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Digital Coloring

Since my scanner has decided to crap out on my details, and since I am always open to new media, I have decided to break out the digital programs and get serious at learning how to use them. I know the main fundamentals, however I am not that good with it. Every attempt I have made to color pictures on the computer have thus yielded upsetting results or I got so bored with them, because of how long and tedious the process was, that I never got around to finishing them. (I know and accept the possibility that there is no shortcut and that getting good will come with time, and arduous work.)

Does anyone here know of or have some good digital coloring tutorials?

Mainly I am looking for a more realistic way to blend color without resorting to the smudge tool. I have tried the blur tool but found the results a little fuzzy (no pun intended). I am really trying for photorealism as best I can with art in general. I can toon but I am not proud of my tooning ability.

I use a hard edged brush with my pressure set to opacity, and hit the hot-key for the color picker in order to catch colors along edges to blend it.
For softer edges I just use barely any pressure on the pen and work over the area, although you could just as easily switch to a soft-edged brush and lay down the color that way.

Scraffic said: I use a hard edged brush with my pressure set to opacity, and hit the hot-key for the color picker in order to catch colors along edges to blend it.
For softer edges I just use barely any pressure on the pen and work over the area, although you could just as easily switch to a soft-edged brush and lay down the color that way.

Sadly my tablet is out of service. Ever since I upgraded my computer to a faster gaming model, the sensitivity on the tablet has skyrocketed to "you have to draw in mid air to get anything decent" status. I tried tinkering with the settings to no avail, and sadly the model is no longer supported. I had a Wacom Graphire 4. So right now I am stuck with mouse.

Did you try downloading the latest driver for the Wacom Graphire 4? The website still has it: http://www.wacom.com/productsupport/select.cfm I don't know if it will help, but it might.

Not at me but glad you posted those drivers, my ickle graphire3's was WAY out of date. No idea why but the tablets being a lot less tetchy than it's been of late, it usually goes nuts in Photoshop yet there hasn't been one spaz attack in five minutes where it'd usually have at least 11.

I'm probably speaking too soon but if this is any indcation... Thanks for linking I'd never have known otherwise :)

Unfortunately I will probably have no access to it for a while. I recently moved and sadly will have to move again, so I can't really tear into my piles of stuff, considering I don't own the place I am in. (Long complicated story). I'm pretty sure that when my fiancee and I tried updating it last time she and I either found out the model wasn't supported or that it might have been an earlier Graphire. I can't remember. I know I kept the tablet though, just in case we figured out a way to get it to work. But I just remember it being so much easier to control than a mouse.

Graphire 4 is certainly supported as is my 3. It was a bit fiddly having to uninstall my drivers, resetting then putting on the new as mine were that dated. There's a good chance yours will be up there too.

I will definately look into it after I move.

i'm no digital painting wiz (i share you want for an easier/quicker way to paint), but i found digital painting got a lot easier/enjoyable when i installed these brushes. in particular, one brush called "painterly" in the set. i looked at the settings of how this brush was made and noticed a few in particular that made all the difference (this is on ps cs2):

- brush tip shape > spacing: 2% - by keeping the spacing down, the brush strokes become smoother and more solid, especially at a large scale.
- shape dynamics > size jitter: 0%, control: pen pressure - control the size by pen pressure.
- shape dynamics > angle jitter: 0%, control: initial direction - when using cutom shape brushes, setting the angle jitter to "initial direction" or "direction" ensures that all you brush strokes will seem natural and unique, and not all going in the same direction.
- other dynamics > opacity jitter: 0%, control: pen pressure - opacity based on pen pressure.
- smoothing: on

what i eventually did was make my own brush by making a small black paint blob on a piece of paper, scanned it in, and made it a brush. just something that looked like a paint stroke, had some dynamic shape quality, and some varying opacity. to make a brush (in ps cs2, though i think it works for other versions):

1. i made the paint blob the default size i wanted the brush to be. i made the document with a white background and the paint blob black.
2. select the paint blob using the marquee tool.
3. edit > define brush preset.

what i then did was apply those particular setting to my own brush. in addition, i also added a texture to make it look more like pastel or some other real media.

- texture: grass - this is a default texture in photoshop's library.
- texture > invert - i activated invert because it changes the granulation in a way that i liked.
- texture > texture each tip - applied the texture throughout the brush stroke.
- texture > mode: subtract - again, it yielded a result i liked.

texture is best to be fiddled with. it's also worth your time to try out photoshop's other preset brush collections, like dry media.

these are a few digital coloring/painting tutorials i've collected from the web, mostly from da:
http://www.cgarena.com/freestuff/tutorials/photoshop/bluesinger/index.html
http://crazydwarf.deviantart.com/art/SKIN-PAINTING-TUTORIAL-23525496
http://njoo.deviantart.com/art/Tutorial-Lost-Adventurer-47879336
http://janaschi.deviantart.com/art/Blumen-walkthrough-92300965 (video download)
http://jdillon82.deviantart.com/art/Mini-Painting-Tutorial-58099272
http://perzo.deviantart.com/art/All-my-secrets-uncovered-tut-83281273
http://shoomlah.deviantart.com/art/Colour-Dynamics-Tutorial-26840573
http://monk-art.deviantart.com/art/Old-Blind-Man-Step-by-Step-22881353
http://nashya.deviantart.com/art/CG-Session-01-Skin-35619683
http://abuze.deviantart.com/art/Walkthrough-Videotutorial-47348503
http://fayrenpickpocket.deviantart.com/art/Tutorial-Fay-in-Photoshop-B-55781690
http://yuni.deviantart.com/art/Coloring-technique-61468467
http://kalamu.deviantart.com/art/Photoshop-Colouring-Tutorial-62822060
http://etoli.deviantart.com/art/TUTORIAL-Digital-Paint-in-PS-75362758
http://www.thedrawingboard.com/howto/eloven/el_color_01.htm
http://www.gfxartist.com/features/tutorials/7714

this might be more info than you're looking for, but i guess it's worth mentioning. for blending purposes, like someone said, hot key your eye dropper, and also make a pallet of your true base colors (middle, base, shadow, reflected color, etc) so you can pick those out on the fly.

Ooooh, thank you for the links! I looove new tutorials. :D

I took a look at the tutorials, and they are going to help me loads as well. :D

*is a total newbie to digital coloring*

I know it has been a long time since I posted here, but I have been to the tutorials and they have been very helpful. So has learning to make new brushes. Thank you very much Pac. Unfortunately without my Wacom it is still unwieldy and difficult, but I have been plugging away at it. I will however be getting a new one soon, hopefully for Christmas. *very happy*