I’m designing a new SOSFactory site to achieve this goal but before it happens I need some funds, so here we go… if you want to contribute just need to visit my project page on Verkami, choose the prize on the sidebar and and follow the intructions.

You can also send your contribution by Paypal to sergio@sosfactory.com.

WHAT IS THIS PROJECT ALL ABOUT?

My goal is to create a multimedia course on coloring in Photoshop applied to character design.

It is a bilingual course (Spanish and English) which consists of text with images and animations, several live videos in high resolution, and several Photoshop files (included the final design) where I explain the whole process of digital coloring.

WHO WILL BE THE TARGET OF THIS COURSE?

This course is oriented to any user with basic Photoshop knowledge, especially those who would like to advance their learning as colorists with the goal of becoming a professional illustrator.

In this tutorial you will learn how to use all the tools for coloring in Photoshop in a completely professional way. You will learn many concepts in theory and practice … extracting lines, making color templates, coloring using layers, using the history brush, layer and brush blending modes, building different kinds of textures … just like I would do it for any of my clients at SOSFactory, all that will be left is for you to practice and personalize the technique to your liking.

WHY DO I NEED YOUR HELP?

This course is written by me, I will invest a whole month of work to create the character, to write all the text, to prepare the images and to edit the videos. Besides I will have several production expenses.

1. I will need a translator for the English version.
2. I will hire an English narrator to have their voice on the videos, I will probably need another one for the videos in Spanish.
3. Depending on the number of patrons who will help me, I will have to update my web server plan to manage the download of files.

HOW COULD I CONTRIBUTE?

I’m using Verkami, by default they only accept credit card contrutions.

If you want to do a contribution by Paypal you can send the money to sergio@sosfactory.com (add a note about this project, please) and I will do it myself under the username “aportaciones Paypal”, when the fund rising is finished you will receive your prize, even if we don’t reach the goal.

WHEN?

The tutorial and the videos are already finished; I’m currently working on the English translation, adding voice and editing the videos.

Probably, the tutorial will be completely finished when the project financing stage is complete.

So I can make this project real but I need your help, you don’t even need to spend money, you could contribute just by spreading the word about my project.

Thanks a lot for your support!

I used to do it by dragging the layers from one archive to another one, the issue is you need to disengage the window, select the layers and drag them. Then you need to move the layers to the right position.

But there is an easier way to move lots of layers to a different file, if the files have the same dimensions they go exactly to the same position, this is great when you work with lots of layers in high resolution.

To combine 2 PSD files y Photoshop:

1. Open both files
2. Select the layers or groups you want to move to another file
3. Go to Layer> Duplicate Layers
4. Choose the document of destiny… and done!

I’m a Photoshop user since its 6th version and I just discovered this command… what a tool!

Here you have an animated summary of the whole tutorial

The tutorial costs only 6US$ (if you use the pre-pay option, just 4US$) and it´s the most detailed tutorial about drawing and coloring characters I have ever made. Seriously, this one condenses all the tutorials in the blog. This tutorial is for advanced users, perfect for those who have already practised with some of my tutorials but still want to go further. For those who haven´t, I recommend that you practise the basics before.

What does the file contain?

• Obviously, the most complete tutorial I have ever made about drawing and coloring in Photoshop.
• PSD in very high resolution of the final design, valued at 700US$, under creative commons license. That means you can use it both for personal and commercial projects.
• Two fancy wallpapers you can use on your desktop.
• And everything in English and Spanish.

Here you can see the summary of the tutorial:

• Basic concepts: attitude, pose, action line and silhouette.
• Briefing and search of references
• Before starting to draw
• From the first sketch to the final lines, step by step
• Extracting the lines
• The importance of the history brush
• Plain colors
• Shadows
• Soft light
• Hard light
• Outlines
• Coloring
• Very important: Final effects using layer modes
• Final presentation and acknowledgements

Well buddies, if you download it, leave some feedback, ok? Greetings from Greece!!!

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!!

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.

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

Vectorial drawing in Photoshop (basic)

As you can see in the picture, this is a Photoshop inking without modulated lines, using vectorial drawing tools, from a traditional drawing. You have to create the strokes with Photoshop vectorial drawing tools, and then to contour them.

Advantages:

• You don´t need a vast knowledge of Photoshop.
• It´s very quick.
• It´s very clean.

Disadvantages:

• The appearance is quite basic, althought it will look better with color.

Vectorial drawing in Photoshop (advanced)

Quite similar to the previous one, but we create fill-in areas instead of lines. It´s always good to have a pencil sketch as starting point, though it´s not essential.

Advantages:

• The inking itself has a great streght, we can use it without color.
• The result is very clean.

Disadvantages:

• It takes quite a long time.
• It´s not very funny, and a bit uncomfortable in my opinion.

Hand made drawing in Photoshop with a Wacom Cintiq

With the mouse is practically impossible draw by hand, so you´ll need a pen tablet, which isn´t perfect either but it helps a lot. If you really want to make a good profit of this method you´ll need a
Wacom Cintiq (a monitor on which you can directly draw), out of reach for most pockets.

Advantages:

• It´s challenging, very funny.
• It´s very quick when you get used to it.
• Almost as sensitive as traditional drawing, but cleaner.

Disadvantages:

• The result is not as clean as using vectorial tools.
• You have to invest in hardware: a Wacom tablet, or a Wacom Cintiq if you can afford it.

Traditional drawing and retouching in Photoshop

If you´re good with pencil and paper this will be probably the most comfortable method for you. The key is to be very clean at drawing. Afterwards, with just a few retouches in Photoshop the line will be clean and well-defined. This way we´ll get an inking effect.

Advantages:

• Nothing as accurate as traditional pencils.
• You can skip the inking, it´s the same drawing retouched to make it look like ink.

Disadvantages:

• You must be very technical at drawing.
• The final inking is never as clean as the digital one, no matter how clean you can draw.

Other supporting tutorials

These aren´t tutorials specifically about drawing, but they follow the topic, besides they are very interesting to read:

Mascot design in Photoshop tutorial for Smashing Magazine

Character design Photoshop tutorial for PSDTuts

Character design Photoshop tutorial for PSDTuts (previo pago)

Basic principles of mascot design

Vectorial illustration with Illustrator

Hello guys, I was hired again by PSDTuts to write another tutorial, this time completelly FREE.

YOU CAN READ THE TUTORIAL HERE

In this article Im going to talk about my workflow used to design mascots for websites. This process in this article was described in real time as I created the designs. Let’s look at this more closely.

Hello buddies, looks like I was really busy during the last month, as you noticed I dont post too much latelly, but its because I was working in the biggest and more detailed tutorial I have ever write, PSDTuts hired me to write a tutorial about mascot design in Photoshop.

The tuto explain all the steps at time to design a mascot, from the skechts to the final rendering in Photoshop, this time explaining a new color technique, the use of history brush, the fusion mode layers … and much more.

This tutorial is for the PLUS PSDTuts section, but dont worry, for just 9US$ month (22US$ 3 months) you have access to the tutorial and files (including the final design, it worth 600US$).

Just a little support for this guys, keeping in mind the quality of the content and the price they paid to get a exclusive design for PSDTuts readers.

Outcome

This is the final design, you can download some free wallpapers doing click in every image

Hello Newbies!! You already noticed SOSNewbie is not updated latelly, the main reason is because my workload (Im sleeping 5h per day one week ago) but there is another one… I was working the most complex tutorial about mascot and logo design I never did, I spent lot of time doing this tutorial like guest writer for Smashingmagazine.

Here is a sneak peak:

I did a step by step tutorial to show how I usually draw my character designs

And another capture of how I color my mascot designs

Here is the outcome

You can see the whole tutorial here: Drunken Monkey Photoshop Tutorial in Smashingmagazine, by SOSNewbie

I hope you like it!!!
Sergio