Intro and Common Tools:

Before we being here’s a few warnings, this is NOT a 'Step by Step' tutorial telling you how to 'do this' or 'do that' this is just how I color as best as I can explain it, I don't expect you to be able to follow my methods step by step.  So take what you need from here and make your own method that works for you, also I use very few filters, fills, gradients, patterns and other shortcuts when I color. I guess I’m rather old fashioned in that regard and I feel it’s more satisfying when I see the finished product and know that I’m looking at my own work and not a series of filters and fills. It gives me more control and I find that doing something by hand is almost shorter than fiddling with settings to get the look I see in my head onto the image.

I’m not against these tools by any means, Eye Candy and other plug in filters have saved my butt on several occasions when time was short, and tubes are a godsend when you have to put the subjects in a forest and there is no forest drawn in the original picture.

My style is the ‘soft edge’ or ‘air brush’ style of coloring, if I do everything right 90% of the ‘brush strokes’ will not be noticeable in the final piece. How I do this is though using various tools, a lot of practice and maybe a filter or two.

Here’s what I use:

Airbrush: This is the MAIN tool I use, period end of story, I vary the size, shape, density, hardness and opacity to get the effect and look I want, more on that later. If you want color the way I color get up close and personal with this tool.

Eraser: Yeah who saw this one coming? Used to clean up edges correct errors and whatnot, I mostly use this to tidy up my ragged edges near the end of the project after I get the backgrounds in place.

Magic Wand: Used to select a color to work on, helps protect the surrounding areas from the stray strokes when adding shadows and highlights, or to add a filter or effect.

Dodge (or Color Lighten): This lightens, or brightens the color it’s applied to; I use this tool mostly to add in final highlights and such. In PSP 7.0 I used the Dodge tool, however they changed how it worked in PSP 8.0, but the Color Lighten Tool comes close to replicating it.

Burn (or Color Darken): This darkens the color it’s applied to; I use this one sparingly, only for my darkest shadows. In PSP 7.0 I used the Burn tool, however like the Dodge Tool they changed how it worked in PSP 8.0, but the Color Darken Tool comes close to replicating it.

Smudge: This little number is a godsend! Like an old fashioned stump that artists used to smooth out pencil and charcoal lines this tool does the same thing in PSP, is blends one color into another and works very well in adding some shape and form to the colors even if there are no lines to guide them.

Flood Fill: I use this mostly to add backgrounds and maybe fill in large areas of base color.

Got PSP open and ready to go?  Okay now to Prepare the Image