(1.) Be inspired and DRAW!!! WOOHOO!! Just draw lightly in pencil first, THEN ink. (I like to use the Uni-Ball Micro pens--just don't get one of the ballpoint ones; they tend to 'skip' and that won't give you smooth lines.) Once you have your image inked...and even before that, be thinking of where you want you light source (or sources) to come from. With that in mind, you can add weight to the darker areas of your picture, giving it a little depth without adding any color. Now, erase your LIGHT pencil lines and you're ready to scan!!
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(2.) Now, fire up Photoshop and click "File >> Import >> TWAIN_32." This should bring up the scan importer. With that open, set the Type of image to "Line Art" and the Resolution to 300 DPI. This will scan your image as strictly a black-and-white pic--none of the gray fuzzies that cause so many problems. Your pic will be HUGE, but that's the way it should be! By working large, you can add in all the little essential details that you can't do with a really small pic. (You'll keep the image at this size until it's totally done!) Once you have the area you need of your pic selected, click "Scan"!
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(3.) Okay, your image is ready to color now, right? Wrong!! 8) You've only got a Bitmap image to work with presently--that means no color allowed. To get to a color mode, you must first go to Grayscale (click "Image >> Mode >> Grayscale"), then to RGB Color which will be available once you've gotten out of Bitmap mode (the way it was scanned in). For RGB color, click "Image >> Mode >> RGB Color". NOW you're ready!
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(4.) On your tool bar, select the paintbucket tool and open the little tool window that contains the "Options" menu. (If it's not open, go to "Window >> Show Options") On it, you'll see your paint bucket attributes. So you DON'T get fuzzies, be sure there is NO CHECK by the "Anti-Aliased" option. The Mode should be "Normal", the Tolerance set to "0", the contents should be "Foreground" and there should be no check by the "Use All Layers" option. To pick your color, either A) click on the top color square on your toolbar or B) open the "Swatches" palette and click the color you'd like. SUGGESTION: If you want to use BLACK anywhere in your image, DO NOT flood-fill with black!!! Instead, pick a shade of dark gray so you'll be able to select that area later without getting ALL the black lines selected. ;) While getting the basic colors down, I generally work with the image at 25% its usual size--that is, on your Navigator window, change the percentage to 25%. (You're not actually resizing, just displaying it smaller than it really is.) This will be about the size the image will be once you're done.
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(5.) Once you've gotten all the colors you want where you want them, you can select your Magic Wand tool from the toolbar. (This is where the magic begins! ;)) ) Go again to your Options menu and set the tolerance to "0", be sure that no check is by the "Anti-Aliased" option and the "Use All Layers" option. Now use your Magic Wand and click on the area you wish to work on. (I generally start with the face since it has the most detail--it'll keep you from getting burnt out on your pic later.)
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(6.) With an area selected, choose the Airbrush tool on your toolbar. As always, open up your Options menu. We're going to start with the shadows, so set the mode to "Multiply" and the pressure to something between 5 and 10. (The lighter your color is, the more pressure you'll need to make the area darker.) The "Fade" should be "0". Now open your "Brushes" menu ("Window >> Show Brushes" if it's not open already) and select the brush you want to use. I generally use the circular ones that are kinda blurry so you get smooth flows from one shade to another. You probably want to start with a fairly large brush to get the basic shadows in, then work your way down to a small one for minute details. (You may want to go back to your Navigator and Zoom in to 100% at this point so you can see what you're doing more easily.) Now look at where you put in the darker lines on your pic and begin shading next to them, getting lighter as you go around your object toward the light source. Once you get the shadows as you want them, set your Airbrush (on the Options menu) to "Screen" and shade in the highlights (if you can "shade" highlights, that is...) You should begin to see your pic become more three-dimensional as you go!
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(7.) So you've gotten everything shaded...now what? Hey, you're almost done!!! If you haven't done so already,
S A V E!!! You'll kick yourself if you lose it now!! Just keep it in Photoshop Format (*.psd) so it won't be compressed or altered by the saving. If you're satisfied with your work and you don't want to make any changes, click "Image >> Image Size". A window will pop up with some options in it. See to it that "Constrain Proportions" IS CHECKED! (You don't want a funky distorted smushed image after all that. :) ) In the Print Size section of the window, there should be a "Resolution" option and if you've followed the steps so far, it should be at 300 DPI. (It'll say Pixels/Inch beside it, actually...) Anyway, you're going to change that to about 72 or 75 instead. This will shrink your image so its ACTUAL size is about 25% of the size you scanned it in at. Click "Okay"! (Keep in mind, your pic may be REALLY small immediately after you re-sized it, simply because you'd been working with it at 25%. Just go to your Navigator and zoom in--you'll see its actual size. :)
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(8.) Now, save your image again--once in *.psd format (so you have an un-compressed copy) and again as *.jpg (JPEG format). Once you've clicked "Save" with your image as whateveritscalled.jpg, Photoshop will ask for the compression level you want. Picking "1" will cause it to be REALLY compressed--so much that you'd deny ever making such a horrible pic. Choosing "10" will make the file HUGE, but you'll lose almost no detail at all. I generally choose "7"; below that it starts getting fuzzy, above that you have a really big pic. Once you decide, click "Okay" and you've got yourself a Photoshop pic!!
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Want to see the Final Image? Click here!
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I hope that that proves helpful!! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to post a message about it in my forum!
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