Computer Graphics

Student Name: ______

Description: Each student will render an original line drawing with Photoshop using rendering techniques involving; color and gradient fills, dodge/burn, and paint brushes.

Techniques to learn

Lifting lines (channel copy)

Fill selected areas- gradient and paint bucket

Dodge and burn areas

Paintbrush and Mixer brush (selected areas)

Working on non-selected areas

How to create line art in Photoshop

  • First create a drawing in pen, pencil or marker and scan it.

If you want a ‘clean’ drawing- trace over your pencil with thin tip on vellum, or have a very clean pencil drawing.

  • Open the drawing in Photoshop and darken the black and brighten the white with levels using either curves or levels or even brightness contrast. (image adjustments)
  • Go to the channels palette and drag the blue channel into the ‘new channel’ icon (looks like the new layer icon)
  • Go back to the layers palette and make a new layer and callit ‘lines’
  • Now, go up to the select pull down menu and say ‘load selection’

Make sure the channel is Blue Channeland checkmark the word ‘Invert’ and say okay.

  • Your lines are now selected- so do not deselect them!
  • Now, go to the layer you made called ‘lines’ and choose black as your foreground color.
  • Go to the Edit pull down menu and say ‘fill’ with black or with foreground color.

Now, if you close your background, you should se that the lines remain without a white backing. Great, continue. If that did not work, try repeating the above

So, now for colorizing….

  • First you need to know that it’s best to have a layer for lines, a layer for ‘flat color and a layer for shadows and highlights.
  • Lock the line layer and make sure it is on top of all the other layers. Do not color on the line layer.

Creating your base color or Flats Layer

  • Use selections made with polygon lasso and fill with solids or paint inside the selection with color on the flats layer. Try using a gradient fill inside of feathered selections.

or

  • Use paintbrush to paint on the flats layer- you can choose or customize brushes to get the type of tip, texture, and blend modes you want on the flats layer.

Shading/Highlights

-Use dodge and burn on the flats to darken or lighten areas of color. You can also choose or customize the brush tips you use with dodge and burn.