Tad Williams

[The_Khan]

Re:

Trainz that is some very nice colors. No, I don't have a problem with you coloring the penciled character sketches.

Brothershatterstone, the artist is Brett Booth. So far he has done an excellent job in adapting Tad Williams story into a graphic novel

Here is another character sketch from Tad Williams The Burning Man, enjoy

Godric:

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Kahn, thanks for the answer I shall have to try and find some of his work... Most Impressive.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Khan, ahhh I knew I recognized the style he did allot of the old Backlash series from Image...

I've always liked his style does he do any freelance?

Note: I can't pay enough to steal him from you permanently.

 

[Storn]

Trainz, I do a lot of photoshop over Pencils and I have some advice for you. Take it with a grain of salt, but this is what works for me. (Khan, forgive the thread hijack).

First thing I do is punch up the darkness of the pencils and clean it up... A combo of Adjust>Levels or Adjust> Brightness/Contrast does a lot. Go after a few stray pencil lines with the eraser.

Create a duplicate layer. Set the layer to "multiply"... very important. Now, the pencil lines will not be erased as you use various paint tools over them. You can change the pencil line to monochromatic color, like the raw sienna that you did for yours.

Create another layer above the duplicate, I call it highlights. On this layer, you can paint over the lines that you wanna paint over.

Then the majority of work is done on that multiply level. Everything has to be done by hand (meaning brush or pen tool), no fills... too many little, niggly marks and motes. I tend to go for a watercolor effect as seen here:

http://www.stornc.rpggallery.com/new off/New 8.07.03/Page 1 loRes F.jpg

I accomplish this by doing most of the paint work from 30% to 70% opacity and putting in layers, sometimes using the water setting on the brush tool, sometimes not.

Why I like this technique is that it keeps the integrity of the pencils. Your color job really needs those lines punched, there is some weird stuff happening in the pants.

An as just a color choice, I would have gone with a cooler background (blue, green, cool grays) over the purple that is there because the figure is really warm colors. And the outside of the cloak is almost the same color, but more chromatic, than the background... making it very confusing to figure out what is going on with his arms.

I hope you take this is in the spirit of me trying to help, not tear down.

 

[The_Khan]

Re:

Brother Shatterstone:
Yes, Brett does do freelance, if you have work that you'd like him to do for you please contact my brother Les at Les@roaringstudios.com

 

[Trainz]

[...]

Thanks for all the advice. Of course I don't take offense from your tips. Only a moron would refuse helpful tips. A few things...

First, I admit that only about 25% of what you told me made sense to me. Not that you're not clear, it's just that I'm new to this (a passing hobby as it is), and I don't have the technical knowledge you have. I understand layers (which I admit, I didn't use). The greenish purple over-pants started purple. Then my girlfriend looked over my shoulder and said "He looks gay...". Not what I intended (for the record, this is in NO-WAY meant as an homophobic comment), so I tried to fix it the best I could (I could have pasted the original B&W version and started from scratch on that section, but I botched... noob ).

Second, I work with Paint Shop, never used Photo Shop.

Third, I followed your link, and realised a PRO had just taken the time to assist me, and I am honored. Really nice job on that panel.

If I *somewhat* understand what you meant, did you mean to leave the original B&W pic untouched, add a layer, and apply color to the new layer, NOT the first original one ?

I mostly worked with fills on the pic. I shouldn't use fills ?

If it's not too much to ask, I would love it if you took some more time and explain in layman's terms a few basic rules of coloring, while keeping in mind that I use Paint Shop. The things I would like explained more:

"You can change the pencil line to monochromatic color, like the raw sienna that you did for yours."

I wasn't aware I did this... please define pencil line and monochromatic.

"Then the majority of work is done on that multiply level. Everything has to be done by hand (meaning brush or pen tool), no fills... too many little, niggly marks and motes. I tend to go for a watercolor effect"

From what I've seen on your panel, it seemed that you used some kind of fill. Please define.

"sometimes using the water setting on the brush tool, sometimes not"

What is a water setting ?

"there is some weird stuff happening in the pants"

Aren't we getting a tad too friendly ? We barely just met...

Again, thank you very much for your assistance !

Khan, this hijack is getting a tad out of hands... if you wish, I will move this conversation to a new thread. Just ask.

 

[Storn]

If I *somewhat* understand what you meant, did you mean to leave the original B&W pic untouched, add a layer, and apply color to the new layer, NOT the first original one ?

Yeah, its nice to have a pristine layer in case you obliterate a line that you wanted to keep, you can just copy that section, delete the white space, bring it up over the color section and place it down. All the layers get flattened when you are done or you cannot save it any graphic format except Adobe psd...which are huge files.

I mostly worked with fills on the pic. I shouldn't use fills ?

When coloring over pencils, I advise against it... this is why you have little white auras around all the lines, the pencil line, if you blow it way up, is feathery and light gray... the fill will read the light gray and not cover. When coloring inks, the problem goes away, the space is either black or white, the fill reads the white and goes right up to the black line. Much cleaner.

I wasn't aware I did this... please define pencil line and monochromatic

Pencil line is the dark, gray pencil strokes. Monochromatic means one color. When you colored over those pencils in this thread, the color of the pencils went from dark gray to a reddish brown. This might have been unintentional... however, working over reddish brown lines is an ancient art technique... many a painting as been done as such.

From what I've seen on your panel, it seemed that you used some kind of fill. Please define.

Actually, I did use fills in a couple of places, but only a couple of places. I did it with a combo of layers and then erasing on that layer, so it would butt up against the pencils nicely. The rest was done with a brush tool, the multiply allows me to cover all the space without eliminating the pencil line. Its hard to explain, maybe someone else can explain it better or your own experimentation will help. And I'm not quite sure what the terminonlogy in Painter is... it might be called something else.

What is a water setting ?

This is a photoshop term. In painter, you actually have watercolor brushes. They pretty much do the same thing.

I hope this helps. I find this very difficult to explain because it is second nature to me.

 

[Trainz]

Thanks for all your help Storn. Although I probably won't be able to apply everything you told me, thare are A LOT of new notions you made me realise which will improve my skills.

 

[The_Khan]

Re:

So, I'm assuming with Storn's advice that we will soon see another attempt at Sulis again, Trainz?

 

[Trainz]

So, I'm assuming with Storn's advice that we will soon see another attempt at Sulis again, Trainz?

Well, I'm a musician and with two bands at the moment. I have a lot of work to do on songs.

Like I said, it's more a hobby than anything, but I did use his advice on some quick photo editing I did, and it worked wonders !

Unless of course, this is a request, then I will find some time to do it. T'would be my honor.