Coloring line art tutorial !
As you know, there are ways and ways to work with color. As many as they are, we can reduce them to some basic methods, when it comes to apparel design. And the two most used techniques are coloring with halftones (when we need to obtain a big number of shades without increasing the number of unique colors) and using spot colors (when we are allowed to work with a bigger pallet of unique colors and we use them nice and solid). This short tutorial can also come in handy if you are thinking of re-coloring some pieces from our vector packs…so read on!
Introduction done, today’s topic basically is “how to lay down the flat colors on my line art nice and easy”. Because, let’s assume you have a clean vector or raster line work…in the end you know you need to bring it to life with some colors. I am not saying that line art designs are inferior to color art. But, there are cases when you need to use colors to express the whole idea of an artwork. Or, you have the most intricate lines in history, tons of details, crosshatching and all…and you can’t tell an arm from an eye, because it’s all too much lines- flat colors to the rescue, they will create the necessary contrast between different parts that need separated in your art.
Well, second introduction/rant done, I will assume you have a clean line art, done by my method, or any other.
Now, on the new layer we created previously, start throwing brown color on the trees. Not too careful with the whole outlines, just go wild.
That aside, grad the Eraser Tool and start cleaning the details, or use the selection tool and delete – your call! Finally we get a clean brown spot color layer. That sounded weird. Oh well, please do understand there are other faster/better methods out there, but they vary according to the line work or to the artistic skill one has, etc. I use a mouse for this, so that might explain why I use such crude methods.
This layer I placed below the brown one, but hey, that kind of thing is different from artist to artist, some like it the other way around…I do it from bottom to top sometimes too, again depending on the design.
Next, a new layer straight under the line art one (as I said, order of the layers may vary, it’s not an issue to be scared about, ha!). Here I will use a nice shade of green, and switch between brush and eraser.
I know this is a bit fast for some beginners, but…if you got any questions, please do ask! I will answer them ASAP. Also, I would appreciate it if you let me know how you do the flat coloring… I bet each of us has their tricks…let’s share! Thanks for reading!
Oh, yeah!
This isn’t exactly related to your topic, but you seem like a helpful guy. It appears that everyone has the same shirt template that they stick designs on, but I can’t find it anywhere. Is it part of a package that everyone has bought? Thanks for any insight.
@matt890: It’s really important for the t-shirt industry at large to try and copy (the copying) that other people are doing.
You see, in the art industry, copying is the largest form of praise that one artist can give another…so it’s standard practice for one artist to copy another artists work, and see it as his own.
Now some people might think this is wrong, but these are generally people that are still in college (paid for by their parents), and they stand on soap boxes and try to scratch their way up the ladder, just a little bit higher than their friends (this means you)…
…eventually leading to the final outcome, where they can’t even be bothered to take a photo of a blank t-shirt, simply because there’s someone else who’s already done it.
So you see, you should never ask where an artist got his art…
because his answer would likely smash your dreams into a thousand bits,
and ruin your entire career in one fell swoop.
It’s kinda like asking a pornstar why she likes to f**k…
do you really wanna know the answer, even if it ruins the experience for you?
No, you probably don’t.
I’m loving these designs! Such a great color collection!
Can I just say what a relief to seek out someone who actually is aware of what theyre speaking about on the internet. You undoubtedly know easy methods to bring a difficulty to light and make it important. Extra people have to read this and understand this side of the story. I cant believe youre no more popular since you undoubtedly have the gift.