In this weeks #webcomicschat I had a little trouble thinking of a topic, so thanks to a request we talked about coloring. Everyone shared alot of good tips and samples so thanks to everyone that came out to play. I certainly came away with a few new ideas for using Photoshop like “locking transparent pixels” for example.

I thought I’d go ahead and describe my coloring process here in more detail. To start I do all my inking by hand. If I ever get a Cintique I’ll probably change that, although I do like having original art. Next I scan my art at 600 dpi I also do all my work at 600 because I like having the option for future print and scaling needs. In Photoshop I duplicate my line art layer and set the top layer to “multiply” then I lock it. The bottom line art layer is for coloring. I usually start painting with flat color to fill in the white space. Thanks to the multiplied top layer I don’t have to worry about staying inside the lines because the top lines automatically hide mistakes. Once the fill colors are in place then I work on shadows and at the very end the highlights and FX. Someday I’ll record a demo but for now I hope that helps.

Post your own examples here and see you next week.