I'm Terrabad. HELP MEH!!!

[Craka_J]

I draw stuff on paper, scan it, and then edit it in Photoshop. And by edit, I mean I pretty much just outline and color in the picture.

I use the burn tool, dodge tool, smudge tool (to get rid of pencil stuff or to edit blend colors) and sponge tool mostly. And of course the brush tool. The layers in all of my photoshopped stuff usually are in this order:

• Outlines
• Color Hair
• Color Cloth
• Color Skin
• Original (actual scanned pencil drawing layer)
• Background

First I create these layers. Next, I erase all the paper around the characters. Then I outline; sometimes I'll outline first instead.

This literally takes me at least an hour and a half to do because I do it all manually with the eraser to erase and the brush to outline. I don't like the quick selection tool as much because... I actually don't know why, but I guess because it kinda trims the picture a tad much. Which actually doesn't matter because I outline it all anyway. I guess I'm just retarded and like wasting time.

After all that boring shit, I get to what I call "the fun part" which involves me coloring in stuff and then, even better, shading/lighting! I fucking love using the burn, sponge, and dodge tools! Despite pretty much all artists telling me they're Satanist tools for doing what I do, I say fuck it and enjoy using them. It's like easy mode! Plus, the results aren't too bad. The main problem though is that it kinda makes my art look like it was airbrushed. Once I notice that, I get mad.

TL;DR I hate my photoshop skills at the moment and think my art looks like something a 13 year old anime fan would create. Which pisses me off further. Soooo... how do I do teh phtoshopz liek pro? In other words, how do I color and shade stuff like skin without the anime look? Because personally, I hate anime more than I hate terrorists.
And I fucking hate terrorists.... 'MERICA!!!!

kthx ♥

The following listed items are examples of the shit I produce through Photoshoppage.
Gordo
God O' Gore
Baked Caterpillar
Warrior Guy (extremely creative)
Tommy Top Hat (only one I'm actually kinda proud of and it was my first serious photoshop pic :')

 

[sonofjay]

Good stuffs, I really love that God O' Gore and Tommy Top Hat(looks so funny).

 

[Ghost765]

give an example of what you want your shading to look like?
you should probably stop using burn and dodge, and rely on shading using darker/lighter colors.
you could also use layers that are set to multiply, and add your shadows in there as well. dont be afraid to
really go dark/light with the shadows, and make them fade in and out as neccessary.
if the shadows are too subtle your piece will look flat

 

[Craka_J]

On the upper left of the toolbar or whatever I have it set to "Normal" but I set almost all my layers, except for Outlines, to "Multiply." I do this because it doesn't completely cover up whatever I'm coloring on top of, such as the "Original" layer.

Shading I'd like to go for would be something along the lines of Patrick Brownhttp://patrickbrown.deviantart.com/gallery/. Of course, it will take a while for me to get that good, if ever. But yeah, my current color style is poop. Hoping to change it.

I'd also like to eventually get into doing more realistic photoshop stuff, but I'll take one step at a time.

 

[Ghost765]

excellent choice.
you should definitely start by not using the burn/dodge tools. its a pretty lazy tool and you can tell right away when someone uses it ( and it looks bad most of the time)
use different shades of the primary color youre shading, for example notice the grays on the hitman's clothes, theyre all selected from the color wheel, and then applied directly onto the layer, or you can create a new shadows layer ontop of the primary color layer. this guy's art is pretty well defined, notice how theres a really stark contrast between the white of the suit and the shadows themselves. when you make a shadow that has a really big contrast with the primary color, itll look bad it first, but once you apply it other places itll gradually look better.


if you dont like manually selecting colors, you can create a multiply layer, and over the primary color layer, and then color in the shadows using a grey color. the shadows wont appear as gray, but instead as a darker tone of the color youre coloring over. this is a pretty easy tool, and it looks decent most of the time.
make sure to take into account the reflection of colors on surfaces, shadows are almost never pure black/grey, but theyll have tints of other colors, but i suspect you already know this.

also make sure your pen tablet is pressure sensitive, itll help with shadows that fade darker.

theres more advanced shading techniques using masks and stuff, but i've never actually gotten around to messing around with those.

its sometimes beneficial to start with painting real life stills in photoshop, and understanding color theory before delving into and creating your own style.

just remember, good shading should take awhile, and professional artists use many dozens of layers for their piece, depending on how complex it is.

 

[Craka_J]

I have a tablet and pen, but I almost never use them (I've been using my tablet only because it makes scrolling and zooming in and out of the picture easier) so I use a good ol' fashioned mouse instead. Additionally, I hold pens weird. So sometimes my fingers click the annoyingly useless button on the side of the pen and it opens up this brush window thingy or some shit. Pisses me off sometimes, so I just stopped using it.

So yeah. Mouse ftw so far.

I hear about "masks" and "overlays" all the time. No idea what the hell they are or what they do, but I'm also too lazy to figure it out or google it. Some day....

I can still use the smudge tool (at like 30% strength) to blend colors though right? :>

 

[Ghost765]

honestly, if you want to pursue art as a hobby/semi-seriously, youll want to use a tablet and pen. the pressure sensitivity that the tablet offers is far superior to the mouse, trust me.
you can configure the buttons on the pen itself to have no function, there should be a configuration wizard or program somewhere in your c: drive. it definitely takes getting use to, but its almost neccessary to switch over to one.

i try to avoid the smudge tool, i almost always opt to use the actual color im looking for instead of smudging two together. the benefit of having a pressure sensitive pen is that colors will 'blend' with each other as long as you lightly brush over another color.