Animation Source Forums

Well I said I'd do a tutorial on how to do this so here goes...

Please excuse me if this is'nt too easy to follow, I've never made a tutorial before and I'm still an amateur myself so don't smite me!

First off we need to select the colours we'll be using, I used blue on this occasion, you'll need a light blue, a dark blue and a very pale blue, ircled in red here, you can use these colours if you like but you don't have to, just make sure that whatever colours you use you have similar differences in tone.


next step is to choose your drawing that you're going to shade, I'm going to use the lineart from the piccie of Tibb_wolf's fursona I did. (Please remember that the character is (c) Tibb_Wolf). Open the file into your program to start with, it should look like this>

Next go to Effects > Edge Effects > Trace contour and then fill the lines in with a dark grey, if your program does'nt have this don't panic you can skip this step, I just find it easier to see doing it this way. Once that's done it should look like this >

Next you need to remove the white BG and make it transparent instead, to do this equip the "Background eraser" tool, set the hardness to 100, choose what size you prefer, I like to use a larger brush size. Erase the entire white BG, you don't need to worry about the Black lines either side of the main image. It should look like this when you've finished erasing the BG >

Now we need to make some more layers, first make a new transparent layer under your lineart and another on top of it, select the bottom layer and use the "fill colour" tool to make it black, leave the top layer transparent. it should look like this >

Now just equip the BG eraser tool again and select the lineart layer then get rid of the big patches of white, the smaller patches don't matter. It should look like this >

Now we can start to colour it in, select the top layer and equip the "Airbrush tool", select the light blue (Not the pale blue) and start to go over the lines of the picture, it's best to choose which direction the light is coming from before you start, you only need to colour the areas nearest the light source first, I normally zoom in to 200% for this part and make the brush size 9. It should be looking like this as you colour >

Carry on doing that until the sides of the character nearest the light source are coloured, remember you don't need to trace around the entire image, when you're done with that colour it should be looking like this >

Now select the dark blue, this is mainly to give the image more tone, go back to where you coloured in light blue and lightly colour a bit further into the picture giving it a gradient look, leave the eyes black. With the dark blue you should also go over the lines facing away from the light source very lightly. It should be looking like this as you colour >

When you've finished with the dark blue you can now select the pale blue, with this you should go over the nose >
And also colour the eyes, remember to colour the eyes the opposite way to the way you'd colour the fur, the ligher bit should be facing away from the light source to give the eyes the directionality that you want, also add the small highlight to the eyes, it should look like this >

Colouring the eyebrows in the pale blue also helps the image to stand out, that should look like this > [img] http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305 ... fuk159.jpg[/img]

Now zoom out to 100% and check what it looks like, from here you can correct any gaps or bits that don't look right. It should be looking like this at this stage >

Once you're happy it looks ok click the small eye symbol on the layer select to make the lineart layer transparent, now do one final check for any gaps or bits that don't look right, hopefully it'll look like this >

Once you're happy with the way it looks delete the lineart layer and save it, congratulations on getting this far through this thing, I hope you found it useful and have fun practicing and experimenting with it.

Program used: Paint Shop Pro X (this tutorial should also work with Photoshop or any program with layers)

Character (c) Tibb_Wolf

Picture (c) Me

Excellent tutorial, I will definitely try this sort of art out, when I get my program reinstalled... I use Corel Painter, but I have done something a bit similar to this, and I think it will work. Nice tutorial!

Hey...PhottoShop 8.0 may work...and it may be more easy but may not.

i tried it with Photoshop but i cant seem to get the same brush effect. came in too bold. then again. i rarely use photo shop... i dont even know why i went and bought CS2 lol.

Very cool! :] Now that I know how to get layers with my program, I'll have to give this a try. ;D All I need to figure out how to do is get the background erased. O_o

In the top "bar" it should have a little thingy with "Opacity" under or above it, simply reduce that and it won't come out as bold.

This technique should work with any program with layers and Airbrush tools so Photoshop would be good too.



You could use the Magic wand tool to get rid of the white areas, if your program has it of course.

Well I tried it 0.o Its my first try I'll try some more till I get better.

*feels dumb* You know you have a habbit of doing that, right? I never thought of that. O_o I shall have to try. ;D

*EDIT*
Dude... xD It sucks.

I know, , sorry tibbuz.

It looks awesome tibbs, not sucks! He looks cute. XD

ChocoKitten: It looks great, I bet it'll look even more awesome after some practice.

Good job

Well I made another

I think its a little better

Excellent tutorial! I understood it and I don't even HAVE photoshop!
and, the product is amazing!! Your making me want photoshop so much!!

I don't have Photoshop, XD, I used Paint Shop Pro X, cheaper, lol.

Oh.. XD sorry.. maybe I can get Paintshop Pro!! I'll have to ask my parents..

Well. I'd have to say this tutorial is amazing, Uk.