copyrighT © THe gnomon Workshop

copyrighT © THe gnomon Workshop

1. Scanning and setting up black and white line art in Photoshop®

I always scan black and white line art full size at 300 dpi. For this DVD the art was 11” by 17”. It’s generally
safest to work larger than you think you have to because you can always size an image down but sizing up can
create problems.

Set up:

1. Arrange your Photoshop palettes the way I have them set up. You can go back to your own arrangement
later but while working on this DVD keep your setup like mine so we can communicate clearly.

2. Open your black and white file in Photoshop. If it is a bitmap file, convert it to grayscale (image>mode>grayscale).
The file must be in grayscale mode before you can convert to RGB.

3. Once your line art is in grayscale mode, copy it (select>All and then edit>copy).

4. Go to the Channel palette and create a new channel. Paste (edit>paste) the line art into the new channel.
Double click on the Alpha Channel to bring up ‘Channel Options’ and make sure the color is set to 100% black.
Rename the channel ‘Line Art’ and toggle on ‘masked areas’.

5. Convert the image to RGB (image>mode>RGB).

6. Fill the RGB channels with white and click on the eye next to the line art (do not highlight the whole ‘Line
Art’ channel bar!).

7. Create another channel like you did in step 4 and name this one ‘Flats’. If you have pre-existing flats, paste
them in here. Now you’re ready to blast multicolored pixels without destroying your line art!

2. Picking the base tone and primary lighting direction (Key light)

The lighting direction really depends primarily on how the penciller has defined the shadows. In some cases the
overall lighting is confusing or is inconsistent. In this case YOU will have to pick a dominant lighting direction
and base all of your lighting choices on that decision.

Dave Finch has a very strong sense of light and shadow, so choosing a light direction for the art on this DVD
was pretty straightforward.

Because this piece of art is brand new and does not have any pre-established costume or environment colors
(like Spiderman or the Xmansion) you have a pretty open field for choosing your overall palette. Here’s how I
do it. I choose WHATEVER FEELS BEST!!! In this case, I want an aged, classic feel so I pick a muted tan/
brown.

Pick a light midtone and a dark midtone of whatever color you choose and establish the base tone/gradient
with those two colors.

3. Rendering with Masks

Masks are called a lot of different things in comic coloring circles (Friskets, Cuts, Selections) but they all
amount to the same thing - controlling where color goes with masks defined by the lasso tool.

Rendering with masks is a natural way to define planes on forms, for instance: a sword, a book, assault rifle,
teddy bear etc.

Comic Book Coloring with Steve Firchow

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 copyrighT © THe gnomon Workshop

Instead of building/defining planes with lots of paint strokes you can cut out a shape fairly quickly with the lasso
tool and airbrush broadly into it without losing control.

This is how I do the majority of my rendering when coloring comic art.

4. Improving speed

Proficiency comes mainly with practice but there are techniques you can learn to improve speed:

• Use the magic wand and ‘select similar’ to select areas of similar color in your flats.

• Use quickmask mode and the pencil tool to create elaborate and/or finely detailed masks.

• Toggle up and down quickly through airbrush sizes using the bracket keys.

• Use Color Balance or Hue/Saturation to quickly shift or create colors.

• Use simple custom brushes to create texture, adding life to ‘deadzones’.

5. Working with Imported Textures

Use textures that are high enough resolution. Lo-rez textures will stand out and be a distraction instead of a
compliment to the art.

I always paste my textures into a layer set on ‘soft light’.

Keep imported textures SUBTLE. You will have to play with the opacity of the layer a lot to get the texture
to integrate well with the other elements of the art. DO NOT let the texture overwhelm the picture.

Integrate the texture by painting some highlights and shadows by hand.

6. Finishing/Balancing final colors and applying the line art

Make sure no colors clash. No color should be so far out of the general palette you’re using that it looks out
of place. This can be tricky to judge but will come with practice.

Make sure that there are no areas that appear too light. Everything should fit within the light/dark value scale
that you’ve established.

Make sure that no area is so dark that the line art becomes obscured or hard to see.

Merge the Line Art channel with the RGB channels (Image>ApplyImage). Set the layer field to ‘Background’,
the channel field to ‘Line Art’, and blending field to ‘Multiply’. Click OK.

Turn the ‘Line Art’ channel off and/or delete it along with any leftover alpha channels. It should now be visible
in the RGB channels.

Convert to CMYK (image>mode>cmyk) and you’re ready to print.

Comic Book Coloring with Steve Firchow

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