Basic CG: Preparation and Intro to Coloring
Written by: Wei-Ling Lorelai WuPlease do not copy this tutorial without permission.
Part IV: Shiny Shiny! (Computer coloring, continued)
I have a really interesting way of coloring hair...oh, by the way, please remember that even though I'm focusing on skintone and hair, this is a GENERAL CG tutorial. You can apply the techniques you just learned about CGing flesh to other CGing. Now, I'm going to cover more techniques by Cging some hair. Remember to make a new layer and name it 'Hair'...making new layers is a good habit. ^_^ You can always flatten later.
Remember how I said sometimes you just can't use the Paint Bucket to fill in an area? This woman's hair is a very good example of why sometimes nothing will work...in this case, I loosely colored in her hair with a round airbrush tool (of varying sizes)...and after that, I changed the to the 'Smudge' tool, seleected one of the random 'fuzzball' brushes (they're underneath the normal looking, circular brushes) and used that to sort of 'brush' her hair. I don't worry too much about keeping the color inside the black lines, hair is very flowy and loose anyway.
Now, using the same technique we did earlier, add some lighter/darker shades to her hair. try to keep all your strokes in the same direction, and also make sense out of where hair should be darker and where it should be lighter in general. (hair is usually darker near/under the head or near the hairline, and lighter on the top, near forehead) However it's most important that you see different colors in any given area. After you're done adding various shades of color, you can use the 'Smudge' tool again, with the fuzzball-like brush, to 'brush' the hair and make it smoother. Don't smear it too much though, you want to keep the different colored strands. Use 'Undo' as much as you want...I always do ^_^
Now we come to my favorite part...but also the most easily messed up part. Select a very LIGHT color version of whatever you're coloring (i.e. in this case, a very light tan or orange) and select the airbrush tool. Go to 'Airbrush Options' and in the drop-down menu (which should read 'Normal' right now) seleect 'Color Dodge.' Turn on 'Preserve Transparency' so you can't color anywhere except directly on the hair that you've just colored. Sweep the brush smoothly over wherever you want there to be exceptionally bright highlights. The Dodge tool is incredible for many effects, but it will take a lot of practice to use it effectively. In addition to hair, I like using it on things like belt buckles and metal armor, etc.
All right!!! We're pretty much done with this tutorial!!! You can now go back at your leisure and add little details, like deeper shadows, some blush, or retouch some white highlights, whatever you prefer.
I do suggest you pay attention what layer you're on though, i.e. don't work on hair while on the 'Skintone' layer, it will REALLY confuse you later. Also, DO NOT ABUSE the Dodge tool. That's almost as bad as using a gratuitous lensflare. ^_^ I'll continue this tutorial sometime, but in the meantime, I hope you've learned something from my feeble teaching attempts! *bows* ^____^ Enjoy CGing!!!
