My Pixiv account

[TetsuyaHikari]

[spoiler-box]http://i.imgur.com/yxJk8.png[/spoiler-box]

Hey guys, I've recently got into coloring lineart again, so I figured now would be a better time than any to post a link to my Pixiv account. I don't know how long I'll stick with it, but I'd appreciate some input nevertheless. I'd like to improve, but I don't know a damn thing about shading, lighting, or any of that, so if any of you guys could help me to understand how to add shading so my colorings don't look so plain, I'd appreciate it!

Also, there's a problem I've encountered recently with some lineart. Normally, I can just use the wand tool to select an area, then fill it in, and eventually color the whole picture piece by piece like that. However, on some of the lineart I have, the first layer is locked and I can't remove the lock, nor can I color it by using the wand tool. I've tried creating a duplicate layer, then deleting the locked one and doing it that way, but it just doesn't work.

Normally, I would just delete everything with the wand tool and make it transparent, then fill it in with white and start adding new layers for separate parts of the picture (i.e. eyes, hair, skin, clothing, etc.). If the picture is already transparent, then that makes things a bit easier for me. It seems the only way I'll be able to color some of these linearts is manually going over every inch of it with a brush, but surely there's a better way... Right?

Anyway, if some of the art buffs around here could shed some light on that, that would be great! I'll be editing this post with my newest work every time I finish one, so be sure to check back periodically. Oh, and feel free to rate and/or comment on my pictures through my Pixiv page as well if you've got an account. Thanks!

My Pixiv account (http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=3712910)

[Sayara]

What program do you use? Photoshop, Painttool SAI?

[NoiseHERO]

Coloring, shading and lighting, light sources?

This helped me a lot. : O

http://androidarts.com/art_tut.htm#skin_tones

[TetsuyaHikari]

What program do you use? Photoshop, Painttool SAI?

Sorry, I should have specified that. I put it in the tags, so I'm not sure why I forgot, lol. Yes, I use Photoshop (CS5 to be exact). I do have SAI also, but I don't know how to use it.

EDIT:
Coloring, shading and lighting, light sources?

This helped me a lot. : O

http://androidarts.com/art_tut.htm#skin_tones

I appreciate this and all, but... I can't make heads or tails out of this. It might as well be written in German, lol. I don't understand how I'm supposed to decide where to shade the character if there isn't a light fixture to begin with. I mean, how do you create shadows from nothing?

I've literally watched over 5 tutorials of shading on Youtube from people using Photoshop and it just doesn't make sense to me. I feel like I'm in high school all over again, watching the teacher do a math problem on the chalkboard, then being asked to do it as well, yet still being confused as to how it is done... Despite seeing a visual guide. This whole shading thing just doesn't click with me for some reason. I'd like to learn how to do it, but there's just something in my brain preventing me from understanding it, I think.

[NoiseHERO]

R-really it's...

I mean I can't say it's easy but...

Well when light hits different surfaces it looks a certain way that's what this guide helped me with.

I guess you could use a series of reference (especially in anime where it's like a lot poses and light sources for manga/anime art styles would be common.)

Eventually your light sources would become common sense... Well if your use pixiv you should have mountains of things to use as reference. D:

[TetsuyaHikari]

R-really it's...

I mean I can't say it's easy but...

Well when light hits different surfaces it looks a certain way that's what this guide helped me with.

I guess you could use a series of reference (especially in anime where it's like a lot poses and light sources for manga/anime art styles would be common.)

Eventually your light sources would become common sense... Well if your use pixiv you should have mountains of things to use as reference. D:

Yeah, I understand the concept of shading, but I don't really know how to put it into practice. I've seen plenty of pictures apply shading to the character, but every picture is different, so there's no real solid way to shade the character 100% of the time. I don't know how I'm supposed to decide the angle, which parts to add shading to, which ones to leave alone, etc.

Like I said, I'm just mainly having an issue with creating shadows from, well... Nothing. I guess you could say I lack the imagination to create them myself.

[NoiseHERO]

I dunno

I could tell you to piture everything in a 3D perspective in know where the light hits and what blocks the light and how far the light travels...

But in general it just takes a lot of practice.

I also used to not be able to shade and not know much about where to start and I STILL find it to be one of the hardest parts to make look... "good."

You won't be able to make it magically look perfect and professional out of nowhere, unfortunately. You already have a decent take on anatomy for an anime style and clean lines, it shouldn't be that hard for you. D:

[TetsuyaHikari]

I dunno

I could tell you to piture everything in a 3D perspective in know where the light hits and what blocks the light and how far the light travels...

But in general it just takes a lot of practice.

I also used to not be able to shade and not know much about where to start and I STILL find it to be one of the hardest parts to make look... "good."

You won't be able to make it magically look perfect and professional out of nowhere, unfortunately. You already have a decent take on anatomy for an anime style and clean lines, it shouldn't be that hard for you. D:

I see... Well, maybe if I keep at it, I'll figure it out. I sort of tried to do some shading on the 'Time for a break -revised-' picture. You can tell on the skirt where it is darker in some places than others.

[Sayara]

If you have both you oughta do the Line art/solid color on SAI.
It has a really easy method to fill full color without too much heart-ache:
http://i.minus.com/ibgnGRyaWI6eaC.jpg


Save that image as a .PSD and open it in pshop5. With me and shading. Don't be so conservative about making super glossy for right now while you experement with shading. Let it be heavy, drastic and sloppy.

Its all experementation for doing coloring and stuff. depends on what you want to do.

[TetsuyaHikari]

The coloring isn't really the issue. I can do that. I just use the wand tool to select different parts of the picture to fill in and the brush as necessary. Hell, I can't even do that much in SAI, lol.

I tried testing out your example on a picture I already colored, but when I followed the instructions, it just colored 90% of the picture when I used the bucket. I couldn't fill in specific parts of the picture like I wanted. Also, I still have the problem of some of these linearts not being transparent or whatever. Basically, I've got like... 4-5 pictures I can just use the wand on to click and color, but there are a few that I can't do that with.

I'd have to manually brush every part and that just seems rather ridiculous. There HAS to be an easier way to color those linearts.

[Sayara]

Make sure to in the future to have the line art NOT on the background layer. Make sure it is its own floating layer that can be toggled on and off. There is a way to make a background layer line art become a line-art layer but it involves channels and its complicated. I can try and find that tutorial on DA..

[TetsuyaHikari]

Make sure to in the future to have the line art NOT on the background layer. Make sure it is its own floating layer that can be toggled on and off. There is a way to make a background layer line art become a line-art layer but it involves channels and its complicated. I can try and find that tutorial on DA..

How am I supposed to know which linearts are like that and which aren't? I just downloaded a few off of Pixiv and some were locked while others were not. Also, if that method is complicated, I doubt I'll understand it, lol.

I'm having enough trouble with shading. Talking about channels and all that goes over my head even more than shading does.

[Sayara]

Link me the ones that you used, I'll figure it out and see if i can explain it to you. PM or whatever.
EDIT: I pixiv, so you can link me them from the pixiv site.

[TetsuyaHikari]

PM sent.

[qoxolg]

There is no shortcut to 'shading'. To be able to do shading is to understand 3-dimensional forms and how light interacts with those forms. You can start by practicing shading basic shapes like a sphere, cylinder, box, cone, etc.

In photoshop I suggest the following for shading:
- First color the basic colors in a layer underneath the line art layer and lock it afterwards.
- Make a new layer on top of the first color layer and underneath the line art layer.
- Use the wand (W) to select the color you want to shade in the flat color layer, next switch to your new layer, pick a darker version of the color, and start making your brush strokes.

If you want to do it fancy, you can make use of brushes with a lower opacity. In Photoshop the 1-9,0 keys change the opacity to 10%-90%, 100%.

Other then that you simply need experience. There are no shortcuts when it comes to drawing.

[Chik'Tikka]

Coloring, shading and lighting, light sources?

This helped me a lot. : O

http://androidarts.com/art_tut.htm#skin_tones

+^_^+ never realized how much physics go into drawing, i guess it makes since, even though i understand just about everything on that page, i just could never get my head around drawing stuff, or programs like PSO2 uses for symbol art+^_^+

[Sayara]

Its one way to approach the medium. Some folks (like myself) do thought out unrealistic shadows for the dramatic effect or mood for a piece.

[TetsuyaHikari]

Just finished up coloring a lineart for Rikka Takanashi. I am NEVER coloring a pleated skirt again from scratch, lol. I'm still not entirely satisfied with the results here, but eh... What can you expect from an amateur? Heh.

I figured it would be better I tried rather than just leaving it red.

Check the first post for the image.

[TetsuyaHikari]

I updated the first post again with my latest coloring. It only took a few minutes because everything was locked to one layer, unfortunately, but I still felt like doing this anyway. I'm really loving the Sword Art Online series, so I just wanted to share my love for it, despite how simplistic it may look, haha.

[Sayara]

Looks like the black outline+black hair messed you up a bit. Usually You'd oughta invert the colors (black line becomes white line) when it gets to a situation like that but it isn't easy when your just filling in the colors though ;o

[qoxolg]

When using the selection wand to color line art, you simply need to expand the selection with a few pixels (depending on the resolution). Else you will always end up having an ugly pixelated white line between the color and the line art.

[TetsuyaHikari]

Looks like the black outline+black hair messed you up a bit. Usually You'd oughta invert the colors (black line becomes white line) when it gets to a situation like that but it isn't easy when your just filling in the colors though ;o

It wouldn't have messed me up if I was able to change the opacity of the filling, lol. Like I said though, because it was all on one layer, I didn't have the freedom to do all that. It also cripples my shading potential when it's on one layer, but eh... Oh well.

Maybe the next one will let me work on multiple layers.

EDIT:
When using the selection wand to color line art, you simply need to expand the selection with a few pixels (depending on the resolution). Else you will always end up having an ugly pixelated white line between the color and the line art.

I already do that actually.

[qoxolg]

Have you checked the Image > Mode in photoshop? I can imagine that for line art, some people set it to 'indexed'. In that case, you can't create new layers in photoshop. You first have to change it to RGB.

[TetsuyaHikari]

Have you checked the Image > Mode in photoshop? I can imagine that for line art, some people set it to 'indexed'. In that case, you can't create new layers in photoshop. You first have to change it to RGB.

Yep, I've done that too. All that happens then is I make the image transparent, fill it in with the white background and the lines become too thin for me to see anything.

[qoxolg]

What do you mean with making the image transparent? you delete the white parts from the lines layer? if you do that, try changing the blending mode of the line layer to something like multiply (so without deleting the white). With blending modes darken, multiply and the burns, anything white becomes transparent.

[TetsuyaHikari]

What do you mean with making the image transparent? you delete the white parts from the lines layer? if you do that, try changing the blending mode of the line layer to something like multiply (so without deleting the white). With blending modes darken, multiply and the burns, anything white becomes transparent.

Yeah. There are images I find that aren't naturally transparent, which contain a locked layer, so with these images, I have to use the wand to delete all of the parts and make it transparent myself and fill it in with a white background. Whenever I do that though, the lines for the art become thin, rendering the image unable to be colored properly.

[qoxolg]

Just do this:
[spoiler-box]http://jojo.sappusx.com/transparency.jpg[/spoiler-box]

[TetsuyaHikari]

Can you please set that image in spoiler tags? It's stretching the thread, lol. Anyway, I'm telling you... I've tried this method before (I always set the first layer/lineart to Multiply anyway). Long story short, it's a hell of a lot easier to color lineart if the artist has already made it transparent and the layer isn't locked.

[qoxolg]

Maybe this old video of mine will give you idea's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TcKUf3l5tc&hd=1

These days I don't draw using line art anymore (bores me to much), so the coloring method is probably a bit dated. Just take a good look at my use of layers while doing this.

[NoiseHERO]

Wait what? I'm confused, you don't do those linearts yourself?

[TetsuyaHikari]

Wait what? I'm confused, you don't do those linearts yourself?

What? No. Does every artist that colors something draw the art themselves? Not all of the time.

I just download lineart that artists upload to Pixiv which can be colored and submitted as an image response.

[NoiseHERO]

What? No. Does every artist that colors something draw the art themselves? Not all of the time.

WHOA WHOA calm down! D:

Was just under the impression you did those linearts yourself.

and yeah plenty of artists work as a team on things and do different parts of one drawing. And that would be them focusing on their strong points with each part...

But I think most artists...

Do actually draw "the whole thing" themselves.. >_>;;; <_<;;;

Did you do ANY of these alone? @_@ Otherwise I'd reccomend... well not to sound like a dick... learning to draw in general, at least enough to have a better understanding. Before you attempt to do things like coloring/shading/CGing. Even I'm not that great at it yet.

[TetsuyaHikari]

WHOA WHOA calm down! D:

Was just under the impression you did those linearts yourself.

and yeah plenty of artists work as a team on things and do different parts of one drawing. And that would be them focusing on their strong points with each part...

But I think most artists...

Do actually draw "the whole thing" themselves.. >_>;;; <_<;;;

Did you do ANY of these alone? @_@ Otherwise I'd reccomend... well not to sound like a dick... learning to draw in general, at least enough to have a better understanding. Before you attempt to do things like coloring/shading/CGing. Even I'm not that great at it yet.

Lol. It's fine, really. In animation, there are people who know how to draw, but don't understand how to color, shade, etc. There are also people who understand how to color, shade, etc., but don't know how to draw.

Like anything else in this world... The only way I will learn is if I continue to practice. I understand I'm not good yet, but that's why I continue to do it. I'll get better... You just have to give me time.

[qoxolg]

I don't wanna add oil to the fire, but we are confusing some things here: Drawing/art and production.

In production, yes, the whole pipeline is split for efficiency. Examples of production are anime and manga. With manga, most of the time the mangaka is the only one that actually draws something. He usually makes the sketch and has to solve all the problems, like anatomy, perspective, shading and composition. Someone else inks and some other people put in the colors. Anime has the some sort of pipeline.

This is also the reason why I sometimes say I don't think manga and especially anime is art. The whole purpose of both media, is that they are fast and cheap to produce. Of course there is also manga/anime styled art, but in those cases, the pieces are not produced like some sort of product. In these cases the artists usually makes the whole artwork him/herself.

And yes, in order to color/shade something properly you need to be able to draw. Drawing itself is all about solving two problems:
1. Getting an idea in your head on a canvas (of course this isn't needed when drawing from life).
2. Creating the illusion of 3 dimensions on a 2 dimensional canvas

If you draw line art of a character, you can't just randomly create some lines, without having the knowledge of 3D shapes, which is essential while shading. People that create line work / coloring without the proper knowledge are simply using tricks over and over. The problem of using tricks, is that you will never get any better at drawing at all. You will get limited to the things you are capable of drawing. Someone who has learned all the tricks in the world to draw a female character, will never be able to draw a car, a robot, a forest or a spaceship. Someone who learned the fundamentals of drawing will be able to draw anything, with any media and can even create things that were never seen before.

So yeah, if you wanna be able to color properly, just learn to draw. Try keeping it black and white for a while. If you try to color after a while, you'll notice your coloring got better, without having touched colors for months.

[kadosho]

Looking over your art gallery so far, each art piece differs from the other. I know lineart is pretty tricky depending on the program you use and patience. Impressive. I can't wait to see what you come up with next.

[TetsuyaHikari]

I don't wanna add oil to the fire, but we are confusing some things here: Drawing/art and production.

In production, yes, the whole pipeline is split for efficiency. Examples of production are anime and manga. With manga, most of the time the mangaka is the only one that actually draws something. He usually makes the sketch and has to solve all the problems, like anatomy, perspective, shading and composition. Someone else inks and some other people put in the colors. Anime has the some sort of pipeline.

This is also the reason why I sometimes say I don't think manga and especially anime is art. The whole purpose of both media, is that they are fast and cheap to produce. Of course there is also manga/anime styled art, but in those cases, the pieces are not produced like some sort of product. In these cases the artists usually makes the whole artwork him/herself.

And yes, in order to color/shade something properly you need to be able to draw. Drawing itself is all about solving two problems:
1. Getting an idea in your head on a canvas (of course this isn't needed when drawing from life).
2. Creating the illusion of 3 dimensions on a 2 dimensional canvas

If you draw line art of a character, you can't just randomly create some lines, without having the knowledge of 3D shapes, which is essential while shading. People that create line work / coloring without the proper knowledge are simply using tricks over and over. The problem of using tricks, is that you will never get any better at drawing at all. You will get limited to the things you are capable of drawing. Someone who has learned all the tricks in the world to draw a female character, will never be able to draw a car, a robot, a forest or a spaceship. Someone who learned the fundamentals of drawing will be able to draw anything, with any media and can even create things that were never seen before.

So yeah, if you wanna be able to color properly, just learn to draw. Try keeping it black and white for a while. If you try to color after a while, you'll notice your coloring got better, without having touched colors for months.

Honestly? I don't buy that. That's like saying, "If you want to become a mechanic, you need to learn how to fix a muffler before you work on engines." when that's not true at all. There are plenty of people in this world that focus on one thing.

I've never been good at drawing, really. When I was growing up in school though, I always liked coloring stuff, but only with colored pencils. I could never color with markers, paint, crayons, chalk, etc. We could apply what you said with my music too though. What you're saying is, I'd have to learn how to read music before I can know how to produce it, which... Once again, isn't true.

If a person continues to do something, over and over again, it is inevitable that they will improve at it. As you can tell from comparing my latest coloring of Rikka Takanashi, the shading has improved a little, yet I haven't drawn anything, so... I'm obviously learning here, even without drawing. I understand what you're saying and you would believe it to be more beneficial for me to learn how to draw so I can understand how all of this works, but I don't accept the fact that you seem to think I have to draw in order to color well.

If that were the case, the only people who would bother buying coloring books as a kid would be artists that already knew how to draw.

[NoiseHERO]

*continued from PM I sent you in order to avoid flame fight because I actually GIVE a shit about the topic of art*

Still...

Your process is definitely a little unorthodox. Like you're not gonna be able to shade unless you know how the objects you're shading work in general. physically and anatomically (muscle shape depending on the pose of the character. Or the surface of an object and how much light it reflects and in what way.)

So homehow if you're... even if you're ONLY going to color... you're still gonna have to figure that out without lines...

Or... since you draw in an anime style in general... ESPECIALLY in the case of downloading someone else's open source line art. You can just look at how similarly posed pictures are shaded... But I think I mentioned something similar in page 1. Sure it'll be unnatural and probably easily frowned upon by a professional. But you don't sound like you want to be a professional.

[gigawuts]

I think it's more to do with having a grasp, mentally, on the process of conceptualizing a drawing as something 3d in your mind, then using that to extend the drawing to the shading - and, let's be honest, shading is itself drawing. You choose where to place lines and how to cast light.

So no, it's more like understanding how to build an engine and the purpose of each part when learning to repair an engine. It's more intimate than just replacing a gear; it's gaining an innate understanding of why that gear is put there that they're suggesting you try. It isn't mandatory by any means, but it becomes a more intuitive process because you have a deeper understanding of it.

Sure, many people that color in drawings can't draw well, and there's absolutely more to coloring than just knowing how to draw - such as finer details of a program and various techniques you can only pick up by practicing - but somewhat dabbling in drawing will help you immensely with how to intuitively shade something.

Don't look at me for advice though, I can't draw worth a god damn. I just use this method when learning various other things. Learn the basics, then the rest will fall into place on top of it. Math, science, programming, etc. If you understand the how and why, the what becomes very intuitive. It's a very natural method of learning.

[NoiseHERO]

Learn the basics, then the rest will fall into place on top of it.

Pretty much this bad news is what you're gonna have to keep in mind for ANYTHING you want to learn/get better at.

But don't make the basics unfun. if they weren't actually fun or at least worth it. Then they wouldn't be where most people who are good at something started.

Actually whoa. speaking of coloring, shading, anatomy and poses...

Like any other artist I'm a fond collector of god tier reference.


http://www.daz3d.com/products/daz-studio/daz-studio-what-is-daz-studio

[TetsuyaHikari]

Well, once again... I understand where you guys are coming from. It's not as if I'm just going, "Well these guys don't know anything.", "That's retarded.", etc. Look, I get it, and I appreciate the advice, and whatnot, but I have no intention of learning how to draw. I'm going to continue to go down this road I have chosen.

I understand it's an unorthodox method, but you're also talking to a guy that learned how to play his keyboard by ear. I'm autistic. Things don't exactly come natural to me as it is. My brain just isn't wired to work that way. I can learn, but you just have to give me some space and let me do it on my own terms.

I'm an amateur voice actor as well, so your logic kind of applies how I feel towards that. You don't have to take theater classes to become a professional voice actor, but taking part in them will certainly help you have a better understanding of your voice and how to control it. However, if you never take any classes for theater, that doesn't mean you will necessarily be any worse off without them. You could be just as good even if you had taken them.

It might just take you a little longer. See, that's the great thing about art in general, really. There's really no wrong way to do something. It's all up to you. Even if the Director doesn't think your voice is suitable for a role he has in mind, it doesn't mean what you are doing is wrong. It just means your voice is more suitable for a different role.

The same thing can be said for my coloring or music. I can make whatever I want, however I want. That is the freedom one has an artist. There may be guidelines on the surface, but deep down... You will create your art with your own set of "rules" that will make you different from other artists. Some live by the book, others don't.

Neither party is wrong in their choice.

[Ami]

I've been lurking in this thread for a bit I think I understand both points. I don't think that they are saying you have to learn how to draw on a professional level. Just that maybe coloring your own scribbles over time will make it more of a natural thinking process about how lighting and shading goes when you do go color lineart from others.

But I color lineart All. The. Time. I just don't post it because it's for my own personal use. So I do understand where you're coming from with the whole practice and getting better thing. It took a hella while for me to start coloring at a respectable level because I cannot follow tutorials to the T to save my life and a lot of terms are like a different language for me.

But do what you feel is comfortable. I feel that if you're not doing it for pay or not in any rush to improve, then just take and leave tips as you need them. As for Photoshop stoof I'm a Paint Tool SAI user so I can't help you out there D:.

But this thread makes me feel like coloring some lineart @~@

[TetsuyaHikari]

I do believe I'm getting better in a sense, but I still have a long ways to go. The same could be said for anything though, really. If I go back and listen to some of the early songs I made 6 months ago, then compare them to my latest work, you can tell there is improvement. So, I know, in 6 months from now... If I compare the colorings I've done up to that point to the ones back then, I will see improvement.

I'm not saying that the advice he's giving is without logic. It is sound, indeed, but different people learn in different ways. Much like you, I can't follow tutorials either, haha. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I can have things shown to me multiple times, but still not really understand it.

I was the same way in school though. I didn't understand math to save my life, but it wasn't because I had bad teachers, it was just because something about it doesn't click with me. I just have to go at my own pace and figure out things on my own, I guess. I am glad that me posting this thread and sharing my colorings has made you think about taking up coloring again though.

Even if I'm never any good, at least I can say I sparked some inspiration and that's enough for me~