Workshops

74 June 2006

UNI05.superhero 74 2/5/06 4:05:41 pm

 In depth Combining digital and traditional

Photoshop
COMBINING DIGITAL
AND TRADITIONAL Learn how to combine traditional pencil
and ink on paper techniques with the vast
Adi Granov
COUNTRY: US
abilities of digital tools. By Adi Granov
CLIENTS: Marvel,
odern computer programs of trial and error, evolved into a very
Humanoids Group,
Nintendo Software Tech,
Wizards of the Coast

Best known
M such as Photoshop and
Painter, and accessories like
Wacom tablets, have made
for his comic the world of digital art near boundless.
book work on However, there are certain limits even to
the acclaimed
Iron Man:
these powerful tools. Although most
Extremis series, Adi used techniques and textures can be
to be a concept artist effectively replicated digitally, the
for Nintendo.
www.adigranov.net
process of creating them is sometimes
artificial, forced, and often unnecessarily
DVD Assets time consuming when we consider that
The files you need they are inherent and natural traits of
are on the DVD the traditional materials. It is these
FILES: clouds.jpg,
IFXilloFinal.psd,
natural traits that I strive to preserve in
IFXilloLayers.psd, my own art while combining them with
IFXillosketch.jpg the limitless choices of digital colours.
FOLDERS:
The digital tools also offer the luxury of
Full screenshots
SOFTWARE: experimenting without the fear of
Photoshop CS2 (Demo) ruining precious artwork.
In this tutorial I will explain the
technique which has, over many years
effective method for creating painted
illustrations through the digital
colouring of traditional artwork. This
technique preserves all the textures and
analogue feel of the original artwork.
I like to keep my technique simple and
straightforward and rely on my skills and
artistic choices, rather than tools, to
dictate the outcome. As you will see from
the tutorial, I tend to stay away from
most of the advanced options of
Photoshop and stick with the more basic
features. This not only keeps the process
streamlined, but it also sets certain
limitations on the tools that preserve the
purity and spontaneity which can often
be lost in overworking.
While the technique is advanced and
requires strong understanding of light,
shadow and colour, it only requires
moderate knowledge of Photoshop.

original character in the vein of my comic The lightbox

The concept
1 With most illustration work, there
are certain requirements ranging from
thematic to technical, from the very idea
to the physical size of the artwork. It’s
essential to take all of these requirements
into consideration from the very start and
build your concept around them. As an
illustration assignment this piece is a
simple one. The brief is to create an
book work in a heroic flying pose. When
designing a new character I usually do
many variations from different angles
and with different layouts. But since this
is a one-off character on a simple
background and we’re examining the
technique, I focused on designing a
character using an array of textures.
I draw my sketches in Photoshop
because it enables me to edit, rework, and
experiment with the designs and shapes
without having to redraw everything if I
change my mind. I create the canvas in
scale based on the assignment
requirements but keep it small so I can
focus more on the overall shapes rather
than any minute details. Once I have a
satisfactory sketch I resize it to the
physical print size needed, in this case
14 inches tall, and print it out.
2 I use a lightbox to lightly trace the
Switching
and
foreground lours design from the printout on to my work
co
background Mac)
surface. The lightbox is just a box with a
[X] (PC and
between light inside it and a glass cover, which is
Easily switch
very useful used predominantly in animation to
two colours –
.
when painting trace images from one paper to another. A
window could be used for the same effect.
3 Traditional tools
I use high quality 100 per cent
cotton watercolour paper because it’s very
sturdy, and HB pencils because they are
soft, without smudging, and light.
Occasionally, I also use H pencils, usually
only for shading skin which requires
delicacy. I use regular India ink for pure
black inking as well as ink washes. For the
washes I dilute the ink with water and
create a few different shades, from a very
light to a couple of darker ones.

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 Workshops
Refining the design
4 Once I have the sketch transferred
on to the paper, I start refining the design
and the style. I always start with overall
shapes and tighten as I go, focusing on
larger areas first and leaving the details
for last. Putting too much focus on the
details early on usually results in a
disjointed-looking drawing.
The ink stage
5 When I’m absolutely satisfied with
the drawing in its pencil form, I start
filling the darkest areas with black ink.
I try to balance these areas with the
lighting of the scene. Since our hero is
flying through fairly well-lit clouds, there
is a lot of reflective light around him so
the very dark areas would be limited.
These dark areas give me a great point of
reference on which to base my range of
shading, the paper itself being my lightest
and the ink my darkest shade with the
whole spectrum in between them.
76 June 2006
UNI05.superhero 76
Rendering the
6 greyscale
Having established my light and
shadow extremes, I then slowly start
to model the shapes with shades of
inkwash and pencil. I cover larger areas
with the diluted inks and refine them
with pencils. At this stage I pay particular
attention to the textures and reflective
qualities of desired materials. More
reflective materials have sharper
highlights, while the less reflective
ones are softer.
I use pure ink last to ink the linework,
which helps bring out the shapes and
give the image a more graphic look.
Turning digital
7 When I have taken the greyscale
rendering as far as it should go, I scan it
into Photoshop. Depending on the
requirement of an assignment I scan at
least at the required resolution, in this
case 300 DPI. Since I work on paper much
larger than the required print size, I
then resize the image down to the right
measurements. No need to struggle with
needlessly giant files.
Using the Curves tool (Image>
Adjustments>Curves) I adjust the image
to match my original artwork by holding
it up and comparing the two pictures. It
might also be necessary to adjust the
saturation as well since some scanners
saturate the images.
Next, I set my greyscale art as the
background layer.
Flatting the colours
8 I create a new layer in Multiply
mode (let’s call it layer A) and with a
Hard-edged brush I proceed to fill all of
the separate elements of the image with
respective colours. This process is referred
to as flatting. I try to choose approximate
colours I intend to use right away but they
can also be easily manipulated once the
whole image is filled by selecting
individual areas. This layer is the most
important step in the colouring process
and will be my main working layer.
2/5/06 4:06:16 pm
 In depth Combining digital and traditional
Layer hierarchy
9 Having established the basic flat
colours, I make two copies of that same
layer, B and C. I move layer B to the very
top and set to Normal mode. This is my
selection layer where I can, by using the
Wand tool, select individual colours
throughout the rest of my process. A lot
of artists use channels for their selections,
but I find that having it in a layer is much
more visually intuitive.
I then set the remaining layer C to
Overlay mode and place under the A and
on top of my original art. This colours the
greyscale and adjusts its value depending
on the colours used. Lighter colours
lighten and darker colours darken. I then
individually adjust the hue, saturation
and lightness of each colour by selecting
them and using the Hue/Saturation tool
(Image>Adjustments...) based on what
I am after. The image should end up
having a rather appealing watercolour-
like look at this stage. In many
applications this could be considered
sufficiently coloured, but not here. We
are after a lot more.
Background
10 In most cases, backgrounds have
more elements such as buildings, cars,
spaceships, etc, which are drawn and
rendered traditionally, along with the
UNI05.superhero 77
main elements. But in this case the
background is an empty sky, which
doesn’t contain any solid shapes so it
lends itself more to being created
digitally. In order to save time, as a
starting point I use a Photoshop plug-in,
Xenofex (www.alienskin.com) to create
a basic cloud texture and then paint and
adjust it to suit the image. A photograph
of the sky could work as well, but it
would require a lot more work to match
the desired effect and style of the art.
Brush d
[ or ] (P
Additional texture
11 I have a vast library of found and
Use to
current
to look
created textures, which I alter and use to
work. A
add depth to the colours in order to give
them a more organic look to match the
scanned art. These textures could be
anything from scanned watercolour on
paper, to photographs of rough walls, etc.
I create a new layer with the texture
covering the entire art and set its mode to
Overlay and place it on the top of my
colour layers. This gives the entire image
a unified, organic feel.
12 Rendering the colours
It’s time to start adding more depth
to the colours by defining the shapes
with stronger shadows and highlights, as
well as ambient light and reflections. For
this I use the Brush tool on my original
Multiply layer A. By selecting the
individual areas of colour by using the
Wand tool in my selection layer, which is
otherwise kept invisible, I can focus on
individual areas without damaging
others. I pick the colours directly from
iamete
r
Ca nd Mac the canvas with the Eyedropper tool and
quickly
brush w
)
resize th
e slowly build up shades and hues with the
ith out hav
away fr
om you
ing Brush, starting with the larger areas and
r
time-sa
great working towards smaller details. By
ver.
doing this work in the Multiply layer
there is no danger of covering up any of
the qualities of the original art.
13 Realistic reflections
The level and sharpness of
reflections define the surfaces of various
materials and are essential to creating
believable objects. As mentioned, I have
prepared the greyscale painting to reflect
what I want the parts of the character to
be made of. For instance, the white parts
of the suit are a smooth, ceramic, highly
reflective material, while the skin on the
face is soft and matte and reflects the
light in a soft and diffused manner.
In creating the reflections and
highlights, I use lighter colours in the
Multiply layer A and allow the white
from my background to shine through. I
switch between light colours picked from
the environment, defining reflections
and softening them to add volume.
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2/5/06 4:06:22 pm
 Workshops

14 Adding
details
additional
I decide that the helmet needs some
additional detail in the form of some
abstract markings. In a new Multiply
layer just above my layer A, I paint the 116 Special effects
The only thing left to paint is
symbol and then merge it down. I then the fire behind the character coming
select the area in my Selection layer and PRO from his jetpack and reflecting in the
treat it in the same way as described in SECRETS surrounding clouds. By using a large
steps 12 and 13. Avoid the custom brush, I paint the fire in layer
easy route A starting with the darkest orange and
115 Enhancing
atmosphere
the Try not to rely on
software to make the
slowly shifting towards the ‘hottest’ white
closest to the source of heat.
choices for you. If
The image is nearly complete and there something is easy to
are only various effects and details left achieve by clicking a few
7 Final
17 adjustments
18 Adjusting dull sections
filters, that means that
to do. I create a new layer in Normal Having finished with all of the
it’s just as easy for
mode on top of the Multiply layer A. anyone else and you painting I flatten the image. By using the After much work, the illustration is
By choosing the colours from the run the risk of ending Curves tool, I play with the sliders to add done and ready for sending off. As for me
environment, I add depth to the image up with generic and a bit more contrast and visual impact to I can kick back, relax, and… erm, start on
unremarkable artwork.
by painting over areas further away Use your tools the image. the next one.
in perspective, which adds to the judiciously and creatively
atmospheric depth of the image. I also to let your own vision
come through and you
soften some areas where the texture will soon be creating
might be too harsh, and add various unique and interesting
small hot-spot highlights to give those art, no matter what the
software might be.
parts a bit more kick.

78 June 2006

UNI05.superhero 78 2/5/06 4:06:32 pm