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Destiny's Photoshop Tutorial

I may be hosting a live tutorial for charter photoshop users. If interested neomail me at x_seabee_x with weekend days and times you are online_ (NST). I will notify interested users if I do hold one! Thank you!

Due to popular demand, I am creating this Photoshop tutorial to show user's how to get from the horrid sketch below to the outline and colored version beside it. Thank you to Raz and Geo for forcing me to do this. Btw, Raz has a very VERY nice Flash Tutorial and it has helped me with the setup of this one. I have a link to her at the end!

Looks easy doesn't it!! No? I don't think it does either... *sigh* Anyway...here we go!

1. Familiarize yourself with the toolbar. Now I am using CS2 so yours MIGHT be a little different if you have another version.

1 Select Arrow - use this to select and move objects and layers.
2 Magic Wand - This selects a certain color with an area.
3 Paint Brush/Pencil - This is used for small area coloring. The Pencil is more precise than the Brush.
4 Eraser - Changes a certain area to your background color. (white square under 8)
5 Paint Bucket - Fill an entire area with color.
6 Shape Tool - The most important tool of the tutorial. It will create your lines!
7 Dropper - Lets you select a color from an image.
8 Zoom - Allows you to look closer at your work for detail work.

Below is the setup of the program how I use it. Side toolbar on the left, work in the middle and layer box on the right. Make it to how you are comfortable. If at any time you need to stop before you are finished, or if you are worried that you may lose your work, always save it as a .psd file because that saves the layers seperately and you can come back at any time. Also go ahead and make a new blank white layer. It will help you out later. Go to Layers on the top menu and select New, the Layer. Look at your layer box. Your sketch layer most likely have a lock next to the tile. If so, double click it and hit ok when the new layer box comes up. Then drag your blank layer to the bottom and use the paint bucket tool to fill it with white.

2.Ok lets get lining! First, start by not laughing at my sketch...QUIT NOW! Then, right click the shape tool...here you will find all your options. We are going to start with the head, so lets choose the ellipse as it is closest to the shape of her head.

3.Start at the top left of her head, click at a starting point (doesn't have to be exact now) and, while holding the button down, drag the mouse to the bottom right and let go. OMG I JUST COVERED HER FACE WHAT ARE YOU TEACHING ME WOMAN!! Calm down...we are about to fix that!

4.Right click on the shape layer name and select "blending options." Here you will change two things. The default screen deal with opacity, i.e. can I see through the shape or not. Look at "advanced blending"...see "fill opacity"? Move that all the way to zero (see green arrow). Now we have a blank shape...not much use! Under the style menu on the left, the last option is "stroke" check the box and click on the title. Here we want to change the color to you outline color by clicking on the colored square. I like black xD. The size the the width you want you line. I like 2 pixels for detailed drawing like Noctuina and 4 for more cartoonish images, but you might have another preference. Tip: Before you ok this, click the new style button on the right (blue arrow) to save this as a style so that you can easily choose it for any shape without going through the above. Just click the style box on the top toolbar before you make your shape or anytime you have your shape layer selected and viola! Instant line style!

5.Now that we have our basic shape, now we need to make it more of a head shape. Use the select arrow tool to click and drag the circle to the top of her head. If you can't get it right on don't worry. Let go and click once on one of the transform boxes around the shape (the squares that you can use to resize). Now look on your top toolbar. You should have a

button active. Click and and your shape turns into a grid. move the dots and squares around to reshape your ellipse into your desired shape. If the lines go over another part that is fine...we will get rid of those. When you have the shape you want, click the select tool on your sidebar and apply the changes. Tip: If you want to see you lines thus far without the nasty sketch below, click the little eye next to your sketch layer in the layer box. The layer will still be there, it just won't be visible until you click the eye back.VERSION 6 USERS (and maybe other versions) If you do not have the

button, there is another way to get your grid (thank you Melissa for the help). If you have a custom shape and you want to transform it, you should have a black arrow on your toolbar called "Path Component Selection Tool" (usually if you hover, the tool name pops up). Use this to click and select the image. You can edit shapes in two ways. First, right-click the shape. Select Free Transform Path. Right-click again, select Skew, and use the shape's anchor points to alter it. (Anchor points are small clear boxes. Selected anchor points are black.) Right-click again to select another transforming option. Double-click when you are satisfied.

6.Ok as is, this shape you have created cannot be painted on or erased, so lets fix that next. Since I am already layer crazy, create a new layer. Select this layer in the layer box and while holding the ctrl button, select your shape layer. Then right click and choose "merge layers". Now you can edit the layer.

7.Next, choose your erase tool. Here is where we erase the part of the lines we don't need. The top toolbar has the option to change the shape and size of your eraser. Hover over your image to find a good size to start with. Erase any part of your shape's line that shouldn't be there. Tip: If you are having trouble seeing where to erase on your sketch, make sure your shape is selected and then lower the opacity in your layer box. When you are done make sure you change it back to 100%.

8. Congratulations on your first line! The lining continues on like that...every so often you should merge some of your line layers (not the sketch or the background) just to keep the clutter to a minimum. Experiment with the different available shapes to get the lines you need. I like to use a tear drop shape a lot. Google "Photoshop Custom Shapes" if you feel you need more of a selection. Once you are done lining, make sure all of the lining is one layer (merge any lines that have not been merged...again leave the sketch and background seperate). You now have an outline, your sketch and the white background as your three layers. Check out your outline by clicking the eye next to your sketch. You won't need the sketch much anymore but keep it just in case.

9.I always like to do the basic coloring next. Make sure you have your outline layer selected (have your sketch invisible) and using your magic wand tool, select an area you want to color. If you don't already have a color selected, do so by double-clicking the color square on your side toolbar (it is the grey square below the zoom tool in the screenshot in step 1). Choose the color you want and click ok. Now without deselecting the area to be colored, click on the background layer in your layer box. Use your brush or bucket to color over the area that is selected. When you are done, deselect the area (top menu under select) and if there are any white lines between the color and the outline, choose a small brush and carefully color the background close to the outline without going past the outline. Color your image in this way.Tip: If you have more than one area to color the same color, you can select more than one area by holding down shift while using the magic wand tool.

10.If you don't mind a flat image you can stop here. Just drag the sketch layer to the trash bin at the bottom of the layer box, merge your outline and background, and save as a regular image file. You have your colored image! If you want to attempt shading, read on.

10.Now comes my least favorite part--shading. First, create a copy of your outline by right clicking the layer in your layer box and choose "duplicate layer." Now in the same way you created your outline, we are going to create your shadow outline. It is easiest to use 1 px shapes here to differentiate from your actual outline. We are going to work on her ear. Use your shape tool and make the shape at the approximate outline of the shading (these lines will not be in the final image). Repeat step 5 until you have a shadow shape. Note: I am bad at shading and therefore I will not attempt to teach where to put shade...there are however, great tutorials on the web.

11.Repeat step 6 (erasing) and when you are done, make sure you merge the shadow lines with the COPY of the outline and not the actual outline.

12.Lastly, while the outline copy is selected, use your magic wand tool to select an area to be shaded. You'll want to use a slight darker shade of your main color...in the case of her ear, a slightly darker salmon color. Selec the background in your layer box and use your brush or bucket tool to fill in the selected area. Continue to do this for all the shadow areas. Any detailed or small shading can be done by hand. Once you are completely done shading, you can throw away your outline copy and sketch layers. Then merge the outline and the background and save your image. Voila! That is how I make my images!

That is basically it. If you have any questions, feel free to neomail me on my main, x_seabee_x.

Link to me?

A great Flash Tutorial (an the inspiration for this one) can be found by clicking the link below.

And not to leave out the poor MS Paint users (rofl jk)...here is a tutorial I found for you guys.

Other great guides and interesting links can be found below.

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