Hey guys, this post is an addition to The longest Photoshop coloring tutorial, I posted a video in which you could see how I use the History Brush when I use color, but it didn’t seem too clear, so before we go on with the tutorial I will explain in detail what the history brush is, how it works and what applications it can have.

What is the History Brush?

The History Brush is a Photoshop tool used to “travel through time” to any event reflected on the History palette. At first it is hard to understand, but as we go further we will see a few examples that you will be able to perfectly understand.

How does the History Brush work?

Before we understand what the History Brush is, we have to understand the concept of History: every action we take in Photoshop is registered in the History panel as an event, being the top ones, the oldest. We can freely go back in history, something very useful to fix mistakes.

At the left of each event is a square, and in one of these squares there is an icon of a brush (on the original snapshot by default) that we can keep changing from location. This square is the one that sets the origin, the source of the History Brush.

If we mark a particular event as source and then we make changes to the canvas, with the History Brush we can “paint some areas of the canvas to make them go back in time” up to its original state or source. It would be like going back on the History panel, only that the changes don’t affect the whole canvas, only the area we have painted with the History Brush.

What use can I give to the History Brush?

The History Brush is a very powerful tool, you can give it unlimited uses; right on top of my head I can think of 3:

Example 1: suppose we have a color picture of a subject with a background and we want to leave the background black and white. We can desaturate the image and then with the History Brush we can put some of its previous stage back, I mean some color.

If we mark the event Desaturate as source and we paint with the History Brush again, the result will be that we are going to return the image back to black and white … we can do it at any stage in history.

Example 2: suppose that after painting a character I decide to make several tests. It happens that I like the head on the first test, the body on the second and the feet on the third. With the History Brush I could merge all the variants quickly and easily (although with some limitations that we will see later on).

Just take snapshots of every version and use the History Brush to join the parts you like from each version. Remember the History Brush works just by individual layers (see limitations below).

Example 3: I can use the History Brush as a selective eraser. I can erase part of a gradient or stroke, having the rest of the gradients and strokes frozen. Here is when we will connect with The longest Photoshop coloring tutorial.

Now I believe you have an idea of how powerful this tool is

Why is my History Brush not working?

This is one of the most frequent questions; the History Brush is a powerful tool that has its own rules:

1. It works on individual layers. If you want to make changes to several layers, either you do it one by one or you have to flatten the layers.
2. It works on existing layers on both sides of history (the event we marked as source and the current event). This means that if we mark an event and then we flatten it, erase it or if we create another layer, then the History Brush will not work on the affected layers.
3. The History stores a limited number of events, it may happen that you want to go back to a very old event and you find it is not there any longer (though the source event is always kept). This can be solved by creating a snapshot every once in a while. From the Photoshop’s preferences (Edit > Preferences > Performance) panel you can also increment the number of events stored, although it will use more resources.
4. It works both to go back to the past and to move to the future. Imagine that you make 10 strokes, you can go back to stroke 5 from history and mark stroke 10 as source, we would be moving to the “future”.

What is the Artistic History Brush?

It is a variant (less useful) of the History Brush, the concept is basically the same, only the result is artistic. It is useful in very particular cases in which we need some kind of texture, for example to paint clouds or give a painting finish to a photograph, or specific areas of a photograph.

I can´t figure any effective use, it just works fine if you need certain effects.

Let´s see if you got it !!!

If after reading this post and seeing the video again you can´t still figure the technique I use to paint complex gradients, don´t worry, within the next days I will go ahead with The longest Photoshop coloring tutorial and I will explain the proccess in detail.

Remember tweating and spreading the post if you found it useful.
See you soon!!

Hello buddies, time for a very special tutorial, I will try to write the more detailed tutorial you have ever seen about how to color in Photoshop, SOSFactory color style. I will post the tutorial by issues, every issue will have his own video on real time from my Youtube channel, voice courtesy of Anita Nagu (since my English is quite poor), when we are finish I will offer a pack:

• The full tutorial in PDF format.
• A video compilation in high resolution and comments in English and Spanish.
• The high res PSD file under creative commons license (for personal and commercial use).
• The PSD layered for your own research.
• And the color swatches, some Photoshop action…

I think 5-10US$ for the whole pack would be a fair price… what do you think? think running a blog like this is not for free, and I need to spend lot of time and energie. Would be a nice way of support, so I can continue offering good quality content.

INDEX

• Day 1: download the lineart and let´s get started
• Day 2: extracting the lineart
• Day 3: making the flat colors template
• Day 4: painting basic areas
• Day 5: painting complex areas: the history brush

Day 1: Download the lineart and let´s get started

Some of you already did a try on the lineart, I suggest you color it again following this tutorial, would be nice seeing how you improve your coloring skills. If you didn´t try yet, you can download the lineart here:

So we are ready to start!
See you in a couple days, stay tunned and don´t forget tweeting the post if you like it.

Day 2: Extracting the lineart

The best method to color a drawing is by extracting the lines, because we will have the possibility of coloring them later very easily. Download the drawing, open it with Photoshop and follow these steps:

1. Open your image with Photoshop.
2. Go to the Channels panel and CTRL+click on the blue channel.
3. Select the Magic Wand (W) and right click, choose Select Inverse.
4. Go to Edit > Copy (CTRL+C) and then Edit > Paste (CTRL+V). The lines are already separated from the background.
5. On the "Background" layer, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (CTRL+U) and put the lighting at +100 to obtain a completely white layer.
6. Rename the new layer to "Lineart" and CTRL+U again, this time put the lighting at -100 to obtain completely black lines.

As you can see, the drawing is ultra-clean because I drew it digitally. In this tutorial we will only focus on the color, so if you´re interested in obtaining clean lines you can visit this post to learn how to ink a drawing in Photoshop.

Some advices to get clean lines:

• The best way to ink is digitally, wether it be with a pen tablet or with the vectorial drawing tools.
• Always work in high resolution, the higher the better. Make sure at least about 2.500 x 2.500 pixels.
• If you decide to work from a drawing on traditional paper, scan it in grey scale mode or convert it to grey scale in Photoshop before extracting the lines.
• Have a look to this post about How to ink a drawing in Photoshop.

Resume of the day

See you soon!!

Day 3: Making the flat colors template

Let’s create a new layer between the "Background" layer and the "Lineart" layer, and name it "Flat colors". Through this flat colors layer we can:

1. Choose our colors template.
2. Isolate the different areas to make quick selections with the magic wand (W).

The quicker way to paint our flat colors is making a selection of the area, using the Magic Wand (W) in question the "Lineart" layer (this one of the advantages of having such a clean lines). After this, expand the selection so the edges don’t look jagged (Select > Modify > Expand: 3px). Now choose the colour you like and click with the paint bucket (G) on the "Flat colors" layer:

Some advises to make a good flat colors template:

• Although you’re always in time to make changes, visualize the finished design and try to define your color sketch.
• Use medium colors, neither too saturated/desaturated, nor too bright/dark.
• Rename the layer as "Flat colors".
• Lock the pixels of the image in the "Flat colors" layer, this way you won’t paint on it by accident.

Resume of the day

Today we made a flat colors template to make quick selections and increase the workflow. And we decided our color sketch too.

See you in a couple of days!!

Day 4: painting basic areas.

Finally, our design is ready to color

Let’s begin with something easy like the eyes to explain the technique, and as we go forward the tutorial will become more complex. Considering that many people don’t own a Wacom tablet, today I’ll use the mouse, the vectorial drawing tools and gradients. You’ll see the result is the same, but we’ll have to invest more time. The rest of the days I’ll use my Wacom to go faster, if you need any help you can check this post about how to draw using vectorial drawing tools in Photoshop.

First of all, let me explain a piece of theory. You’ll find this very useful when it comes to apply a correct lighting:

As you can see in the image, I placed the source of light above and slightly on the left. This means that the illuminated areas will be on top and the shadows below. On the shadows, we’re adding some reflections to give volume. We’re not looking for a realist finish, but it must be coherent.

Step 1: shadows.

Let’s create a new group of layers. Name it "Eyes" and create a new layer inside it, on which we’re painting the shadows. Name it "Shadows" and put it in Multiply blend mode.

Now make a selection of the eyes using the Magic Wand (W) on our Flat Colors layer, then let’s go back to the "Shadows" layer and paint an outline with the same blue color of the background (#92b6e6). Looks darker because the layer is in Multiply mode. As we said, the light comes from above, so the shadows will be thicker below.

TIP: the dotted lines of the selections can be bothering sometimes. You can hide them pressing CTRL+H.

Now we’re going to soften the outline we created. Let’s use a thick brush with soft edges. The key is to paint from a distance, to make the outline blur but not to dissapear. Once you’re finished, put the layer in Normal mode again.

Eyes are easy to make because their shape is quite simple. Unfortunately, the whole process is not that easy, we must learn how to use the History Brush for more complex shapes (we’ll talk about this next day).

Step 2: light.

Let’s create a new layer under the "Shadows" layer, and name it "Lightness". On this layer we’re creating a gradient from white to transparent, from above on the left until below on the right. The key is to make this sofly, not covering in white the whole eye.

Step 3: reflected light.

Now we’re creating reflections to give volume to the eye. Create a new layer and name it "Reflected light". Make a white outline that doesn’t cover the whole shadow area. Then merge the inner outline, this time using the Eraser (E). Be careful not to erase it completely, we only want to make it a bit transparent.

Step 4: painting pupils.

To paint the character’s pupils we’re creating a new group of layers named "Pupils"above the "Lineart" layer.

We’re painting the pupils through 3 layers as we can see in the image:

• Image 1: layer we’re naming "Glow", we create a slightly oval circle and apply gradient from white to transparent. Try to leave the oval with some transparency instead of fully white.
• Image 2: create a new layer and name it "Glow 2", do a circular gradient with blue colour (#10a4fa), and put the layer in Linear Dodge mode.
• Image 3: create a new layer we’re naming "Pupil", and paint something similar to the image with the same blue.
• FINAL Image: this is what we get when we activate the 3 layers.

Step 6: coloring the lines.

Finally, we create a layer above the "Lineart" layer, and name it "Color hold", we’ll use this layer to color the lines.

CTRL+Click on the icon of the "Lineart" layer to make a selection of the lines, and go to the "Color hold" layer. Choose a slightly darker blue color (#223171) than the one we used for the eyeballs, this way we make the line merge with the design, but it’s still recognizable.

Summary of the day

Today we painted a simple shape, like the eyes of our character. Next day we’re painting the teeth, which is more complex, so we’ll have to learn how to use the history brush.

I see you in a couple of days!!!

Day 5: painting complex areas: the history brush.

Hello guys, tomorrow I´m flying to Berlin and I´m going to take several days off but before I leave I would like to post the last video of The World´s most detailed Photoshop coloring tutorial.

For now there is no tutorial just the video where you can see how I color more complex areas thanks to our buddy the History Brush, I put lot of care so hopefully you will understand how the History Brush works by yourself, anyway I will post the tutorial whithin the next days, until then, enjoy the video.

See you soon!!

Time for another exercise, this time let´s practice our digital color in Photoshop over a profesional lineart made by SOSFactory. If you do a try, please email me a JPG of your final image, if you are interested I could post your image here and give you some tips to improve your coloring skills.

Here you can dowload the high res lineart in Photoshop format of the character:

In the next days I will offer the final PSD file layered for free download, so you can do some research to know how I did it or you can use it in your designs.

Entries

Some supporting tutorials

Mascot design in Photoshop tutorial for Smashing Magazine

Character design Photoshop tutorial for PSDTuts

Character design Photoshop tutorial for PSDTuts (need paid subscription)

Vectorial illustration with Illustrator

Mascot design for webs is one of my specialties, in the last few years I’ve been designing dozens of corporative characters for webs. Clients are usually very satisfied with the design, but they don’t know how to make the most out of it.

Sometimes they have to use them at very small sizes, sometimes they are not well fitted in the context, very often they modify the design with disastrous results, usually they are too agressive with the compression of the image… and in many cases they don’t make a real usage of the designs.

Points you should have in consideration to make the most out of your mascot design.

• First of all, consider if you really need a mascot design. Is it adecuate for your public objective?
• Program your web in order to make the most out of your character design.
• Remember: the bigger you show the illustration (within reasonable limits) the nicer it will look.
• Leave margins around the illustration, let the design breathe.
• Make the mascot interact with the rest of the web, be creative.
• Apply your corporative colors to your mascot.
• Design a versatile mascot, this way you can use it for banners, avatars, T-shirts, or your "about" page.
• Choose a concept that matches your corporative values.
• Optimize the weight of the illustration, save it as JPG at 60%.
• If you have to make later modifications, ask the author of the design.
• Order your designs in high resolution (till 7000x7000px) or in vectorial format. This way you can print any size you need.
• Watch if your design fits the basic principles when it comes to design a mascot.

Characteristics of a good mascot design

• Memorable, it must cause impact.
• Easy to remember, it must remain etched in the memory of the observer.
• It must be unique, and easy to discriminate from the competitors
• Attractive, the character must be attractive for our target public.
• Iconic, the character must represent the corporative values of the brand.
• Functional, it must work in banners, in the headline of the web, in the logo.

Effective ways to integrate the designs of the characters in the web.

The use of the mascot integrated in the logotype is the most common way to integrate the character. This way we associate the character with the brand, it´s one of the most effective ways to use a mascot.

We can integrate the mascot very effectively by using it as an icon or integrating it in the buttons. We can use it in the "over" state of our buttons and animate it in Flash:

One of the most effective ways consists of using the illustration all the wide of the web. You sacrifice a lot of space but you get a great visual impact. John Cow‘s web was a good example of this, too bad they are reducing more and more the size of the illustration instead of optimizing the remaining space.

We don’t really need to use the mascot in the headline of the web, we can use it to highlight certain elements of the design:

To finish, some banners with character designs:

Theory says that a good logotype must be simple, clean, economical, versatile, etc, etc. This is a very pertinent principle but, is it still valid?

In my opinion, it is partially obsolete. The advance of impression techniques, the evolution of the consumers overburdened with publicity and the evolution of the mass media (Internet, Television, mobile phones, videogames industry…), have released the designers from many restrictions.

Don´t decorate, comunicate

The principle "don´t decorate, communicate" means that we must put the message itself before its aesthetic aspects, although we mustn´t leave them aside. I think this would be a more loyal version to its spirit: "Communicate first, then decorate", which is what it really means.

Applying this principle to corporative design we would have two opposite sides (using my own terminology):

• The ones who follow the principle of simplicity: text logos (Paypal), initials based logos (IBM), logos with graphic elements, iconic logos…
• The ones who don´t follow it: illustrative logos, the ones I like to design.

The art of decorating

If you know my work in SOSFactory, surely you already know I take this stream to the end. My logotypes have gradients, many colors, illustrative elements, sometimes even complex characters. I usually design for a web, so I have much more freedom to create. On the other side, my logotypes are not so versatile, although as we´ll see later, this problem can be solved adapting the logo to the other media.

Pros of illustrative logos

1. They cause more visual impact in big sizes.
2. More differentiation, they are more difficult to imitate or to mistake with other brands.
3. More effective for a certain type of consumer (children, for example), industry (videogames, clothing) or media (internet)
4. The "absorption" of the logo by the consumer is slower but more durable.
5. It´s easier to sell merchandising with our logo.
6. It creates a dependence relationship between the designer and the brand (this is "good" for the designer).

Cons of illustrative logos

1. They are less effective in small sizes or at far distances.
2. More cost of production (though printing is more and more cheap).
3. More time needed to identify the brand.
4. More difficult to copyright as a brand.
5. Redesigning is more expensive
6. It creates a dependence relationship between the designer and the brand (bad for the brand).
7. They are hard to identify on small promotional items, such as pens.

The adaptation to the media

We can solve most of these negative aspects by adapting the illustrative logo to the different media and sizes. Obviously, this requires more time, which means a bigger inversion

This way, on one side we have an illustrative version to use it on the screen, where the size of the application is usually bigger (web, tv, mobile phones) and on the other we have a simpler adaptation for possible printed applications, or for the use in smaller sizes.

A good corporative kit would include:

• Bitmap versions in JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, PSD formats, and vectorial files AI, EPS.
• Versions of the logotype in high and low resolution.
• Versions of the logotype in RBG and CMYK.
• Adaptations of the logotype with and without illustrative elements.
• Adaptation of the logo, to 1, 2 and 3 colors, full color and grey scale.
• Adaptation of the logo on dark background and light background.

Different adaptations of the same logotype: full color, 1 color, 3 colors and grey scale.

Time for a new tutorial, this time less detailed and quite more advanced. It´s something completely different from my usual cartoonish style. This is a more realistic illustration of a MMA fighter (Mixed Martial Arts). I painted it for a logotype, aimed at the printing on T-shirts, of a new brand named Temper Tantrum.

I have to admit that I´m not completely satisfied with the result, because the process was a bit chaotic, and I had to spent many more hours than I expected. After speeding up the video x10, it still lasted 1 hour, so I had to speed it up x20 to make it suitable for Youtube:

If you want to download the original video, 1 hour long, you can do it from Mega Upload.

And now let´s explain the way I work when I´m asked for this type of illustrations. As I said before, this is just a serie of steps briefly described more than a tutorial. It would last forever to make a detailed tutorial about this topic.

STEP 1: References

I looked for some references to arrange the pose, when you´re so used to cartoonish style you tend to simplify the shapes too much. After finishing the job, I realise that I should have paid more attention to this step… Lesson learned!!

STEP 2: Sketch

When I paint in a more realistic style, I don´t need a very detailed sketch because I´ll remove it at the end. As you can see, the drawing is quite basic, I used Photoshop to make a collage of previous drawings as a template.

STEP 3: Isolating plain colors

I put the sketch in Multiply mode and I create a new layer below it. On this layer, I´ll paint each area of the character with plain colors of medium intensity. This way we can make quick selections.

STEP 4: Painting basic volumes

Now I add a new layer above it and I draw with darker colors to give deepness to the volumes. On each stroke, I reduce a bit the opacity of the layer of the sketch, until I make it dissapear.

STEP 5: Adding a bit of light

I add a new layer under the shadows one, on which I´ll paint with a brighter color.

STEP 6: Adding reflections

I add a new layer where I´ll paint the light reflected on the skin. This illumination looks now too soft but at the end I´ll put it on Linear Dodge mode to make it stronger.

STEP 7: Softing the volumes

Now that I have already ended the color sketch, I´ll flat all the layers except the reflections one, and I go mixing and softing the gradients, adding more and more detail. I disable the reflections layer for this, notice how it looks when I enable it again and I put it on Linear Dodge mode:

STEP 8: Cleaning and adding volume

I continue softing the gradients, I correct the anatomy, and I add darker and brighter tones to reinforce the volumes.

STEP 9: Details

For the clothing I follow the same procedure, plain colors on the general shapes first, and then I go adding volume and details.

For the hair, I add layers in different fusion modes (Screen for the reflections and Linear Dodge for the blonde hair lock) and I use the Smudge Tool to fuse the shades.

For the blood, I use a layer in Multiply mode with red color saturated to the maximum.

STEP 10: Change of plans

The client made some changes:

The pants gave me a little trouble, I liked better the first one, but the client chose the second.

Same for the face, I liked better the first one, but he chose the second.

STEP 11: Design of the logotype

This is the final logotype, I also made a simpler vectorial version to use in some cases:

Any questions?

I guess there are lots of them, hehe. If you need me to describe any steps, you only have to leave a comment.

Hello buddies, here you have a new video of myself at work, this avatar was created by order from SOSFactory for Hiyo, a free application for your MSN and Yahoo! messenger, courtesy of Incredimail.

Photoshop avatar by the face

I asked permission to Incredimail to offer one avatart for free and for personal use, my preferred is this one:

If you are curious you can download the Photoshop file from Megaupload

Do you like tubes?, take tube

You can also watch a time elapsed video of the process, just 6 minutes, from my Youtube channel.

Does the video go too fast? Download the extended version of 60 minutes

Lot of you complain about the speed and size of my Youtube videos, so now you can download the video in full resolution and with no time elapsing.

Sorry? Do you want more avatars?

I created 20 avatars resembling all the age groups of Hiyo users

If you want to download the application with my avatars and lot more for free, you can visit Hiyo.

This application have lot of features, if you want to locate the avatars I designed (I´m sure you do ) click on the following buttons in the Hiyo toolbar:

So… where is the tutorial? If you want the tutorial you must collaborate

This time I´m not going to explain anything, if after seeing the video and downloading the Photoshop file you have any doubt, just comment and I will update the post to ask your questions as soon as possible

Hello buddies, this is the second post of my series improve your drawing skills spending just 30 min a day. This week we have 3 funny and short exercises that I´m sure you will enjoy.

Basic shapes

Exercise: choose an cartoon character you like. Your goal is finding the basic shapes of cartoon characters.

Have a look at this example from Alddin, the Dinsney movie:

What do we learn?: this exercise is very useful if you want to learn how to draw cartoons because it help you to "understand" the basic shapes behind complex characters, once you understand the basic shape you will move the character more easily. The outcome will be more dinamic and consistent.

Basic shapes II

Another good exercise is the opposite process, building a character using different basic shapes. Realize how simple and effective are he following characters:

Image courtesy of Cedric´s Blog

What do we learn?: same as the previous exercise, simple and effective cartoons are made with very basic shapes.

Action lines

Exercise: choose an image of a cartoon character you like. Your task is finding the action line.

Some of the characters I designed from SOSFactory

What do we learn?: We learn to find the action lines that liven up the characters. With some practise, we’ll make our drawings more dinamic, and sketching will be easier too.

Do you want to share your exercises?

If you do just email me your images or contact me trough the contact form. I will update this post with some of your exercises, we can also give you tips to improve your skills.

We’re opening a new section, every Monday we’ll make quick and fun drawing exercises. I assure you that, spending only half an hour every day, you’re going to notice your own progress in quite a short time. These are the exercises I propose for this week:

The silhouette

Exercise: your task will be to express different moods, attitudes or actions without any lines, just the silhouette (you can use images for reference). If you did a good work anybody will identify what your character is doing, you can ask to anybody.

Here you can see some of my best silhouettes for a basketball player

What do we learn?: the silhouette is one of the most important aspects when it comes to show attitudes. It makes easier and quicker to understand the character and its attitude. Don´t mistake it for the pose, the same pose can cast different silhouettes depending on the position of the camera.

Memory

Exercise: Choose a drawing you like, a photograh or just look at something around you for 2 minute. After one minute, draw it by heart the more accurate you can. If you find it too easy, try with more complex objects. Repeat the exercise until you get a good result.

Original draw courtesy of Loisa

If you feel like it, try drawing some scene you have seen along the day, like in this video:

What do we learn?: When we are starting to draw, our brain is like a blank hard drive, we draw through visual references. With this exercise, we add resources to our minds. With more practise, they will come to your mind automatically and you’ll be able to solve many problems unconsciously. You’ll only have to imagine it.

Sketching

Exercise: Similar to the previous one, but this time we are going to look at the object or image as much as you want, and you have only 45 seconds to reproduce it (you can look the image while you work on the sketch).

What do we learn?: This exercise is very good to learn to sketch, in just 45 seconds you don´t have enough time to make a very detailed drawing, but only the lines and basic shapes.

Do you want to share your exercises?

If you do just email me your images or contact me trough the contact form. I will update this post with some of your exercises, we can also give you tips to improve your skills.

These are the homework of Diana