Vanderpol’s mysteries

Howdy guys, here comes… part 2 ! Continuing the line art we started in the previous video tutorial, this sequel will show you how to put highlights, shadows and textures on the character’s clothes. I hope you will enjoy the background music as well…

There will be other sequels to this video… if you have missed the first part or you want to get the sources click here

Hi there,

We are going to talk about “line art” today. This tutorial is a bit long (about 1.5 hours or more if you really go deep into small details…). We are going to learn to do that:

…starting from that :

So this is basically going to be about colors, and about how to turn a black thread into a great cover. This a job for colorists! We are going to start from this comic character (”Marvel Heroes”, november 2007, N°1. see http://www.marvel.com to order it), to save time (and I liked the character too ;-). So, anyway, even if you don’t know how to draw, this is not lost! This tutorial is for you!

Obs. : you need a scanner to do the whole exercice with another material - unless you start with the drawing above

1) Step 1: getting started with a model and a neat stroke

Once you have chosen a character to redesign, take a transparent paper sheet and a sharp black pen, and trace the stroke of the chosen model. Chose a thin ink pen and not a ball-point pen because the stroke has to be perfectly neat (unless you are fond of selections that are hassles :-p

2) Step 2 : digitalizing the drawing

Set your scanner to “gray scales”, and a picture resolution of 300 ppp. No less, no more.

While the computer is working for you, you can COAHAB (see “The mystical Vanderpolian glossary guide to the multimedia galaxy” if already lost).

Now you have a digital picture that should be pretty alike as the one just above these lines (if not, then it’s maybe time to think about growing vegetables in Vladivostok…).

Set your picture to RGB : image -> settings ->RGB

Then we correct the color of the background (it’s grey-ish, and not white). Very easy. Let’s check the levels for that: ctrl+L (cmd+L for mac). And merely press “Auto”. We are back in white now.

Then it’s time to DOFOSAWASOP (see glossary).

3) Step 3 : Unleash hell ! Prepare the setting…

Unlock the background layer in the layer palette (double click upon the locker - see red rectangle).

Label it : “line art”

As the observant ones have noticed, my snowboarder was oriented to the left, while in the original marvel cover, she is surfing the other way. LECPAABLEH! (see mystical glossary)

Image -> rotate canvas -> horizontal symmetry (pour les français qui ne comprennent pas les traductions des actions photoshop, elles sont toutes là - non je ne suis pas un traître).

Now we are back on track!

Create a new layer : layer -> new -> new layer (ctrl+shift+n or cmd+shift+n for mac users).

Label it : “background”.

Set the colors in the “tool palette” as follows :

• Foreground color: #bce0ff (light blue)
• Background color : #FFFFFF (pure white)

Now apply on your “background layer” this filter : filter -> render -> clouds

If not cloudy enough, apply it twice! ctrl+F (cmd+f). SHOFITFY…

And then apply the radial blur : filter ->blur -> radial blur.

In the box, choose the settings :

“zoom”, value : at least 50 (it can go up to 100 if you dare…)

Quality: normal.

Move the center of the blur at the bottom left site of the box. Validate.

This should look more lively for snowboarding!

SAWOASYTNEE.