Photoshop Colouring Tips?

[Moogie]

Hi all,

Today I\'ve been doodling and playing around with various \"dodge, burn and smudge\" techniques. Here\'s what I currently have:



Overall, I\'m quite pleased with how I can manipulate the colours to achieve the desired highlights and shadows. But I\'d like to extend this further and also \'colour in\' a feathery texture.

I know this must be possible, using brush shape dynamics and such. Can anyone give me some advice? Thanks.

[Quwaar]

First of all, thats a nice pict. And the colours so far look great.

But about burn etc. I cant tell much, coz I dont have alot of experiens in i, but what I know is that its alot of practice
I personnaly use a layer above it with ctrl-g, then that layer copasity on 31 and status: overlay and dark over the original layer. For highligt-screen.

[Moogie]

Might aswell post this here (gonna post it on my art thread aswell), but I\'ve listened to various people\'s advice (I asked on IRC too, hehe) and I must say, the improvement is immense.



I did a few things. Firstly, even though it was just a doodle, I decided to remove the hard outline and fluff the edges of the coloured layers in replacement. I used dodge and burn, but this time with \"spattered\" brushes so they would create smooth lines as I painted. I went over these with some more smudging to help the effect.

All of this put together resulted in the pic above. Thanks for all the help, I think I\'ve got the idea now.

[Karyuu]

Looks amazing without the outline, much more realistic :D Don\'t forget to give the gryph nostrils though! In most birds it\'s on the cere, the tissue above the beak. Also, I\'d suggest darkening the shadows of the beak itself more. Right now it\'s too purely orange - maybe put in some browns, to tie it in with the feathers. And darken the pupil too, unless you\'re aiming for that shadowy-misty-eye look :)

Have to say though, you\'ve done an incredible work with the feathers themselves.

[Altharion]

i agree with karyuu.

amazing work moogie  

[Moogie]

I think I\'ll just post the final version on my art thread- I\'m never gonna get tired of this, it\'s great fun.



Here I carried on working with the feathers and completely changed the shape of the beak. It looks much better. The colour has been desaturated somewhat in certain places. I made sure to include the nostril and the skin that grows partly over the base of the beak.

[Edit: About the eye, I\'m still undecided about what colour/shade it\'ll be. ]

Thanks for the tips Karyuu. Keep the comments coming, help me improve!

[Karyuu]

Looks much more predatory - I love it! :D Can\'t wait to see the final version.

[Altharion]

the head looks abit small  ?(

but meh wanna see the lion body now  )

[Crj]

Much better now
Ill just post my version if you dont mind

You can see here most of the brushes i used. Some are self made. And remember Smudge, Dodge and Burn are the best friends for ppl who have no tablet  For the final look i used the Crosshatch filter, for removing the outlines - the clone stamp tool, played a bit with curves and Hue/saturation.
Uhm...  yeah, the shape isnt realy the same...  :rolleyes:
Eh, and i know nothing about bird wing anatomy

[smoak]

good drawing Crj but is it supposed to look like a canary?  and dosnt it also need the nostrils mentioned before?
again both great drawings and i also want to see the lion body

[Quwaar]

wauw, both look great

[icebr4kr]

Any tips for those with tablets? I shelled out $100 for a graphire2 awhile back, but I can\'t seem to figure out how to make the best use of it. Can anyone share their brush settings?

Very nice coloring Moogie, and Crj, looks very pro.

Nice furry edges on the feathers and the breast. Looks very realistic.

[Moogie]

Just another quick update:



Things I\'ve done here include extra highlighting of the wing, some changes of the colouration and shadows around the head and chest, and the addition of the hands. I\'m not happy with them, but after 2 hours of fiddling and re-drawing, I\'ve given up on them. The rear body guidelines are in place... not entirely happy with them either, but it\'s the best I can get from studying various photos of lions and gryphons in similar positions.


Btw I\'d like to hear the replies to icebr4kr also, I don\'t have a graphics tablet but I may save up and get one someday.

[Syzerian]

ouch! the claws! so bright, they burn my eyes
you just need to darken them up a bit

[Altharion]

yeah many parts are like that.

the nails on the claws should be longer which would improve it in the realistic part.