Painting/Colouring Tu-toriel

I'm finally making another tutorial! It seems everyone wanted a colouring tutorial, though I've made one a while ago about shading and colour usage. I've improved a bit since then, but I think it still provides some good information. You can check it out here!

If anyone is interested in a more in-depth tutorial on a different subject (lineart, hair, etc), please let me know in the comments and I'll consider it :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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Here's the piece I'll be using as an example in this post:

This post discusses:

:small_blue_diamond: Basics of light and shadow :small_blue_diamond:

:small_blue_diamond: How to pick shading colours :small_blue_diamond:

:small_blue_diamond: Go from sketch to colour w/o lineart :small_blue_diamond:

:small_blue_diamond: Lighting effects :small_blue_diamond:

Program

Medibang

Brushes

:small_blue_diamond: Watercolour :small_blue_diamond:

:small_blue_diamond: Airbrush :small_blue_diamond:

:small_blue_diamond: Pencil :small_blue_diamond:

Time Taken

4-5 hours

Ready your sketch! I prefer to use construction lines to help me with anatomy. Don't worry about it being messy, it'll all be cleaned up later :)

I tend to separate certain parts of my sketch (hair, skin, etc) onto different layers. This is completely optional, though I do think doing this will make things just a little easier during the cleanup process.

:small_blue_diamond: Light Source :small_blue_diamond:

Before we get onto any type of shading, make sure to plan your light source before hand. Here, I've blocked out places where light does not reach, which is where all your shadows will be. Make sure to think about what objects will be blocking light from other objects (the head blocking the neck, the torso blocking the right arm)

:small_blue_diamond: Shading :small_blue_diamond:

Its time to add in your base colours! Make sure to not make them fully saturated as that will make the colours very unpleasant to look at. Also, make sure to keep certain things on different layers (sweater, skin, shoes, etc). This is also to make the cleanup process easier later on :)

When choosing the colours you will use to shade, make sure that you are changing the hue as well as adding more saturation the darker you go. Here's an example to make it easier to understand:

I usually use shades in the order of base :point_right: shadow 1 :point_right: shadow 2 :point_right: "shadow" 3 :point_right: hightlight.

"Shadow" 3 is a very pale purple or blue that I usually add to areas with very dark shadows. In this example with the skin, you can see that I placed it in areas such as the neck and cast shadows from the hair since these areas have very dark shadows.

Here's another example with more shades + highlights:

There's not really any limit to the amount of shades you can use; add as many as you think is needed.

Now for my actual process for shading! First, apply the lightest shading colour to places you know shadows will be. In this case, it will be the inside of the shorts, between the legs, the leftmost side (because light is from the right), and on clothing folds.

After, add the next darkest shade and place it in areas you think would receive even less light. This means places completely blocked by other objects, resulting in no light.

What I like to do is to add a slightly lighter colour to the really dark shadows to make it more colourful! I think this really adds the finishing touch to the shading process. If you look closely, you'll see I've added some purple to the dark shadows.

:small_blue_diamond: Cleanup Process :small_blue_diamond:

You may have noticed that I didn't create any lineart and just went from sketch to colour. You can just shade your sketch and stop here (which I do a lot) but you can also cleanup your lines to give the appearance of lineart or completely remove your lines if you wish.

The first thing you need to do is to merge your layers together. Earlier, I mentioned separating parts of your sketch and colouring onto different layers. The reason for this is so you can merge them with their matching layers (hair sketch layer is merged with hair colour layer, skin sketch layer is merged with skin colour layer, etc) which will make it easier to work on individual parts without mes other areas.

Now that your sketch layers are merged with their corresponding colour layer, it's time to clean up those messy lines from your sketch :yum:

The first thing you need to do is to erase all the stray lines outside of your drawing!

Now, redraw the line and paint over your colouring in areas that you want to be rid of the sketch lines. In this case, I paint over the area around the kneecap so there's no more sketch lines.

Now, you just rinse and repeat this process for the entire drawing! This is good for people who have an unsteady hand (like me) and it always takes too long to try to make nice lineart :sob: This way doesn't really require a steady hand and I find it to be a lot more enjoyable since shading is way more fun than making lineart :ok_hand:

Here's another example of the cleanup process if the other one wasn't clear enough:

:small_blue_diamond: Lighting Effects :small_blue_diamond:

What I like to do after all the shading is done is I use different layer modes to make my colours look more appealing. I typically use overlay (more saturation), add (makes brighter), and multiply (makes darker). I'll use add in areas with highlights and overlay in areas that are lacking in colour. Multiply is used to emphasize my shadows.

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And this concludes the tutorial! I hope at least one person found this useful and that you learned something from this :smile: And if you're confused, don't worry, I'm confused too :wink:

I'll answer any questions you may have, so feel free to ask them in the comments!

:small_blue_diamond: Tags :small_blue_diamond:

#DeterminedArtists

#HopefulArt

#CuratorReview

#ArtistsHub

#Tutorial

:small_blue_diamond: TPL Images :small_blue_diamond:

Please do not use these images uwu

Thanks for reading!