Sad Helene fanart and semi-tutorial

[dDave]

Howdy,

During Tae's stint with the Nancy story, there was a panel showing Nancy breaking into a huge grin. I found it very incongruous and charming at the same time. So I figured I would draw another Avalon character in an uncharacteristic emotion.

I have also included a follow up response with a semi-tutorial explaining how I managed the layers while working on the piece.

Best,

Dave

[dDave]

Howdy,

There are eleven layers in this piece. I have saved each layer to a seperate file so you can see what I am talking about, and will explain a little about what is going on with each. I am using photoshop 7, but there is nothing that photoshop 6 couldn't do. I have never used paintshop pro, because I am a Mac head.

By the by, this is basically a distillation of what I learned from the polykarbon.com and the Mac Hall tutorials. Caviat Emptor.

The line art sits on top at layer 1. The bottom layers have simple blocks of color, and the middle layers have tones.

Layer 1 has the scan of the inked drawing. I inked with a #3 kolinsky watercolor brush made by raphael and scanned in at 300 dpi. I scanned in lineart mode, changed to rgb mode, selected all the white and deleted it. The remaining lines are then toned down to about 70% opacity or so. You'll note my first screw up here as well, as the red of the lips should belong on a separate layer. I like keeping the ink lines free of any color.

http://homepage.mac.com/d_limiter/helene1.jpg

Under layer 1, I create a couple new layers, zoom in, switch to the polygon lasso tool, select areas of the same color, and use the paint bucket to fill the areas. If you use the paint bucket, the paint will not spill into adjacent areas of color, even if you are sloppy with the selection. I usually have a couple layers of these color blocks, and it makes it quick and easy to select areas with the magic wand tool to manipulate on other levels created later.

http://homepage.mac.com/d_limiter/helene7.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/d_limiter/helene9.jpg

Next I drop a layer of white under everything so far, so areas like eyes and teeth stay white, and also so that any background does not bleed through any gaps in the color. Note that the grey background is only to show you the white shape. There is no grey in the real image.

http://homepage.mac.com/d_limiter/helene10.jpg

I create another level on top of the color blocks, but below the line art, and set it to "multiply". The darks are then brushed in. By going to the block layers below and selecting colors with the magic wand tool, I can get quick and easy masks to protect the rest of art. Just be sure to return to this layer to do the brush work.

http://homepage.mac.com/d_limiter/helene4.jpg

New layer on top of the last. Set it to screen and brush in the highlights. Note that the grey background is only to show you the lightened areas. There is no grey in the real image.

http://homepage.mac.com/d_limiter/helene3.jpg

Two new layers, one each for tears and lips.

http://homepage.mac.com/d_limiter/helene5.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/d_limiter/helene6.jpg

Shadows for the shirt are roughed in on this layer.

http://homepage.mac.com/d_limiter/helene8.jpg

New layer under the inks. This is set to overlay, and I glaze the dark areas with a black brush set to 12% opacity.

http://homepage.mac.com/d_limiter/helene2.jpg

Drop a background under it all. A simple gradient modified with the lighting effects filter.

http://homepage.mac.com/d_limiter/helene11.jpg

Stir, shake well, take two and call the doctor in the morning.

Best,

Dave

[mzacher]

While I use a slightly different technique for getting and using a layer of lineart (Go: http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/html/channels2.html for the gist) which gives me what I think is slightly more control over the line art itself(and is faster, IMHO), this is essentially how I've been colouring art for a while. *

Except this explanation is in clean, understandable english, as opposed to my usual mumblings about 'Colouring? ...I dunno. Just Stuff?'

BTW: to my knowledge, everything discussed here will work on the later versions of GIMP (essentially a Freeware/Opensource version of Photoshop) as well as pretty much every version of Photoshop past v3.0.

Nice work, dDave...
... Gorgeous art.

* ...curses, all my 'secrets' exposed!!

[Rob]

Neat! One question about using the lasso tool, though... doesn't that mean you basically have to trace around all the areas of the same colour? That sounds kind of difficult to do with a mouse. Or am I thinking of a different tool?

[Haesslich]

Hmm... maybe y'all want to be setting that up in a web page too, dDave? I like the pic, and the lines and shading...

Though I admit, I've also found a sudden urge to go kick Alan's ass all the way to SEMMF headquarters. Must be the late hour.

[Hayasaka Kosei]

Hmm... maybe y'all want to be setting that up in a web page too, dDave? I like the pic, and the lines and shading...

Though I admit, I've also found a sudden urge to go kick Alan's ass all the way to SEMMF headquarters. Must be the late hour.

Alan's ass?

I just find that my desire to maim Helene just gets stronger....

[Gigafreak]

...Which Alan?

[Haesslich]

...Which Alan?

The one who doesn't die as often. The one who couldn't rescue her from the cats.

Kosei-kun: I'm thinking of kicking his ass if he's the source of Helene's hurt there, myself. Maybe it's because I can't stand to see a lass cry.

[dDave]

Howdy,

doesn't that mean you basically have to trace around all the areas of the same colour?

Yes, Many drawing programs have several styles of lasso tool. I use the polygon lasso tool which lets you click to set the corners of selection areas instead of clicking and dragging. So selecting a square would take four clicks. That is why I zoom in, to help negotiate the irregular areas as I click out a selection.

Best,

Dave

[Hayasaka Kosei]

...Which Alan?

The one who doesn't die as often. The one who couldn't rescue her from the cats.

Kosei-kun: I'm thinking of kicking his ass if he's the source of Helene's hurt there, myself. Maybe it's because I can't stand to see a lass cry.

Perhaps. Maybe because I myself am a lass (and really don't like Helene), I don't feel the same way.

[dDave]

Howdy,

Hmm... maybe y'all want to be setting that up in a web page

If someone wants to host this, I have no problems with that, but I am not inclined to do it. It was more work than I bargained on just to write the dang thing up.

Perhaps Packy might be interested in opening up a how-to section.

Best,

Dave

[packy]

Maybe because I myself am a lass (and really don't like Helene), I don't feel the same way.

Ah, so you must really like this week of strips.

[Hayasaka Kosei]

Maybe because I myself am a lass (and really don't like Helene), I don't feel the same way.

Ah, so you must really like this week of strips.

That I did.

[Gigafreak]

That week was just friggin' hilarious.