Have a Seat -Coloring Lesson 1

John Rauch · 04-09-2009, 06:00 PM

I know some of you are going to be disappointed that I'm not focusing on Photoshop stuff or specific techniques here, but I really don't feel like those are the real meat of knowing how to color. Aside from that, there are tutorials all over the internet about those things and it's really very secondary to the actual coloring itself.

So, I'm starting with basic lighting. When coloring, lighting is how you give an object dimension. What you light and what you don't helps the reader understand the three dimensional shape of the objects you're coloring. This applies to everything, so I consider it to be one of the fundamentals of coloring. Here we go!

If you want to follow along, (and I encourage it highly) download this file, open it up in Photoshop (or whatever program you prefer to color in) and get ready to color:

http://www.retroaero.com/digitalwebbing/chair.tif

Step 1:

Here's our basic drawing. First thing you need to do is get it set up to color. If you're in Photoshop, you might want to put the lines in a channel or layer, depending on how you like to work. If you're in another program, use whatever feature that program has available to make sure the line drawing is overlayed in a way that will be unaffected by your coloring.

Step 2:

OK, the next step is to fill in the chair with one solid color that we can render into. I picked a medium brown. In PS, you might want to use the lasso, wand, pencil, and paintbucket tools. In Painter, you could also lasso and fill or just brush the color in. It's not important how you do it, so long as the chair is one solid color.

Step 3:

OK, now we have to choose a light source. To keep it simple, I decided to make my light source almost directly above. For sake of this lesson, I encourage you to do the same at least you're first time through. What I've done is chosen a lighter brown and filled it into all of the areas that face directly towards my light source, including the curved edges.

Step 4:

Next, I'm tacking all the planes that are facing the light source, but not directly. I've brushed out the curved edges to show the plane beginning to face away from the light source. I've also filled the chair back, which partially faces the light source with a brown color that is in between my light color and my mid-brown.

Step 5:

Now that I've determined what planes face the light source and to what degree, I'm going back with my original brown and painting in drop shadows from anything that would obstruct the light from hitting another plane. Because my light source is so simple, this is basically just from the arm rest and chair back.

Step 6:

For this step, I'm brushing in a cooler dark color into the shadows in part for contrast, and in part because shadows will almost always compliment the light source color. In this case, I'm using a slightly warm outdoor light, so a cool shadow would be the most likely real world shadow color. After that's done, I selected a lighter version of the same color and have applied it to all the planes facing the right of the chair to represent a bit of reflected light in the shadows. In most situations, there is light still reflecting around in the shadows, it's just not directly from the original light source.

Step 7:

Now we're down to the final details. Here, I've softly brushed in some warmer colors into the lit areas to show the warmness of the light source, as well as contrasting the shadows further. I've also emphasized the edges with an additional highlight. Most beveled or rounded edges will reflect light somewhat differently than the flat edges they connect. Check this out in the real world if you don't believe me. Look at the edge of your desk or monitor. Also, in mine, I've decided to paint into the lines for added realism. This is purely a matter of individual style, so don't be upset if you don't know how to do that or if your software makes it difficult.

Done yet? Post yours in this thread. If you feel especially brave or if you need a little more work to solidify the concepts in your head, start over with a different light source.

MBirkhofer · 04-09-2009, 09:32 PM

I'll go!

I didn't do color holds on the lineart.

Went with a lower light from behind and slightly to the left.

onizuka43 · 04-09-2009, 09:42 PM

Fantastic tutorial, I learned a lot just by reading it. I can't wait to try it out for real.

appomo · 04-10-2009, 04:06 AM

nice mood and lights

appomo · 04-10-2009, 05:06 AM

here is my version , i know that the "perspective" from the light isnt right but i want to post it anyway so you can give crits abd point out the failures.
i didnt folowed your tut step by step i interpretated it my way..is this ok or do you want that people follow it step by step exactly how you did?

John Rauch · 04-10-2009, 09:48 AM

MBirkhofer: Nice take! The light source from behind makes some interesting lines.

appomo: Like you mentioned, the shadow isn't quite right, but understandably so, being a difficult angle. I think it would benefit you to go through all the steps and stick to them as closely as you can that way you don't miss the parts about contrasting light & shadow colors, among other things. We'll probably tackle something with more difficult shadows later on, but I didn't consider it a beginner lesson, so I intentionally kept it simple here. Kudos on going for something difficult, but we're just trying to get a solid foundation to start with.

Nick Pitarra · 04-10-2009, 10:55 AM

Some Easter colors! Like I said...I can't color. Once I tried to work in a reflective yellow things got weird...I didn't push it enough (I can't even see it now that I zoomed out). I eye balled the cast shadow too. I'll try and play along as much as possible...I think I learned more by seeing Mike's and Appomo's takes then I did pooping on the chair. Maybe i'll just try standard cellshading next time as thats what I want to learn for my own line work. Thanks again for doing this, you and Cary rock.

Justice41 · 04-10-2009, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Rauch