FARP : Coloring Pencil Drawings With Photoshop 

 

 

 

By (Unknown artist/writer: "keres"), Gallery 7 

    First off... you'll need to draw something with pencils. Get inspired. 

If out of ideas, go to a gallery, open a book, or simply browse 

lothlorien. The computer is only a tool. As is the pencil itself. But why 

people think that it is still cheating to use it, is pretty simple. The 

technics you practice with a pencil can be used anytime anywhere 

with anything. Even with a piece of coal on the surface of a rock. The 

technics you practice on a computer... well those skills can be used 

only with a computer. And computers don't grow on trees, neither are 

they cheap. So first, draw a picture. And make it good. 

Now. Select a sketch out of the many. Make it one, that you are proud 

of. Doesn't need to be flawless, only your personal best :-) Okay, this 

rule i already misobeyed, my example will not contain my very best. 

Just a decent picture. I mean, compared to my capabilities. 

The most important part 

    Choose a drawing. Make it a good one, so you won't regret working 

on it so much. Scan it, resize it to the maximum that you and/or your 

machine can handle to work with. Here is my example: 

 

Step 1 

    Open the file in Photoshop. Make sure that the color mode is set to 

RGB. If not, make it so. This is necessary to do for you to be able to 

access every color that computers can handle. Furthermore, the so 

called Photoshop filters will not work otherwise. 

 

Step 2 

    Now you'll need to select the exact area you want to work in. This 

will be useful for two things. First: if you let the computer know, what 

on the sheet actually NEEDS to be colored, you won't be able to go 

overboard the parts you are painting on. A better way of putting it... 

you will be able to go overboard, but the tools you are painting with 

will not add color, just to the parts that are within the borders of the 

selection. The selection is the selected area. For this you can use 

whichever selection tool you like. I prefer the Polygonal Lasso Tool. 

Select it. 

 

Step 3 

    The more precise you draw the conturs, the better results you get 

when using colors, or special effects (filters). Take your time, to trace 

the outlines of the parts you want to color. This tool works as follows: 

You click on the image, drag the cursor and with that move, you draw 

a line onto the screen. If you click again, you can change directions. If 

you double click, you can close the shape you were drawing. If you go 

back to the starting point with the cursor and click on it, you close the 

shape. Take it as a cutout, the tool is your scissor. The parts you snip, 

will not be colored. The parts that are left, will. 

 

    You don't need to draw the outlines to your picture in only one try. 

if you want to add parts to the shape you have selected so far, hold 

down the SHIFT key, and with the same tool, draw it further. If you 

want to take away from the selection ( remember, this is like a 

cutout... my drawing had such parts, like the space between her 

legs... don't ask me why that needed to be there :-/ ), all you have to 

do is to hold down the ALT key, and select the area. 

 

    After finishing outlining the drawing, your selection should be 

indicated by a flickering black & white line. 

 

Step 4 

    Let's save the shape you drew. Click on SELECTION on the menu 

bar, and select SAVE SELECTION... 

 

    ...then choose "new channel", and name the outline you drew, so 

that you can find it at some later time. Saved selections also get 

saved when writing your images in Photoshop's PSD format. You'll 

want to use that format for saving your files. Besides. Do backups as 

often as possible. Data tends to get lost you know. 

 

Step 5 

    And now onto the cheating stuff :-) Lets correct the error that so 

many people commit when drawing with pencils... leaving the paper 

white. With just a little trick, you can add, or improve the shading of a 

picture, without altering the original graphite piece. Normally, anyone 

could do all this on the paper itself, but for those who are not so 

confidant in what they're after, neither what they're capable of, this 

Photoshop filter called Gaussian Blur will do the trick. 

    Since you still have the part you want to work with selected, you 

can get right to the point. Choose Gaussian Blur from the Blur menu 

point under Filters. 

 

    Set the amout of blur you want. The preview won't tell you much of 

the final version, so i better let you know what to look after. Make 

sure that no space will be left white, but also, that the original shading 

won't fall entirely out of place ( won't blur so much that it gets 

unrecognizable ). The value i used to work with is between 1.5 and 

2.0 . 

 

    Now you have a very blurry version of your drawing. Now you'll add 

this to the original pencil work. Click on Filter again, and choose Fade 

Gaussian Blur. 

 

    From the modes, select multiply, and set the value as desired. With 

the preview function set on, you must be able to see the result 

instantly on your screen in the background. In my case this was 

around 50%... if i remember clearly :-) 

 

    My example : 

 

Step 6 

    And now... Onto the Main Feature! Let's color the drawing! For both 

better results and protection, use another layer for coloring each part 

of the picture. Start with the biggest surfaces, in my case that will be 

the skin of the girl. For starters, you'll need to create a new layer. 

Choose New layer under the menu point Layer. 

 

    Set the mode of the new layer to Color. This will allow you to add 

saturation and hue to the image without changing the luminance. 

Which means in english... You will be able to add color to the graphite 

drawing , but no matter what color you'll use to paint, you will not 

change the balance of dark and light parts, therefore the shading will 

not be damaged. This also means that coloring the picture with the 

same kind of blue, only a darker one ( closer to black ) will not give 

you any different results than using the same kind of blue, except 

lighter. 

 

    Select the new layer. 

 

    Select a tool that you want to work with. I prefer Paintbrush. Since 

i don't want, neither would be able to add any further shading, it is 

better. This way no parts of the image will be left more gray than the 

other. Since any parts that you won't cover with paint will be left as 

grayscale as they are. 

 

    And now... color the picture. Because you selected the working 

area, the area you want to color long before, you cannot go overboard 

the outlines. However, inside the picture nothing is stopping you from 

running into a different object. Those you simply must watch out for. 

Using separate layers for every object is a good idea, but will not 

solve your problem. You will still need to watch where you're going 

with that brush. Choose different brush sizes to paint small/large parts 

of the drawing. 

 

 

    Look how different a drawing looks just by adding only one color. 

In case you run over some parts you wish not to color, you may use 

the eraser. It works just the same as the paintbrush, if set so. Be 

careful with that undo option. For your actions are counted from 

mouse-click to mouse-click, if you colored an entire image with one 

stroke, an undo command will negate everything ( but remember 

there is a redo command as well ). 

 

    By clicking on the eye icon next to the layer you can turn on and 

off their visibility. This example is when the original drawing itself, the 

background layer is turned off: 

 

    Using many layers and colors, give life to the drawing. Remember, 

you can always edit the graphite drawing itself by selecting its layer. 

This way you can correct things that you did not notice while on 

paper. But this is not recommended since it is really hard to make the 

lines and textures that are drawn in Photoshop not to look artificial. 

Anyways. After a few minutes ( or in my case, hours ) you can have a 

very decent looking image on your screen. Take your time to color 

every feature individually. You may try different colors and 

combination of colors without the need of deleting any, just create 

another layer, and turn off the one that it replaces. 

 

    Turning off the pencil layer gives you a chance to notice any gaps 

between the colored areas. You may fill them in this way, and turn the 

background layer, the graphite drawing back on afterwards. 

 

Step 7 

    After you added color to each and every part of your picture you 

wanted to, you may enhance the colors to a richer, less computer 

matte, more realistic look. This too can be done without altering any 

of the layers you already added. All you need to do is to copy the 

layers that contain the color paint. To duplicate them. You'll have the 

same color, at the same place. And by setting the mode of this new 

layer, you can reach a combination that results in a more paintlike, 

less metallic and vibrant effect. First off, duplicate the layer of the 

cololred area you want to alter. 

 

    Then set the mode of this layer to something different than color 

and normal. I used multiply and color burn modes. Adjusting the 

transparency ( that percentage slidebar, yes ) of the layer might also 

be a good idea. Especially when using dark colors. Don't let the new 

layers overwhelm the pervious ones. You may also alter the order of 

the layers. Making the color mode layer the upmost in the group is 

good for keeping the hue that you originally set. 

 

Step 8 

    Well, since your goal is to make it look real, and beautyful, you 

mustn't forget of the light. My example features a highlight and a 

shadow. I can't get into any scientific explanations on what is 

highlight and where it should be exactly on the picture, due to my lack 

of knowing the right english words. Let's just say that highlights are 

where the the light falls on the body the nearest to 90 degrees, so it 

drops off the most intensivly at that area. If you choose a simple light 

source, let's say... upper right, you need to draw the highlights 

around the edges of the upper right part of every shape. Head, hand, 

chest, sword, whatever. You ought to look after how different 

materials reflect light. Clothes for example usually won't shine as 

bright as metal or the skin. Well hopefully they don't. If they do, they 

need to be washed as soon as possible. You can create a new layer for 

highlights. I prefer to set its mode to screen, and set its transparency 

to around 30%. 

 

    Using the airbrush tool add some bright color that can be taken for 

light. My example here is yellow. 

 

    Adding a shadow is facultative. Since you already added shading to 

your drawing this feature is more like a reflected light, the reflection 

of the ground or enviroment on the body. Where the ground, or the 

objects around the body reflect much light, what i am going to show 

you isn't applicable. In these cases use another highlight layer for the 

reflected light. My example however shows the adding of a shadow. 

For this use another layer. Set its mode to something that keeps you 

from altering the bright parts. I prefer overlay. 

 

    Using the airbrush tool add some dark color that can be taken as 

reflected light. My example here features dark bluish violet. 

 

Step 9 

    And for the finishing touch, let's use one of the so-called filter plug-

ins of photoshop. You are going to add a black background with 

outlining the figure with white. Of course this too could be done with 

real ink, on real paper. First off, you'll need to load the selection, the 

area you marked for the computer in which to work in. Now you'll 

need to invert this, letting the computer to know that you're not into 

messing up what you've done already. You just want to add a decent 

background. Well... allright a decent background color :-) . Select 

Load Selection under the menu point Select. 

 

    Go for the area you saved earlier. Given a talking name, you just 

might be able to find it within 0.2 seconds instead of 1.9 . 

 

    Do not forget to select the layer of the original drawing, the pencil 

work. If you are not sure of yourself, turn everything else off for the 

duration of this step. 

 

    Invert the selection by selecting the Inverse under the menupoint 

Select. 

 

    Now you'll need to loosen up the area, so there will be some space 

left for the white outline. This you can do by selecting Contract under 

the menupoint Modify in Select. Contract the selection in anz amout 

you want but be careful. Leaving too much space out will result in 

seeing too much of the original paper. Which is grayscale and noisy. 

Not white. I prefer contracting 2 pixels. 

 

    And to make it look smoother, select Feather under the menupoint 

Select. Make the feather equal to the amount you gave in Contract. In 

my case this too was 2 pixels. 

 

    After doing so, your selection should wave around the area by a 

few pixels. Now select the right filter to add a background. In case 

you're not sure of yourself, you can either copy the original, the 

Background layer, and use the copy, or simply save the file. For that 

white outline/black background effect use the Glowing Edges filter in 

the Stylize group under the menupoint Filter. 

 

    And that's it. 

 

The End 

    Finished. A pencil drawing turned into a colorful picture. If you liked 

the result, try to do it with conventional media. Not out of bigotry, but 

for the improvement of your more universal skills. Here's the picture i 

colored myself. I must say i was pleased with how it turned out. 

Again.. compared to my own skills that is ;-) . 

 

Cirmos girl goes hiking 

 

...and some final words 

    In case you found my article helpful, or colored an image with the 

help of it, please let me know. my e-mail is 

pkeres@euroweb.hu

. Thank 

you for your time. Take care, and draw lots of beautyful pictures. :-) 

Peter Keres 

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