Coloring Tutorial

PLEASE READ THE DESCRIPTION BEFORE COMMENTING!

Some of my friends on DA were wondering how exactly I go about coloring my artwork. Since my other drawing videos are NOT TUTORIALS, and are not meant to be used as such, I made this vid specifically as a means of teaching people just how exactly to color clean lineart in Photoshop.

This tutorial works for all versions of Photoshop above 6. At least as far as I'm aware.

To explain what I'm doing: I use the fill bucket tool to do all of my coloring. It's way faster and way easier than doing what most people do: blocking in color with the pencil and then erasing the parts that go outside the lines. All you have to do is ink/outline your sketch using a hard "pencil" brush as opposed to using the softer paintbrush tool and then use the fill bucket, with the "contiguous" and "use all layers" boxes checked up at the top (which I show you at the beginning of the vid).

Then, just fill it all in. "Use all layers" tells the fill bucket to, basically, look at all of the layers you have turned on and visible when flooding an area with color. This allows you to fill in areas of your lineart on a completely separate layer, without having to worry about screwing up your drawing as you go.

"Contiguous" is a bit more complicated. When turned on, the fill bucket will only flood fill isolated areas and pixels next to/touching each other. However, when it is turned off, the fill bucket will flood fill every single area of your artwork already colored the same color. For example, at 1:53, you'll notice that I change the color of the dog's inner ears from pink/red to white. You'll notice that i first turn off the "contiguous" property of the fill bucket and then only click on one ear, but both turn white. That is because the fill bucket took every area with that reddish pink color and changed it to white, as opposed to only flood filling the area I clicked on.

Keep an eye on those two things as you watch me color my border collie thing here. And notice that all of this is happening on a layer separate from the lineart layer, which frees me from worrying about messing anything up.

You may, if you like, put every single color on a separate layer. It will all work the same way, so long as you keep the lineart layer turned on, and will make it much easier for you to change to colors or markings should you decide that you do not like them. I just put all the color on one layer to save time.

Oh! As a little FYI, I know a lot of people have been complaining that their Photoshop does not have a fill bucket too. It is located underneath the gradient tool. I show you at the beginning of the tutorial. Simply click and hold the left mouse button over any of the tools with a little black arrow in the corner of it. A little side menu will pop up and you are free to select your new tool. As I said, the fill bucket is under the gradient tool.



Comment me with questions.

PLEASE READ AND DO NOT ASK ME THESE QUESTIONS EVER AGAIN

No I do not take requests. EVER.

No, this was not drawn with a tablet. This was made before I received my tablet in September.

Yes, I use a tablet now. But what kind doesn't matter. Unless you plan on being a professional artist within the next five years, you do not need to waste your money on one. Draw on paper, it is better practice since there is no free transform tool or undo button to hide your mistakes.

This was done in Photoshop CS2.

Yes, I have a DA account. Guess the screenname... and you'll be right. It's not hard to figure out. (It's a Avyris for anyone who is REALLY dense)

Song is: "The Whole World" by Outkast

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• coloring
• Photoshop
• tutorial
• lineart
• color
• fill
• bucket
• how
• to

[skywolffang]

was this your fist wasy of drawing...like u use to draw like

[Avyris]

@skywolffang

Nnnnno... My first way of drawing was on a piece of copy paper with crayons, like everyone did.

This was just a quick pic for a tutorial.

[crazyeloboy209]

How can i download the Flood Fill Tool mine didnt come with it :(

[Avyris]

@crazyeloboy209

All versions of Photoshop have the Fill Bucket tool. Sometimes it is hidden under the gradient tool.

[bleach700]

How do you do the grid at the back?

[Avyris]

@bleach700

The grid just means it's transparent. So delete the background or anything you may have there and it will become transparent... with the grid to represent transparency. it's actually a gray checkerboard pattern, not really a grid.

[Spyroscorchjetstream]

This really helped! :D

At the begining when it said "Okay, here we go." I thought that was your voice and I was like o_O xD

[bleach700]

@Avyris Thank you soo much (:

Sorry Im just a noob at this stuff, I was able to get Photoshop CS5

But I still learning tricks (:

[CherokeeWolf4HIM]

You have no idea how much this has helped me hahaha i was sooooo lost xD thanks a bunch, I really appreciate it :D *wags tail*

[Birchshade]

Omg the talking at the biggining... I got all freaked out because I thought it was you!