Hey all,
Mostly I stick to the Sardelac Sanitarium, but after a quick perusal through this neck of the woods, I've been inspired. I am an Adobe novice, as you can tell by looking at my only piece of Guild Wars "art" so far (it's a visualization of my concept class, the this to this. If anyone responds, thanks, and pardon my ignorance!
*Edit - something's going screwy with the post. The text in the text box isn't matching the post.
How to use pen(cil) and paper sketches in Illustrator/Photoshop?
nebojats
Mistical miss
Sorry but I have no idea, I do have another question though : What is the Photoshop program u all use? (There are several different programs in our towns computer store that use the name: photoshop)
nebojats
I have a few programs that are made by Adobe: Illustrator CS, ImageReady CS, and Photoshop CS. Adobe is the creator, CS is the version. I think CS is some education-related edition (they're actually owned by my mom, who is a teacher). That probably means they have less depth and capability than the professional versions. I hope that helps?
greyf0x_f0x
Photoshop CS is the full fledged program, it's no a stripped down educational version or anything (Quite why Adobe decided to start calling it "Creative Suite" I have no idea...) So have no fears that you're working with sub-standard software.
Now, since I was the guy who did most of the photoshopping on your example image (though I take no credit for the artistry, that was all Kate's doing ^_^) I thought I'd knock up a quick tutorial.
Now once you have a clean sketch, the colouring can begin. Personally, I work entirely in photoshop, simply using the brush tool, a pressure sensitive pen/tablet and an artistic eye. I'll follow up this post with a basic tutorial on how I coloured the image in
[EDIT]
For those interested in seeing the original PSD file, and how I organise layers etc, I've uploaded it here:
http://media3.filewind.com/g.php?filepath=6131
That's the file on which this first tutorial was based, and the one I'll probably use for the colour tut.
Now, since I was the guy who did most of the photoshopping on your example image (though I take no credit for the artistry, that was all Kate's doing ^_^) I thought I'd knock up a quick tutorial.
Now once you have a clean sketch, the colouring can begin. Personally, I work entirely in photoshop, simply using the brush tool, a pressure sensitive pen/tablet and an artistic eye. I'll follow up this post with a basic tutorial on how I coloured the image in
[EDIT]
For those interested in seeing the original PSD file, and how I organise layers etc, I've uploaded it here:
http://media3.filewind.com/g.php?filepath=6131
That's the file on which this first tutorial was based, and the one I'll probably use for the colour tut.
lyra_song
http://polykarbon.com/tutorials/scanning/scan.htm <---my favorite line-art tutorial (its outdated though since Adobe Streamline is no longer being updated, but rather intergrated into Adobe Illustrator)
If you have CS2, you SHOULD also have Adobe Version Cue which automatically makes multiple versions of the file in incremental steps (iterative save)
its called CS because all the CS programs "mesh together" as one big tool
for me, i like drawing with BLUE pencil, scan it, ctrl + l, take the blue alpha and convert it to a selection and fill it with black, then ctrl + m and adjust it. Zero noise.
After that i usually lock the ink layer and set the layer effect to "multiply" so the white is transparent and start making layers under it to paint.
But i stopped using photoshop for painting and just stuck to painter, much more robust brush controls. My patheon of the gods entry was Pencil + Digital Watercolor in Painter IX.
If you have CS2, you SHOULD also have Adobe Version Cue which automatically makes multiple versions of the file in incremental steps (iterative save)
its called CS because all the CS programs "mesh together" as one big tool
for me, i like drawing with BLUE pencil, scan it, ctrl + l, take the blue alpha and convert it to a selection and fill it with black, then ctrl + m and adjust it. Zero noise.
After that i usually lock the ink layer and set the layer effect to "multiply" so the white is transparent and start making layers under it to paint.
But i stopped using photoshop for painting and just stuck to painter, much more robust brush controls. My patheon of the gods entry was Pencil + Digital Watercolor in Painter IX.
nebojats
Geez, you guys are really helping me out. Thanks for being patient with a novice like me.
@grey fox: Thanks for that amazing feedback! I just tried to follow the steps you laid out real quickly, and I can tell this is exactly the help I was looking for. With some tinkering, I think I'm now able to really clean up an image pretty well. The only difference I found with CS is that there isn't a "Reduce Noise" option. Instead it's called "Despeckle" (I assume they're identical). Also, I understand why you would turn up the contrast, but why turn down the brightness?
I'm really looking forward to the color tutorial... you've been very helpful. Now if I can just get my hands on a pen/tablet (I think there's one lying around the house somewhere). Just a quick question which you might be planning to address: can I use the paint bucket to fill in the lines? I can't figure out how.
@lyra song: so that's what that annoying icon in my system tray was: Cue. I never understood it's utility. I don't have any blue sketches, but I'll try that out. I'm having trouble understanding this part:
Quote:
@grey fox: Thanks for that amazing feedback! I just tried to follow the steps you laid out real quickly, and I can tell this is exactly the help I was looking for. With some tinkering, I think I'm now able to really clean up an image pretty well. The only difference I found with CS is that there isn't a "Reduce Noise" option. Instead it's called "Despeckle" (I assume they're identical). Also, I understand why you would turn up the contrast, but why turn down the brightness?
I'm really looking forward to the color tutorial... you've been very helpful. Now if I can just get my hands on a pen/tablet (I think there's one lying around the house somewhere). Just a quick question which you might be planning to address: can I use the paint bucket to fill in the lines? I can't figure out how.
@lyra song: so that's what that annoying icon in my system tray was: Cue. I never understood it's utility. I don't have any blue sketches, but I'll try that out. I'm having trouble understanding this part:
Quote:
Foxeye
*peeks head in* If there are folks who can't afford Adobe PS and want to use the free program Gimp, I did a tutorial with that program. Mostly because there are so few Gimp tutorials out there and I figured tutorials for free programs are always a good thing. 
I actually use Photoshop or Painter mostly myself, just cuz Gimp can't seem to handle large images with 40+ layrs so good 
, BUT for folks who aren't gluttonous with the layers, its a good program!
Tutorial covers both some of the real basics for newcomers (which is somewhat useful for PS users, since the tools differ between PS and Gimp somewhat), as well as my coloring workflow.
Tutorial/Workflow using Gimp
I actually use Photoshop or Painter mostly myself, just cuz Gimp can't seem to handle large images with 40+ layrs so good , BUT for folks who aren't gluttonous with the layers, its a good program!Tutorial covers both some of the real basics for newcomers (which is somewhat useful for PS users, since the tools differ between PS and Gimp somewhat), as well as my coloring workflow.
Tutorial/Workflow using Gimp