Photoshop Tricks

DancingChaos · Post by **DancingChaos** » Mon May 23, 2005 12:54 pm

Hi. I just got photoshop. Well... It's Adobe Photoshop Element 2.0, which is one step lower than Photoshop. By looking at this picture, can any of you guys please give me some tips about using photoshop? This is my first picture experimenting with photoshop!!! (Please excuse my bad drawing and inking skills. It's just a test!!!)

http://tinypic.com/5c1652

Please tell me what you think and how I can improve!!!

Jackhass · Post by **Jackhass** » Mon May 23, 2005 1:47 pm

Might want to edit the title of your topic to "Photoshop tricks" instead of "Photobucket tricks"...

DancingChaos · Post by **DancingChaos** » Mon May 23, 2005 2:13 pm

Hahahh! Sorry!!! I guess It's because I'm tired!!!

I changed it.

CapitanG · Post by **CapitanG** » Mon May 23, 2005 8:59 pm

The pic didn't load for me. If tinypic isn't working out for you, perhaps try imageshack: http://www.imageshack.us

DancingChaos · Post by **DancingChaos** » Tue May 24, 2005 11:14 am

Oh. Sorry.

I hope this works ^_^

RemusShepherd · Post by **RemusShepherd** » Tue May 24, 2005 12:05 pm

I'm not sure what tips you're looking for.

If you're drawing with the mouse, then sit back and accept that anything you do in Photoshop is going to suck. Tablets are the only way to get really good results.

Your picture looks like you already know how to use layers (the background and foreground look separate). Working with layers are the most important tip for a newbie.

What exactly do you want to do in Photoshop? Do you want help with shading, coloring, inking, or what? Might be able to help if we knew exactly what you were going for. Or it might help if you look at the sticky threads in this forum, like 'Artist Tutorials' and 'Web pages you could use' for general information.

Post by **Mercury Hat** » Tue May 24, 2005 12:45 pm

If you're drawing with the mouse, then sit back and accept that anything you do in Photoshop is going to suck. Tablets are the only way to get really good results.

Tablets just make things easier by giving you the ability to color with pressure sensitivity instead of having to manually fudge with opacity and the like. You can still do some good things with a mouse if that's what you're comfortable with.

Soap Committee · Post by **Soap Committee** » Tue May 24, 2005 12:56 pm

And I quote from a journal entry I made not two weeks ago:

1. You're not a better artist if you use a tablet.
2. You're not an lesser artist if you use a tablet.

As Merc just pointed out you can make amazing art with a mouse. The tools you use can enhance your work, but it's all about your skills in the end. Getting a tablet is not the end-all answer to digital art. I love my tablet, but I used photoshop for two years without such a thing and I cranked out some of my best stuff with it.

DancingChaos · Post by **DancingChaos** » Tue May 24, 2005 4:12 pm

Well... Mostly, I'm asking about the coloring. Sorry I didn't mention that.

And I did the inking and scanned it. Sorry I also didn't include that info. I just wanted to know if my coloring was good.

Thanks for telling me about Tablets.

Townie · Post by **Townie** » Tue May 24, 2005 8:15 pm

This would be a good time to point out that Ian of Machall swears by an optical mouse over a tablet. That said, they do make digital artwork more like traditional art

SquirtEryna · Post by **SquirtEryna** » Tue May 24, 2005 10:13 pm

Well I use Photoshop CS and I have a few tips though I'm not sure if you could apply it to Photoshop elements.

There are two styles of colouring which I use, Soft Style Colouring and Cel Style colouring.

You could improve on your shading of the picture. Add a shadow layer for your shading. Use airbrush to shade the main areas and then a smaller airbrush with a draker colour to bring out the details.

I hope I made sense.

SquirtEryna · Post by **SquirtEryna** » Tue May 24, 2005 10:20 pm

You could also make her hair shiny.

Since you already have a base colour, start by choosing a darker shade for shadows. Shade the areas where you want the shadows to fall using a soft airbrush.
Next, choose a brighter shade of your base colour and shade the areas where the light would be shining on her hair (usually the upper parts).
Once you're done, you should get shiny hair.

Don't forget where your light source is coming from.

KODAMA · Post by **KODAMA** » Wed May 25, 2005 4:42 am

.... it seems the biggest problem is with the general anatomical correctness of the head and facial features, and not particularly colors.

RemusShepherd · Post by **RemusShepherd** » Wed May 25, 2005 5:47 am

Soap Committee wrote:1. You're not a better artist if you use a tablet.
2. You're not an lesser artist if you use a tablet.

Sorry. Let me rephrase -- in my opinion*, art in photoshop is much easier with a tablet. And the choice of tools has nothing to do with the artist's skill.

(* -- everything I say should have 'in my opinion attached to it. For some reason, people think I'm declaring holy law when I speak, and I don't intend that.

)

So, now then...coloring. There are lots of ways to do this. Start with this tutorial from Phalanx and this one from elsewhere on the web. Essentially, you just set up your line art in a multiply layer and draw the colors in a layer beneath that. The tutorials just differ in how the actual drawing is done.

Soap Committee · Post by **Soap Committee** » Wed May 25, 2005 9:00 am

RemusShepherd wrote:
Soap Committee wrote:1. You're not a better artist if you use a tablet.
2. You're not an lesser artist if you use a tablet.
Sorry. Let me rephrase -- in my opinion*, art in photoshop is much easier with a tablet. And the choice of tools has nothing to do with the artist's skill.

(* -- everything I say should have 'in my opinion attached to it. For some reason, people think I'm declaring holy law when I speak, and I don't intend that. )

Oh hurray semantics

"If you're drawing with the mouse, then sit back and accept that anything you do in Photoshop is going to suck." That sounds less of a IMHO and more of a THIS-IS-THE-WAY-IT-IS-SO-THERE. You're telling DancingChaos that any work they produce in photoshop will be worthless. I'd hate for any curious artist to read that and think it's true. I struggle like crazy with Photoshop inking (using a tablet) because 7.0 just doesn't handle it well, but that may just be MY problem -- I'm not about to declare that everyone else who tries will automatically suck at PS-inking too.

DancingChaos: Contrast is usually a good idea. It's been said enough, but you may want to make some darker shadows. Since your background's offering a pink and purple color scheme, you could make the shadows have a purplish or reddish tinge. Either way, I think the picture would benefit from some more pronounced shadows, mostly in the hair (since it's the largest part of the picture).

If you want to try cell shading, there's a really clean way I've been using for a while -- the Polygonal Selection tool. I hope Photoshop Essentials has it. You can use this to enclose any shape or space to work in, and you won't have to worry about the colors messing up any of the parts outside the selection. If you get shadows or base colors perfectly formed onto the picture, but the shade is off from what you really want, then select that area. You can adjust it by Image>>Adjusments>>Hue/Saturation.

Off the bat, those are the tools I think I abuse the most. I'm sure your edition came with some varied brushes, even some really ugly and useless -looking ones. Play with them anyway, you can make some neat effects.

RemusShepherd · Post by **RemusShepherd** » Wed May 25, 2005 9:12 am

Soap Committee wrote:
RemusShepherd wrote:
Soap Committee wrote:1. You're not a better artist if you use a tablet.
2. You're not an lesser artist if you use a tablet.
Sorry. Let me rephrase -- in my opinion*, art in photoshop is much easier with a tablet. And the choice of tools has nothing to do with the artist's skill.

(* -- everything I say should have 'in my opinion attached to it. For some reason, people think I'm declaring holy law when I speak, and I don't intend that. )
Oh hurray semantics

"If you're drawing with the mouse, then sit back and accept that anything you do in Photoshop is going to suck." That sounds less of a IMHO and more of a THIS-IS-THE-WAY-IT-IS-SO-THERE.

Which is why I should put a disclaimer on everything I say, because everything I say is only an opinion.

This isn't semantics, this is conciliation. I'll spell it out for you -- what I wrote was wrong, and it was wrong of me to write it, and I apologize. I stand by the clarified opinion in my second post. But note that I am no expert, have no authoritative knowledge of anything, and should not be confused for anyone whose opinion means a damn.

Soap Committee · Post by **Soap Committee** » Wed May 25, 2005 9:56 am

Oh! Oh! I forgot one more coloring tippish dealie. I get the best results when whatever I'm coloring looks complete without the lineart as well as with.

<work-whoring>

W/ lineart

W/out lineart

</work-whoring>

I definitely think it looks better with, but if you can tell exactly who the figure is and it's doing, then it can look neater when you top it off with the lineart. But then again, the more complex the lineart is the more jumbled colors can look if done in that method. Whatever way you decide to go with, good luck!

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Wed May 25, 2005 10:24 am

Ok. Here's the tips I've discovered. I don't know Photoshop Elements very well, so I don't know if you get all the fun toys I've got with Seven, but...

1. Layers. Use them. Often. Every time you add something to what you're doing, add a new layer. It makes for huge file sizes, but if you screw up, instead of hoping and praying that you still have the screw-up in the memory so you can cntrl+alt+Z it away, all you have to do is delete the layer. Also, layers let you fudge coloring really, really well. The "Overlay" "Linear Dodge" "Screen" "Linear Burn" "Lumonocity" and all the other layer settings are defeantely your friends.

2. Getting realistic shading out of ANYTHING is tricky. The best way I've found is less a trick and more an actual, traditional art technique. I use a nutural family of colors to do the base shading (like cool brown or grays) so that I can be absolutely sure I got the light direction correct, and then to colorize it, use a layer set to "Overlay" and fill it in with the correct color, maybe a few extra touches with another color for realism (like pink on people to give the flesh-tone a blush). It requires only minor touch ups after that (deepening the shadows mostly) and it gets the effect I want. You might not need to go as detail-orented as I usually go if you are drawing everything, but the more in-depth you shade, the better it will look.

3. Hair acts more like a fabric than a liquid. It clumps together and it's fluffy. The way you've drawn it looks quite a bit like a liquid. It will look more realistic if you draw it with those clumps in mind, from the part in the middle down to where it ends. You just drew the clumps where the hair ends and left them out the further up you go. It'll look much better if it has sections, and it will look much better if it flows and doesnt' cling to the head.

That said-smudge tool, set on something in the neighborhood of 85%, will give you a nice hair effect. Watch your shading, use a dark shade, a middle shade, and a light shade, then smudge it. I've tried lots of other ways but this one is the fastest, most realistic looking one I've found so far.

If you need more than that, just ask.

CW

DancingChaos · Post by **DancingChaos** » Wed May 25, 2005 11:18 am

Wow.

Thank You SOOOO MUCH for all the stuff you told me!!! I'll make sure I'll use each bit of info you guys gave me.

^_^