EPTI watched a video on youtube some time ago where a guy created a piece of comic for a webpage with adobe flash. the video was this:
the drawing is not bad, but not the most impressive or detailed ever- I had seen much better ones at that time, where artists created drawings and portraits of incredible detail with illustrator or photoshop or even ms paint. but what at that time I was not aware was that you can use a combination of techniques to create a digital piece that combines your fantasy and sketching knowledge with the much wider limitations of digital coloring/shading. To that time I only used photoshop to manipulate photography or to create some kind of typography, but after watching this video I tried to emulate this technique. the technique basically is: 1. create a freehand sketch with pencil 2. scan it in to create a basic layer for your digital drawing 3. try to color the sketch some way. of course this last step is basically what the digital art is all about and it can be refined nearly limitlessly.
My first try ever to color a drawing was a nightfury, I watched How to train your dragon and of course fell in love with Toothless. I sketched his head while attending a boring course at the university, and later colored it at home, I was fairly satisfied with the results:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/cwuQ7is.jpg)
I can't find the pencil drawing because I have replaced my computer since then. The technique was basically to create vectorial contours, create unicolored shapes, use the burn and dodge tool to add shade and brightness, then use a filter to add a scale-like texture, and use a lot of small lines with certain opacity to create a nice iris and glossy effects/reflection on the eyes. My technique was very crude, but I was amazed that only a little talent for drawing, coloring and composition and little practice with the art tools of photoshop are sufficient to make a 3d-like image of such quality (now I think this drawing is totally shit but it's good enough for start lol)
This was a drawing I created with black marker quite fast when I was visiting my family. later I colored the drawing (very crudely) and excercised the method of creating blends, shades, color transitions. while my technique was still very basic, the cartoon-like result impressed me and also my baby sister liked it. I tried to create some underwater-like effect with shades and colors, failed quite hard but practice makes the master;) also I recreated my favorite very own childhood cartoon character in color and it felt good(the yellow fish)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4PE9Zo3.jpg)
I was always fond of dinosaurs so I draw a sketch of a cartoon-like Spinosaurus that was one of my favorite dinosaurs. This sketch already has some photoshop shading on it:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/F7D7zym.jpg)
I had the idea to create the the image first in black and white and color it after (that is how it should be done), but I had difficulties creating a quality black and white image. I really liked the graphite lines together with the coloring though so I continued with this mixed technique style. I used nooby ways to make a basic shade image, add a transparent color on top of it, merge the two layers and then use burn and dodge tool to adge more shades and lights. What i know now that this technique while not really optimal is good if you want to use your pencil lines as a texture on your drawing. after this I used the color replace tool to add colors, and on top of that a lot of small, transparent layers to add scale, teeth, claw, etc colors and shades. the result, while took like 4-5 hours, was quite satisfying to me:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/tKDSznO.jpg)
at this point I felt I was on to explore something really good, this picture felt much more complete than my prevorius ones which I often torn to pieces or deleted after a spontaneous flick of disappointment. the method was still very far from efficient though, it took me almost a full working day to create this.
My next project was Kabal from Mortal Kombat, a character I used to inflict 40-50% combos on my mate like 10 years ago and make him rage like a madman (and I didn't rage at all when he used Rain to kill me in 1 combo either, i swear). The pencil drawing:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/qP1sFX2.jpg)
I thought it was quite good for a first try, even though now I hate it because I became aware of several proportional and perspectivical errors after I colored it. but even then it was a fairly good base for coloring I thought so I went on to refine my technique more, the result:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/XHTsgAx.jpg)
I still couldn't leave my pencil lines behind, however I tried to make it darker, with fuller colors ( I succeeded to make it darker lol). I tried out adding texture shade layers with very slight opacity (5-6%) to make skin texture, and used a lot of small color touches, and at the end I used a filter to make the overall effect more comic book like. I still hate a lot of things about it, but I have to admit the coloring made me satisfied. Even though in the end it was still too cartoony for my taste, the techniques of creating textures and contours were much closer to my hopes than before. it still took crapload of time though, like 5-6 hours.
My last project was this piece which I created many years ago:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/MSzGInb.jpg)
After I scanned this one in, I started to use my new Wacom Bamboo tablet. while it is a cheap one, It allowed me to use freehand techniques to shade and brighten areas on my shapes, and drawing became so much more efficient. If you have some money and have a thing for digital arts one of these babies is a must have. Also if you have more than 1000 euros you can buy one of the wacom cintiq digitalizer tablets which are the most advanced artistic tools in existence, I plan to buy one if I have the spare money. The result after only 2-3 hours was this (yea I cut off the bottom because I was lazy to finish)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/hxsZJMQ.jpg)
I created a full black and white layer here by putting an uni-grey shade on top of the background layer (the sketch), make it like 70% transparent to see through and started to use dodge and burn to create an image which felt like a perfect black and white image of the captain. I started using brush tool with various opacity percentages to add subtle contours and highlights. Then after I was satisfied with the black and white image, I used the color replacement tool to add colors, and after that a lot of soft colored brushes to add subtle touches of color to create textures and self color.
While it is not complete yet- the reflections are still missing, also the color of the coat and hat is till not complete, also I need to sharpen the contours- this image is now doesn't have the pencil contours, and is more digital 3D like and less cartoon like than any of my prevorius ones. I experimented out a cool method to add texture to the hair and beard. I'm still quite puzzled how to do the smoke though. I will certainly try to finish this drawing in 2-3 weeks, but at the moment I'm overwhelmed with my job. I estimate that it needs a good 1 hours of work still to be as complete as I want it to be.
If anyone is interested in this blog at all, I will continue to upload my further photoshop projects. I hope you liked these! Also if anyone has a cool idea go ahead and share it, I might draw it some time.
regards, Totaux
waiting for more of your work.
