Coloring Lineart the pOnju Way
Hello and welcome! As the name suggests, this is the pOnju way of coloring lineart. There are many many other valid and perhaps better methods of computer coloring out there; you may want to check them out as well. However, this tutorial will teach you the exact same techniques used to create all of the colored artwork on the pOnju website. Although Photoshop 6 is the software used, the features used are mutually available across older versions of the software, including 5.0 and 5.5.

If you don't know too much about Photoshop yet, its a good idea to go over the first few pages of the manual - for better searching capabilities the manual is also available in PDF format on your Photoshop CD. I've put in a link to the Quick Reference Guide in the column on the left. If you want to just jump right into this tutorial (which is fine!), at least understand that CTRL + Z will undo your last action. Also, check the help files on how the "History" palette works - that is an extremely useful tool - allowing multiple undoes.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions - feel free to post them in the pOnju Forums!

1. Load up pOnju_Tutorial_02.psd
You can get pOnju_Tutorial_02.psd as well as pOnju_Tutorial_03.psd from the link in the left-hand side column of this page. If you are using an older version of Photoshop, you may get some warnings or errors when loading the image - that's fine, you should still be able to work with it.

2. Layer Sets and Grouping Layers
Check out the Layers palette. If you can't find it, you'll need to bring it up via the menu at the top: Window -> Show Layers. The layers here are arranged in what's known as Layer Sets - they are like folders that you can put layers in to organize them a bit. You can expand and collapse these Layer Sets by clicking on the appropriate triangle (these are circled in green). Yes, there are quite a few layers. If you are using an older version of Photoshop which does not support layer sets you will just have a whole lot of layers in your Layers Palette.

Expand the "Separations" layer set. You should be able to see quite a few layers now, all part of the "Separations" layer set.

Coloring lineart the pOnju way is very dependent on the concept of grouping layers. For instance, the layer, "Layer 16" is grouped as a child of the "Chiga Eyes" layer. There is a small graphic to indicate this (circled in red), and "Layer 16" itself is indented.

The vast majority of the work will be done within the "Separations" layer set, so leave that expanded for now.

3. Layer Structure
Scroll down to the bottom of the "Separations" layer set. The bottom layer should be "Chiga Skin" (in red), and another layer, "Layer 3" (in green) should be grouped to it as a child.

You should read up on the documentation for grouping layers, but the short version is that the parent layer acts as a transparency mask for all of its child layers. Meaning where ever the "Chiga Skin" layer is transparent, so to is "Layer 3".

Select Layer 3 now.

4. Adjusting Hue/Saturation
Now, with "Layer 3" selected, open up the Hue/Saturation palette. You can access this either by hitting (CTRL+U), or from the menu: Image -> Adjust -> Hue/Saturation.

Try playing around with the sliders. "Hue" controls the color. "Saturation" controls how strong the color is. "Lightness" is just that - how bright or dark the color is. If you'd like to commit the changes, hit "OK", if not, just hit "Cancel".

Also, play with the "colorize" checkbox, which makes the layer monochromatic. Its a very good idea to learn more about the Hue/Saturation palette via Photoshop's help files or the manual.

If you are doing it correctly, you should realize that Chiga's skin is changing color on the fly - and its not just a specific color range - its the entire contents of "Layer 3" that is changing. Try this color changing trick on some more layers. Remember, do not select the parent layer, select the child layer that is indented! If you get to the point where you want to start over from the beginning, just go to the menu and revert: File -> Revert

5. Explore...
Spend some time playing with and exploring this image. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on in terms of layer positioning and masking. Some parts of it are admittedly a little sloppy as well, so don't take everything for granted!

If you'd like to save the image after you've modified it, besides just saving it as a Photoshop file, try saving it as a JPG or GIF file. To do this, use the Save for Web tool, (ALT+SHIFT+CTRL+S) or File -> Save for Web. If you are saving as a GIF, choose "selective palette" - this palette is especially designed for portability of color across different web browser platforms.

Okay, that's enough for this image. Close pOnju_Tutorial_02.psd.

6. Open pOnju_Tutorial_03.psd
This file, unlike the previous one, is only partially complete. None of the completed color information is present, although all of the separations have been done for you.

As with before, after you've opened pOnju_Tutorial_03.psd, you'll want to expand the "Separations" layer set, as again, the majority of the work will take place there.

7. Some Heroic Sky...
Our hero's name is Hale. He needs some heroic sky - and as a coincidence, I've happened to include some.

Scroll down to the bottom of the layer set and click on the layer "sky 01" to make it visible. There we go - instant sky. Since "sky 01" is grouped as a child of "Sky Mask", the sky does not overlap or interfere with any of the foreground elements. If you're wondering - the sky is generated by the "Sky Effects" filter in the Kai's Power Tools plug-in filter set. Yes, its not cheap - take my advice - if you need a sky, don't be lazy - go out, take a photo of a nice sunset and use that instead.

8. Let's Work on the Sword
As you can see, Hale's sword is lacking a separation. Everything else has a flat color, each of those colors is mounted on a separate layer. Let's create the separation for his sword.

Create a new layer, name it "Sword", and place it right above the "sky 01" layer. Make sure it is not grouped with anything (not indented). The correct placement is circled in green.

Now, you can either use the polygonal lasso tool (circled in blue), or the magic wand tool which is directly to the right of the polygonal lasso tool. If you are using the polygonal lasso tool, set feather = 0px and check anti-alias to ON, then tightly trace the areas of the sword's blade. After you've traced the first shape (there are two, one on the left of Hale's head and one on the right), hold down SHIFT, then trace the next shape. This will allow you to add another selection area without losing the previous selection.

If you are using the magic wand tool (btw, magic wand is for wimps - real artists use the polygonal lasso), set Tolerance = 10, Anti-aliased to ON, and Contiguous to ON, and Use All Layers to OFF. Click on the bottom layer, "Background" (circled in red). Click within the two areas of the sword, holding down SHIFT for the second click..

Either way, you want both areas to have the marching ants around them, signifying that those areas have been selected properly. Make sure that the "Sword" layer is selected before continuing.

9. Create the Separation
Good, now that we've isolated those areas, time to create our mask. Choose a foreground color - I've chosen pure red (#ff0000), but frankly, it doesn't matter. The separations ideally will never be visible in the final picture.

Now we fill the selection with color. The easiest way to do this is to hit ALT + BACKSPACE on your keyboard. The areas should now be filled.

Lastly, hit CTRL + D to deselect (get rid of marching ants).

10. Create a Child Layer
Create a new layer, and name it "Sword Child". Position the layer directly above the "Sword" layer, and group it by hitting CTRL+G. Your layers palette should look like this picture. The arrow circled in green signifies that the "Sword Child" layer is grouped as a child of the "Sword" layer.

You can hit CTRL+SHIFT+G to ungroup a layer.

11. Let's Shade the Sword
With the "Sword Child" layer still selected, switch your foreground and background colors to white and black - you can do this via the buttons circled in green and red. Click on them a few times to see how they work.

Now select the gradient tool, as circled in blue. Make sure the parameters for the gradient tool looks the same as in the picture, with the leftmost gradient type selected (circled in purple).

Hold down SHIFT, and with the gradient tool draw a line starting from the bottom of the sword's blade to the top, where its supposed to be sharp. The effect should be a smooth transition from white at the bottom of the sword to black at the top edge. The sword should now look somewhat like the top half of the picture in step 12.

12. Give the Sword an Edge
Remember, if you get lost or need to go back a few steps, use the History Palette. Also, you can ask questions in the forums.

Now, select the polygonal lasso tool (circled in green) again, and draw out a shape as shown in the top half of the picture. Basically you are outlining the sharpened edge of the sword.

Once you have done that, make sure white is still the foreground color, and hit ALT + BACKSPACE to fill that area with color. Note that even though your shape extended far beyond the sword's edge, because of the layer grouping the color is constrained to the "Sword" layer seperation, and hence the sword's blade.

13. Use the Smudge Tool
Yes, I know the jump from the last picture to this one is pretty big, but give it a serious try, and you'll realize its pretty simple.

Select the smudge tool (circled twice in green). You can choose different brush sizes via the pull-down menu (circled in red). A good choice would be second row, 1st column, Soft Round 5 pixels.

What' I've done next here is used the smudge tool to blend in the white of the edge and the black on the blade together a bit to simulate scratches, nicks, and some sort of Damascus pattern on the blade. Just try it, and remember you can always hit CTRL + Z to undo, or use the History Palette to undo several steps at once.

14. Adjust the Colors
I realize some of you may have liked the way the blade looked a few steps back - but really, this is technique that is being shown here... you of course are always free to make the image however you see fit.

With the "Sword Child" layer still selected, bring up the Hue/Saturation panel again (Hit CTRL + U or Image -> Adjust -> Hue/Saturation).

In this case I've turned colorise ON. Then set Hue to 220, Saturation to 40, and Lightness to 0. This results in a "blue steel" color for the sword.

Again, feel free to play around with these parameters to your heart's content.

Well, that's pretty much it for now. You can repeat the techniques shown here for all the layers to completely color the image. If you do happen to finish coloring the image, post it up in the forums, and if its good enough, it'll be posted right below.

Thanks for checking out this tutorial - it will be revised and expanded based on the feedback posted in the forums!