Click on image - BIG video will open in new window
I'm coloring the line art on SpongeBob in today's Adobe Photoshop tutorial video. Most of the steps are the same as they were for coloring Patrick in the previous video... but since repetition is the mother learning, I think that'll help to see it all once more on a different character.
I'm coloring the line art on SpongeBob in today's Adobe Photoshop tutorial video. Most of the steps are the same as they were for coloring Patrick in the previous video... but since repetition is the mother learning, I think that'll help to see it all once more on a different character.
The way I select all the line art on SpongeBob is to use the magic wand tool on the clear background.
This selects all of the clear areas of the canvas... but then I use the inverse command from the selection menu to flip the selection to SpongeBob's line art only.
I imagine there is an easier way to do this, but this screwy little method has always worked for me.
The advantage of having all the line art selected is that I can go over it with a big fat color brush, and I don't have to worry about going outside of the lines. I still have to use the brush tool (rather than the paint bucket) because not all of the lines are painted the same color.
Another key tool that I use frequently is the eyedropper. The eyedropper tool lets you sample colors from any place on the canvas.
I usually import a small reference drawing of the characters I'm working on so that I can quickly grab any color I need to. This is especially important for licensed characters that have a very specific and unchanging color scheme.
As an added audio bonus: about one minute into the video, you get to enjoy the sound of an ambulance siren passing by outside my window. It adds a little bit of real-life drama, doesn't it?
I'm not a big fan of using Photoshop as a painting tool, but it's definitely my go-to graphics application when it comes to image manipulation and coloring simple flat line art. Only the outlines are going to be colored in Photoshop -- all of the fills and background art will be painted in ArtRage 2.5, a wonderful painting program that beautifully simulates the look of natural media like oil paints and pastels.
And the three best things about ArtRage 2.5? It's super simple to use, it's ridiculously inexpensive, and it produces results that are good enough to allow me to continue painting covers for one of the most successful magazines in America. Stay tuned, because with the very next video, we will start a brand-new series on digital painting with ArtRage 2.5!
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...and to catch up on the previous tutorials:
Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop
Cartoon Inking tutorial videos:
Cartoon Inking tutorial videos:
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Here the YouTube version of the video in case you're having any trouble with the high-resolution video at the the start of this page:
...and the completed SpongeBob cover painting is at:
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