Castle Town (pen drawing, coloured in Photoshop CS6)
I drew this in the morning, while the girls were doing their own drawings and playing. It’s drawn with my Faber Castell PITT Artist’s Pens – the thick lines use the brush pen and the other lines use the fine pen.
I thought I’d probably colour it with my Inktense pencils, which works well with this kind of image. But then I watched a video tutorial on You Tube which showed me a couple of very neat tips and I thought I’d colour it in Photoshop instead, to try out the tips.
I started off by renaming the background layer ‘Sketch’, setting it to Multiply and locking it. Then I created a Texture layer beneath that, which I filled with white and then added a paper texture.
Then I added a layer for each of the colours and used the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select blocks to colour in. (Another way to do this is to click onto the Sketch layer and use the Magic Wand Tool to select blocks of white space, then click back to the colour layer and fill with the required colour.)
Useful Keyboard Shortcut: Alt+Backspace = fills the selection with the foreground colour
Useful Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+Backspace = fills the selection with the foreground colour
And then I continued adding colour layers and filling in chunks of colour until I was finished.
Finally, some of the outlines on the original sketch were looking a bit blurry, so I duplicated the sketch layer, unlocked it and then used Select>Color Range to select and delete all the white, and then I made sure this new layer was at the very top.
I love these new tips and I think I’ll probably use them a fair bit. Next time, I might use some more intricate hatching and spend a bit more time on the base drawing.
Nov 11, 2012 @ 06:35:59
Isn’t it wonderful Tasha? I just love the endless possibilities in Photoshop and the subtleties layers can provide. Nice to hear you’re having fun with it.
Nov 13, 2012 @ 10:53:49
I think there’s no end to discovering new things to do with it. Yesterday, I ended up playing around while all foggy from cold and am quite pleased with what I came up with. I’m also looking at some of the girs’ children’s books with a new eye and thinking ‘Oh, wow. That could actually have been done in Photoshop and might well have been.’ I’ve been a bit stuck in Illustrator (because most of the commercial artwork I do is done in there), but I’m becoming more and more astounded at what Photoshop can do.
Colourful tree (Pen, Coloured in Photoshop, Inspired by Illustration Friday) » Tasha Goddard Illustration
Nov 13, 2012 @ 23:39:17
[...] technically for Illustration Friday, but really just for me. This uses the same technique as the Castle Town the other day, but I did more detail for the [...]
Nov 14, 2012 @ 11:43:38
Thanks for the visit and leaving your link! I will definitely spend some time looking at the video and a bit closer at your drawing technique. Could definitely be useful for me! Have a great day – B.
Nov 14, 2012 @ 12:14:27
Tree in the City (Inktense) » Tasha Goddard Illustration
Dec 30, 2012 @ 06:33:15
[...] a feeling that this style might come across better digitally if it’s coloured digitally (like the Castle Town and the Colourful Tree [...]