| Step 11: Shading |
 |
Now let's add some shading. Shading can be thought of as the areas of our
character that are in shadow. Look at your shirt. Notice all the slightly darker
parts created by shadows? No? Look again. Got it? Ok, that's your shading. That is what we will be adding to Catgirl right now.
We're going to shade our character by using a very faint black brush and very
slowly adding in color until we get the desired effect. This process may take a
little longer than other methods, but it gives us a chance to work with some
other very useful tools in Photoshop and will allow us to more preciously
control the position and level of shading that we make.
We first want to set up our brush so that it draws the way we want...
- Open the Cartoon file (be sure you are NOT
working with the Progress-2 [or Progress-1] file - once you have saved Progress-2 do not open
it again)
- Click the Brush tool
- Your brush option bar probably looks like this...
if it doesn't look like the graphic above, don't worry...you are about to
change it...
- Make the following setting changes...
Brush: Soft Round 35 pixels (take a look at the large graphic to the right, the
correct brush is highlighted); again it doesn't matter if your brush has
rounded or pointed ends - either will work just fine
Mode: Normal
Opacity: 25%
Flow: 25%
Airbrush capabilities enabled
- When finished, your brush options should look like
the graphic below
Opacity controls how dark the color you draw with is with a high opacity
being a darker color. With our opacity set to 25%, we will be drawing light
black instead of full dark black. Flow determines how much ink we are adding to
our picture each time we draw, with a high flow meaning we are putting down lots
of color and a low flow like ours meaning we are putting down very little color.
With both set low like we have we are going to get very light color each time we
draw, so we may have to draw over the same area multiple times to get the
desired amount of color.
Now that we have our brush set up we need to create a layer to draw on.
- Click the Layer palette menu button (if you
don't remember where that is go back to Step 3)
- Click New Layer
- Name the new layer Shade
- Select the new Shade layer
We need to make sure the Shade layer is above the Color and Soft Color layers. If is
is not...
- Click the Shade layer and drag it up in
the Layer palette until it is above the Soft Color layer (but below the
Ink layer) and drop it
We will need the Shade layer
on top for what we are doing next. Make sure your layers read in order from top
to bottom: Ink, Shade, Soft Color, Color, Sketch,
Background (just like the graphic below...).
If your graphic does not look like it should, be sure your layers are in the
correct order - they should be listed from top to bottom as in the graphic
above. If they are not, simply click and drag whichever layer is out of place up
or down into its correct location.
- Make only the Shade and Color layers
visible
- Make the Color layer active - we need to make
the Color layer active because with the Shade layer being empty we will most
likely be unable to select anything under it
- Use the Magic Wand just as you
did in Step 10 (and just as you will do in
Step 12) to select a
specific area of your graphic so that when you make changes it does not affect
any other part of the image
THIS STEP IS IMPORTANT AS YOUR SHADE LAYER DOES NOT HAVE THE BLACK BORDER ON
IT LIKE YOUR INK, SOFT COLOR, AND COLOR LAYERS AND THUS IT WILL BE VERY EASY
FOR ANY NEW COLOR YOU ADD TO GO OUTSIDE YOUR DOGMAN AND INTO THE SURROUNDING
AREA - USING THE MAGIC WAND AT THIS POINT ASSURES US THAT THE COLOR
STAYS ON CATGIRL
- Make the Shade layer active
This is a very important step here because our shading can get
very precise. For example, we will want to add shading to areas around his face
but not on areas such as his eyes. Using the Magic Wand can be a big help in
getting only the area we want to be shaded.
We
can now begin shading him...
- Select black as your foreground color
- Be sure the Airbrush tool is selected and
that the Brush option settings are as described above
- Select an area to add shade to (the example graphic
below uses her hand...might as well start there)
- Begin by visualizing a light shining on your Catgirl
coming from the upper-left corner of the graphic, this means that most of the
shadows you will be adding in this step will be on the right of the graphic
(which is his left side)
- Click and drag to add in the shade color; keep in
mind that it will be drawn in very lightly at first, so if you want a darker
color just keep drawing over the same area until it is as dark as you want -
in the graphic below his arm has been shaded (note that the hand has been
selected with the Magic Want tool to ensure that no other part of the graphic
is shaded)
- If you find that your brush is too large or too
small to add in the shading you want simply change the size of your brush to
get what you desire
- What you are drawing should be confined to the area
you selected, and if you turn off the Color and Soft Color layers you will
notice that your shading is hanging out on the Shade layer with no outline, just
like the graphic below...
- Continue shading her tail, then go on to shading everything else.
- When you have finished the shading step, your Catgirl should look similar to the graphic below...
-
Keep in mind that your Catgirl will not look exactly like
the one above since you will probably have chosen a better color scheme and not rushed it as much as I have, but you should have shading in many of the same areas.
In general, when shading you want to start with a large brush, making general
shades, and then select smaller brushes and zoom in to add details.
This shading step can be a lengthy process, and can take a while for
everything to look exactly how you want. Be patient and work slowly and it will
all come together. Don't get discouraged - your graphic will probably not be
perfect and that is OK, it's not supposed to be. If it were you wouldn't need to
be here!
Save your Cartoon file!