I have been using photoshop for almost 4 years in a row and even though I don´t consider myself an expert since I am constantly learning new things every time, I do enjoy to use it and to see how my project takes form through the work I put in it makes me feel that everybody can do the same if they put their hearts on it.
Before I begin, you might want to take a look at my How to Draw post where I explain the steps I use to draw my characters... but for this post I´ll be exclusively going on about how I operate photoshop and maybe hopefully leave an impression on you (I am currently working with the CC 2014 version):
1- The first step is to import the drawing made on paper onto photoshop (that is of course if you decide to do it in this form), the best resolution I recommend is 300 pixels science is far more comfortable to work on the computer. If you believe your computer is not powerful enough to run this kind of res then try working at 150 or 200 pixels, you can also try going for less but the final result may not look has you might want.
2- The picture is set has a locked BG, you could unlock it to edit on the surface but I suggest you create another layer above it and fill it with white or another color that allow you to see the line when you extract it from the picture... to do this we need to select the line from the original picture: simply select the background layer, go to the selection tab (on mac) and select "Color Gamma" (sorry for the spanish on the interface).
With this tool we are going to select the line from the drawing, by simply clicking on the line you will have the selection ready, note that the "invert (invertir)" selection must be off or otherwise you will end up picking anything but the lines from the drawing; make sure you have selected the line has precise has possible to make the next step much easier.
Use the "Drop count" tools on the gamma window do increase the radius of lines you want to pick up (+ to add and - to reduce the magnitude) and the tolerance bar to select how much of the line to augment, too much will pixel your lines so watch out.
3- After you have selected the line, we must paint that area (preferable color black) with the brush tool augmenting it´s size to paint around 300 px or 250 px would be enough to cover well the selected area in a new layer. try re-bruching the same area at least 3 times to make sure you have covered the whole selected area: Remember to do the painting in a new layer not on the original picture.
With this done comes the fun part *sarcasm*...
Once you have painted the line, chances are that it´s going to look messy and not quite smooth has it should, you must re-touch the lines using both the brush and eraser tool primarily. It´s a long process to get the lines to look smooth and clean since it requires plenty of pulse and plenty of attention to detail to have this look good; I find this to be very annoying and perhaps the most tedious part to do on photoshop... but if you want the best results is important to invest time on this to make your lines look has good has possible.
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4- The colors must be placed in solid below the line layer, each color must be put separately in the respective part you want the color to go and also do each color on a separate layer to work easily with each color level when it comes to erasing over placed elements, etc...
Once you are done with each color element, you have to combine the layers of the colors you have made (be careful not to take the line layer), before that I always clone the layers just in case but is not mandatory.
Right click on the selected layers and choose "Combine Layers" (Combinar Capas), I didn´t name the caps but in case you find yourself lost on your own work do it:
The line and the color have to be on a separate layers, this is how it has to look with the line and without:
5- The next step in the shadows, this process is similar to working with the lines but before that you have to select the character elements from the color and line layers using the "magic wand" tool in the "quick selection" mode... create a layer where you can paint in black the selected area.
The layer that you painted in black is going to be your shadows, before that you have to lower the opacity (Opacidad) level of the layer (it´s located above the layer window in the top right), lower it to around 55% or lower depending of how intense you want your shadows to look.
6- You must retouch the shadows similarly to how we did with the line before, using pencil and eraser tools to make the shadows give volume to your character.
The example I am showing on the left is just how that layer that of how the shadows looks like without the character model behind it.
7- Last is the final touches: a background, color opacity using masks (completely optional but recommended to get the best looking art). For this step I really have no core style... let´s just say that is all about experimentation, see what works and what doesn't; work with separate layers and depending of what this is, for example: If you are going to do the background use layers behind the character model, if you want to work on lights sources use layers above the character model, etc...
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Thank you for reading, I hope this extremely short and simple tutorial was useful to you somehow... it´s important to practice and experiment a lot to discover what things you can do and what you can show with does steps. Again I don´t consider myself an expert on the matter but I do like to think I have enough experience to share this with other people who are interest in learning how to use this extremely useful and very good image editing tool.
I´ll have more content in the future, stay tuned!
