Help Needed in coloring sketches

Hi friends,

Its been quite a long since I had my last visit here. I desperately am in need of some directions and that is what got me here back again.

I drew some of these random sketches (attached) and tried scanning them. They did not turn out that clear and hence I went online to read some of the online tutorials and did the below:

1. Darkened my sketches by overdoing it's outline (I rather could have used a sketch.. I realize just now Lol)
2. Scanned them
3 Opened them in Adobe Illustrator
4. Used LiveTrace->Comic Art Option

I loved the out come and now I am quite not sure about how to color it. I am not good in AI and I want to import it to PS and color them.

Any ideas?

If you have PS, just copy and paste the vector art into your PS document. You can use the magic wand tool to select the areas that you want to colorize. Work the colors on separate layers to get the effect that you want. It should be quite easy. Good luck!

Wow! How come I never thought about the magic wand tool!!! Thanks a bunch

Just wondering.. how do you give a dark outline to the character after/before coloring? Any other efficient way in PS but for - selecting the outline with Pen tool, making selection on the path & using stroke to it.

I have a short-cut in illustrator.

Step: 1. Expand the converted artwork to outline/path.

2. Select Pathfinder, then Divide

3. Ctrl>A to select the whole vector artwork

4. Choose the Magic wand tool and press 'alt' (press 'option' in mac) while clicking on the black color object. You will notice the negative sign (-) when you do this. You must see now that the remaining selected objects are the empty body without color.

5. add any color to stand-out and for easy edition. Now you can select each parts and color them properly by selecting opening your swatch library(swatches).

Enjoy!

Wow! How come I never thought about the magic wand tool!!! Thanks a bunch

Just wondering.. how do you give a dark outline to the character after/before coloring? Any other efficient way in PS but for - selecting the outline with Pen tool, making selection on the path & using stroke to it.

Since I don't know what your scan looks like, you can select the white space with the magic wand and inverse your selection. Then fill that selection with black for the outline. Using the pen tool would work as well. I would probably only use that if I had to clean up the lines though. Geek's tip for Illustrator is great. If you don't know Illustrator that well, this would be a great project to start learning. Good luck!

BTW, remember to use a Rich Black if you truly want black outlines. The 100k black used in illustrator will turn into a gray once you transfer it to PS or convert it to RGB. Use a color such as C70 M30 Y50 K100 to get a rich black.

I have a short-cut in illustrator.

Step: 1. Expand the converted artwork to outline/path.

2. Select Pathfinder, then Divide

3. Ctrl>A to select the whole vector artwork

4. Choose the Magic wand tool and press 'alt' (press 'option' in mac) while clicking on the black color object. You will notice the negative sign (-) when you do this. You must see now that the remaining selected objects are the empty body without color.

5. add any color to stand-out and for easy edition. Now you can select each parts and color them properly by selecting opening your swatch library(swatches).

Enjoy!

Great tip.

Since I don't know what your scan looks like, you can select the white space with the magic wand and inverse your selection. Then fill that selection with black for the outline. Using the pen tool would work as well. I would probably only use that if I had to clean up the lines though. Geek's tip for Illustrator is great. If you don't know Illustrator that well, this would be a great project to start learning. Good luck!

agree and since you stated you don't know Ill. that well I'd also take this as an opportunity to learn it. Might want to get the pen tool out in Ill. and try redrawing them using the image as template sort of.
with drawings that don't outline well I'll lock that layer and start drawing over it w/ my pen.

Since I don't know what your scan looks like, you can select the white space with the magic wand and inverse your selection. Then fill that selection with black for the outline. Using the pen tool would work as well. I would probably only use that if I had to clean up the lines though. Geek's tip for Illustrator is great. If you don't know Illustrator that well, this would be a great project to start learning. Good luck!

Before making the selection and inverse selection as KHDZN suggested, I find it helps to increase the contrast or use image>adjustments>curves to select your blacks and whites using the eyedroppers. Once you have your outlines selected and on a transparent background on the top layer, start coloring on a layer underneath so you can't color over the lines. If you happen to color past the lines underneath you can simply erase them.

or... you could just use adobe illustrator's "live paint bucket" since you "live traced" it... or just color it by using the pen tool and keeping the black outline on top. All the digital work in my portfolio was done doing this...

I hope you post your final designs so we can see your progress!

"I loved the out come and now I am quite not sure about how to color it. I am not good in AI and I want to import it to PS and color them."

...did you ever get your guys painted? They are cute. I thought I'd have a go at one real quick, here's the flower done in illustrator:


By twistedpiston at 2009-07-20

Another quick, easy method to retrieving just the black outlines of your illustration is to set your original illustration layer blend mode to Multiply. This will screen out all white values and leave you with a layer just consisting of the black. You can then color beneath this layer.