job!! :))

[CorinaJoanBlack]

this is a really great tutorial :) i'll definitely be watching it again when I (hopefully) get Photoshop...

[kingofthieves772]

Good Stuff.

[NappsBlackPro]

GOOD JOB!!

[OdyXeus7]

Man you'r e really clever, you make this look too easy .

Awesome line art by the way =)

[K4rlud0n]

I love how your title says Tutorial and you actually explain what you do. Great work. Helped me out a lot. :)

[Keanudabeast]

I DONT UNDERSTAND WHAT PROGRAM DO YOU USE TO MAKE THE COMIC ART ITS SELF PLEASE HELP ME SOMEBODY

[AngelofWolves]

@Keanudabeast normally you just draw it on paper then scan it in, thats what i do

[lapinsbruns]

Vampire Weekend!

[paralasalud]

i don't know if anyone's mentioned it (probably because this is 2 years old) you can hit command + H after you've made your selection to hide the selection lines. (the "marching ants") it'll help if you're someone who's easily distracted.

[Cassirolled]

^^ That's awesome! I just recently got Photoshop after 2 years without it and I had completely forgotten about the burn and dodge tools! And was that a little VW at the end there?

[XchrixX]

Thanks! helped me alot! :D

[jesman1985]

the tree bark also looks like photo realistic hair.. :D

[lolluspingus]

What program(s) do you use to record your tutorials?

I can't really find any good recorders, so Im asking around youtube. :)

[WaterMedia]

@lolluspingus

Hi lolluspingus,

I'm on a Mac using iShowU. While I also have a copy of ScreenFlow for Mac, I do like it much less. ScreenFlow crashes quite a bit while iShowU can literally record for hours without a hitch. Hope this helps!

[lolluspingus]

@WaterMedia

No, that didn't really help..

Im on a PC so those programs are useless for me.

Thanks anyways.

[xpander2k]

@lolluspingus : Try Snagit!  It's awesome.

[xmattx343]

@lolluspingus Type in "snagit oldapps" in google and click the first link. Download SnagIt 5.0.2. It's free and it actually works.

[00iFail00]

'different strokes for different folks' LMAOOO

cool coloring!

[0Artist0]

Hello, I'm using Photoshop CS5 but when I go to my layer that is the skull and eyes, I go to select and modify but all except one option is greyed out. Am I supposed to select something with the lasso tool or something? What would be a good recommendation for size in pictures? I think mine are too small because I can see every single square/pixel when drawing... I JUST got photoshop and a wacom tablet. Had it for under a month...Help? >,>

[t1ger200]

I freaking love it. A lot of help, thanks! And your drawing skills are amazing.

[halfbakedxcookie]

"Gold stars all around."

[TTRANSMUTATEE]

Your opening song sounds like Horchata-Vampire Weekend

[ivandonat]

Subscribed :)

[MayhemArt]

the colors look great, and the comic looks awesome!!

5/5

[Emog0tch1]

that is one awesomr funky tree. it goes ahhz.. ^_^

[skitzohollis]

niiiiiiice thats a so much easier to do. thanks for simplifying it!

[peroodgradsko]

nice, i like ur way of coloring and adding shadows - i have a diferent method but this works just as well :P :) 10/10

[godlesswickedvanian]

what type of Opacity would you recommend for burning and dodging?

[ProjectNic911]

thats great i just have one question when you used the dodge and burn tool i saw a square brush for it what is that brush called? Please let me know thx. ANd great tutorial

[ProjectNic911]

@soliza1204 you have to get a scanner go to like bestbuy and say i need a scanner you get what you pay for

[knightmonx]

how do you color a messy doodle?

[xXxMaria015xXx]

nice voice (:

[shuhung6]

Thank you so much for this tutorial! I am still having a little trouble though!

Whenever I want to use the Burn tool on just the color I have selected like you (in your case, the brown for the tree), my color goes onto other parts of the picture that I don't want. How do you make the color burn only on your tree color?

[Fe1ion]

Thank you for this tutorial, it really helped!!

[luffy0000]

wait are you using a mouse to draw or drawing and then scanning ?

[pudinthemushroomhead]

he's drawing on paper, scanning, coloring

[PeproniBBQ]

Hey thanks for the video, i'm curious how do you get such neat lines. Do you do all your stuff freehand? I've been playing around with my tablet with no real aim but can never get neat lines when i need them. Would you mind perhaps shedding some light on your techniques? Thanks.

[AniMagination15]

thanks that helped a lot :)

[AniMagination15]

what size do you make the comic, like the height and width??

[WaterMedia]

It kind of depends on the comic. :)

My new comic is 14 inches wide by 10 inches wide at 300dpi. This high dpi (or dots per inch) means that I can store more info and it will look clearer.

One tip: Always make your comics bigger than you may want. The reason? You can always scale them down and they will look great, but you can never scale up without everything looking very bad.

[OsmanShinobi]

ur drawings are amazing

[WaterMedia]

Thanks OsmanShinobi! :)

[coldblood274]

@WaterMedia Could you please make a tutorial on how to get the manga look, the inking effect and so on? Or could you direct me to a video like it? plz

[jaisdezenaamwelgoed]

i have a quastion

Can you do this same technique with scanned picture's/drawings?

greets

[WaterMedia]

Excellent thinking!

Let's say you have a black and white photo as a base, if you were to color using the exact same method you could create a color photo. Or if you have a scanned piece (let's say charcoal drawing) you can color it as you wish too.

[Kittygirl1998]

thanks for posting this it helps so much!

[govitamins]

Many thanks for sharing! It was more than helpful, great job!

Cheers!

[thrashaolin]

awesome tutorial, really helpful. Can you do a tutorial about inking with photoshop? I have tons of hand drawings I would like to ink digitally, but I can't find a good tutorial.

thank you

[Garmoydra]

wow, this is really helpful! Awesome work!

"Bam!"... yes, totally awesome.

I thought for a long time that the burning-tool is useless and it's just a porkie that comic artists use this tool (because everytime I want to use this tool it... doesn't give me the results I've wanted! :( ) I've everytime add a new layer, taken another color and smudged it. I'll try now your way of coloring comics/artwork!

Thanks alot for this tutorial!

[Guzzball17]

different strokes for different folks lol

[ZeGoddess]

Your tutorial is awesome! However, my problems start with drawing with my tablet...I can't find a right brush that draws a clear, nice line.

Anybody have some suggestion?:)

[WaterMedia]

Thanks Ze!

If you select the brush tool you should see some new options appear in the top menu. Off to the left should be the word brush, and to the right is a picture and number. This is the brush you have selected. Simply click this image to access the saved brushes. It sounds like you have a blurred brush when what you'd need is a sharp one.

Hope this helps...

[alansam6]

@WaterMedia Hey dude. Nice comics. I've read like 18 of your comics every day! Oh yeah, have your comics come out in stores?

[deltalead89]

my burn tool doesnt seem to work nearly that well D: it turns my pacman red :(

[WaterMedia]

Yipes! It sounds like it is one of two things, either intensity of burn or burn setting. When you select the burn tool you see options in the top menu area. The intensity is controlled by the percentage here. If this percentage is very high it will burn too quick and Pacman gets sunburn! So set it to 10-20% with a few passes.

The other possibility is burn setting/mode. This is the top menu as well. You want it set to the middle setting (mid-tones I believe). This will only burn proper colors.

[Deltani007]

I opened an existing black and white comic but I cant colour it..For example,i choose red and it paints gray.anyone can help?

[srZULU70]

okay, common problem, but a simple answer. the comic is already rendered in black & white, therefore when u open in in photoshop the mode is set to grayscale. when in grayscale mode everything is black white or gray. what u want 2 do is go to image>mode>& coose either RBG or CMYK color. since i'm assuming its not your comic u want to choose RBG. CMYK is only for sending your works to proffesional printing.

[Deltani007]

hmm i knew it had to do with it but i didnt know how to convert..thnx a lot :)

[OGYOSHI0007]

is it a gif?

[WithUnspokenWords]

Select Image>Mode>RGB Color

[InaelScearos]

its probably in greyscale mode, change it to RGB

[BigBossu1989]

go to Image > Mode > RGB

[icesamurai8]

@Deltani007 i would tell you but i bet $1000 some are ready told you.

[Ichigoku33]

burn tool iz mi fav tool YEEEEAAA BOY!

[murdukwatson]

ok I've always wondered what the dodge tool is, now I know! Thanks...I was always OVER burning my art, now the dodge tool will give it that dramatic look I wanted, lol @ the bit of encouragement at the end...it felt patronizing, but for some reason it gave me a boost of creativity lmao btw you should do voice over work you sound quirky (sp?)! lol Thanks again!

[HigeLuver]

Okay, to anyone who will answer because I've asked and still havent gotten one, maybe I will here. How do you get the lines to look not so much like crap? Because I cant seem to figure it out

[PeanertGallery]

outline them in flash. thats the cool way to do it

[HigeLuver]

Stop being smelly you  XO :P

[PeanertGallery]

NO U! =3

[WaterMedia]

Hey HigeLuver,

It sounds like you're running into one of three problems:

1) Using a low resolution. You're document resolution should be 300 dpi or larger. Low dpi will make things look blocky.

2) Using the wrong tool. When using the brush tool, with a 100% solid brush, the lines should be crisp.

3) If the lines are smooth before you color but jagged after: this is why we use two different layers. Selecting a line an coloring on the same layer will make a jagged edge.

Hope this helps!

[bowen12]

great tutorial! thanks for making this. Question. Do you have a "Making Line Art" tutorial? and if not, could you make one? I'm having a hard time making line art on photoshop. If i'm not zommed in a lot, the lines come out al squiggly. Is there a way to go around this? I usually scan line art and color on Ps, but I want to go all digital. Thanks for your time!

[WaterMedia]

Hey thanks Bowen,

I'm planning on launching a whole series of these videos next year, so feel free to subscribe if it might be useful. Great idea for a video!

Take care!

[riconis]

Thanks a lot man, this was very useful.

[paulteutuljunior88]

by the way pretty cool comic ... love your style.

[paulteutuljunior88]

did you do the outline in photoshop too? and if can you tell me how? or have you done them in illustrator or something? please answer me =)

[WaterMedia]

Hi Paul,

I do actually create the line art in Photoshop as well. This is done by using an Intuos 3 tablet, which allows me to draw with a pen like I would on paper. You can also draw the line art outside of photoshop, scan it in, and follow the same method.

Thanks for the kind words! :)

[ridekink88]

i need you help, i work on ps desiging T's,

and i problam( this is a first). I have the T design on the background set to multipy

as the other two layers are. And ever time im on any of the other two layers and i try and add highlighhts or colour, it doesnt appear on the back but under it ....... ??

[hobavaca]

how do you make comic templates in photoshop? i have been trying for the longest to find out

[XandiProductions]

the select, modify, expand part really was helpful to me, I've been so frustrated for the longest time about my color never reaching my lines completely!

I especially liked how you dumbed it down for us, though I knew what the pop up menu for the pen sizes was, but the menu at 3:41 I must say I'm unfamiliar with.

[johnbecaro]

thanks for posting this.:)

[anguswuu]

How do you get photoshop from NOT trimming off the edges when you print it.

[Duobitdezo]

Before you print click the size to fit option in the print menu.

[jem415]

That was very helpful, especially for a beginner like me. Thanks!

[skept725]

do you have any upcoming tutorials? A tuturial on the different kinds of brushes and effects would be helpful.

[WaterMedia]

@skept725 I will soon Skept725! I'm working hard on my new book, but I do plan on creating a whole video series from initial concepts to publishing the completed work. Please subscribe if this sounds like something that you might find handy!

[XinBiDe]

@WaterMedia Would this style work well with shading humans? Specifically superheroes?

[WaterMedia]

@XinBiDe Sure would XinBiDe. Since you can adjust your dodge and burn rate it can really work with anything.

[anifrizzo32]

thanks i always wanted to knew how to aply texture

[Anna4tATu]

Wow, this helped me a lot! ^^

Thank you for this, you explained everything really great!

[Flashlight1996]

Jesus! That thing is a tree?!

[cookiesnmilk1]

Thank you so much the dodge and burn tools look like they will be very useful to me.

[StyggViking]

He mentions that he uses a Wacom, wich is indeed; a tablet. So yap :3

Nice tutorial btw ; )

[ScrapBrainZone]

What kind of brush do you use for your outlines to make them look so fine? Do you use a tablet?

[HanoldMcDonald]

Umm, what settings do you have for your brush? I always have most of mine standard (hardness 100%), but every time I try to select something then expand it, (it works for that) there is still a white line between my color and the line art. I'm stuck! I love the tut though, it's great!

[alastor4480]

put you layer settings to multipy

[vxleng]

really nicely done mate....my tip to anyone here, dont watch too many tutorials, u wont know what ur doing and anything slightly helpful goes from one to the other....this tutorial is flawless in my opinion

[madrox84]

Thanks for the tutorial, I have a better feel for tree texture coloring now. =)

[thatawesomenobody]

great humor hehe

[kingreaper101]

GREAT TUTORIAL

[hayd92]

lost you when the tree went brown

[MaitreEauEau123]

Its because he used the paint bucket tool, choose the color brown and apply it!

[konsyjes]

Yeah.. someone might question your technique but that would be rude, since youre very nice and helpful. I do things differently but I learned some fresh ideas from this demo. Thanks!

[Nazcools]

nazerein-animeedittutorial(dot­)blogspot(dot)com... wahahaha... learn to color here

[baddate]

Haha, you seem like a nice fella. Good tutorial, mate!

[siamboxing5]

oh nevermind i had the ideo on mute, you explained everything

[siamboxing5]

hi,good coloring demo. One question...the way i see you basically lay down your base color ( yellow ochre) then you go back and start adding darks and lights where needed. For the darks and lights are you using the burn/dodge tool or are you picking up a lighter/darker color form the palate and just adding it onto the drawing? Also what is the opacity and flow of ther brush you are using when you blend the lights and darks into the base color?

[2comeout]

can you put your pic to your own pic to

[Bunechunk]

I have a really dumb question but i don't totally understand drawing on the computer so i thought i'd ask someone who has knowledge in this area. in the picture you have here, the eye on the tree is perfectly round. did you draw this perfect circle on your tablet or is there a tool on the tablet that lets you create circles(kinda like in MS Paint)?

[WaterMedia]

Hi Bune!

Good question. It kind of depends on the situation. In this case I just drew the circles.

When I draw other characters though I use a tool which helps me create circles. These are the selection tools, and the look like dashed lines in your toolbar. There is one for circles, squares, and any shape you can create. Once selected you can go to the menu and select Edit, and then stroke.

This will allow you to create a line around this selection of any size.

Hope this helps!

- Josh

[konsyjes]

yeah, you can also set a round brush to the size of circle you want and just click.

[karingg]

hi! do u know why I can´t choose to expand? It´s lightgrey.. can´t choose it :( Thanks / Karin

[WaterMedia]

Hi Karin!

Hmm, as long as you have something selected you should be able to expand. I'd try using a square selection tool in a blank document, and then seeing if you can expand it. If this works then everything should be good down the line.

If not, I'm not quite sure what is happening...

Take care,

- Josh

[jereth308]

This tutorial helps alot!!! Thanks~ I never color with burn tool before, and always create a new layer with darker color... now I feel stupid :(

[lovinsullivan123]

Wow that helped we a lot thanks! I was wondering, which photoshop is this? Reason i'm asking is because i want to get photoshop, and i want to get the right one!

[MochaKimono]

The burn and dodge tools also mess with the saturation, ending up looking a picture that looks...like it was burned and dodged. In real life, I've nary seen an actual shadow with more color tint than the lit side of the object it's on.

To be honest, I'm trying to break the habit of relying on the Photoshop tools to tweak my colors for me, because it inhibits my ability to choose or mix colors in a traditional medium.

[WaterMedia]

Hi MochaKimono,

The burn and dodge tools change saturation based on which mode they are in. At "normal" they will do what you mention and create a fuller color, but you can also choose "highlights" and "shadows" options which pull in a gray variant of the color at different percentages. This is a quick way to get a true shaded color.

I understand the desire to pull colors on your own though!

[Nazrat84]

My big Question is not how to color, but how to make drawings with photoshop. :( I need a lot of help.

[WaterMedia]

Hi Nazrat!

You definitely need a scanner (to bring in drawings you made on paper) or a Wacom tablet.

Tablets are pretty great because they let you experiment without losing quality. I spent years scanning in art I'd done on bristol board, cleaning it up, and making it look good. If you do it right in the computer you never have to worry about bad quality! :)

You can pick up a Wacom tablet for $100, though I'd recommend a higher size/quality one because they are worth every penny.

[Nazrat84]

My Scanner produces High-res photos :P. Well, now I have a game-plan on how to improve on what I Started thanks to this tutorial, Thanks man!

[MyBoggy]

Thanks for the help. Every other guide assumed I was smart enough to figure out Modify-> Expand on my own.

[WaterMedia]

Big difference between intelligence and knowledge, but I can't assume you'd get that.

[ChadOnTheNet]

do you have to make a whole new color layer for each thing you do?

[WaterMedia]

Hi Chad,

Some artists prefer to do it this way, for example the colorist on Bone. I tend to do everything on one color layer and if I need to go back simply reselect the drawing. The benefit is that I save a bit of memory to keep my weak computer responsive!

Hope this helps,

- Josh