How to
How to
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION Light Effects, Color Adjustments & Finishing Touches by Guy Shield
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES
“I pretty much began drawing as soon as I could hold a crayon in my little hand, and I haven’t really stopped since.” - Guy Shield
© 2015 Wacom
02
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES
Guy Shield’s Artwork
© 2015 Wacom
03
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES
Table of Contents
01
© 2015 Wacom
COLOR ADJUSTMENTS
02
LIGHT EFFECTS & HAZE: WASHED-OUT BACKGROUND
00
Tutorial INTRODUCTION
03
LIGHT EFFECTS & HAZE: BLEACHED LOOK
04
About the ARTIST
04
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
CREATE MORE DIMENSIONS If you’re reading this turorial first, go back and read the other two eBooks first. Trust me! They’re integral to a lot of what I talk about in this tutorial. Finishing up a piece can be a long winded process of trial and error, and knowing when to call it a day can be difficult, as there’s always the temptation to keep adjusting, fixing and working on it. In this tutorial, I’ll show you a few tips and tricks to bring some finishing touches to your artwork. We’ll cover a few of the adjustment layers, and also some neat tricks to bring some haze or light to your work, so lets get started.
© 2015 Wacom
This eBook is your fun step-bystep guide to: adjusting colors and setting the overall tone of your illustration; adding light effects to your piece; and finishing off your artwork with a washed-out background or a bleached look All digital work shown in this eBook was carried out with the Wacom pen tablet Intuos Pro, using Adobe© Photoshop. Visit the Wacom website to find out how to enhance your workflow and efficiency as an artist using modern digital technology: Our pens and tablets open up new possibilities for speed and precision and give you more freedom to experiment.
Guy Shield Illustrator guyshield.com
05
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
Color Adjustments So if you followed my last two tutorials, you should have all your artwork set up into nicely organized layer sets, from foreground to background. Each set should contain lots of color fill layers, some shading layers and an individual toning layer. With any luck you’re starting to see a nice amount of depth and form to your color. The next step works towards giving your piece the overall tone and adjustments to enable the layer sets to work together. 1. I generally start by creating a hue or saturation adjustment layer (from the ‘Create New Fill or Adjustment’ menu at the bottom of the layers palette). 2. Adjust the ‘Saturation’ dial to get a bit more oomph out of the color. 3. Next, consider playing around with the ‘Lightness’ and ‘Hue’ dials to see what else can be tweaked here.
© 2015 Wacom
06
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
4. Create a new levels adjustment layer. 5. Get a bit more lift out of the piece by moving the three triangles below the graph inward to give it a bit more crunch. This isn’t always necessary, but it’s definitely worth playing around with in case there’s a bit more contrast required.
6. You can also try playing around with the curves palette if you feel inclined, and some of the photo filter options can also provide warmth or coolness to the piece with minimal effort.
© 2015 Wacom
Get to know your adjustment layers well, as they really make a difference.
07
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
Light Effects & Haze: Washed-Out Background Effect There are literally dozens of ways to give a piece a bit of depth and lightness, and creating that hazy sunlight can be a lot of fun, but here are two methods I’ve subscribed to over the years for achieving this effect. The first effect, which is probably the easiest, is to introduce gradient layers (from the ‘Create New Fill or Adjustment’ menu at the bottom of the layers palette) in between your layer sets. 1. Create a gradient layer starting with white (or cream) at 100% and grading out to complete transparency (imagine a ray of light, dissipating over space). 2. Angle the more opaque side of the gradient towards where the light source is.
© 2015 Wacom
08
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
3. Set the layer opacity to somewhere between 5-10%. 4. Obviously the more layer sets you have and the more gradient layers you introduce, the more washed out your background is going to be, so be careful! But trust me, it’s a nice effect.
© 2015 Wacom
09
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
Light Effects & Haze: Bleached Look The other lighting effect involves creating a mask for your ‘artwork set’ (see the previous tutorial) and very subtly fading back the artwork. This gives the image a slightly bleached look. 1. To do this, I like to paint with a giant (5000px) soft airbrush, set to 5-10% opacity.
2. Alternatively you can use the gradient tool set to ‘Radial’ or ‘Linear’ and create a flare of light from the light source.
© 2015 Wacom
10
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
Watch how to add the finishing touches
© 2015 Wacom
11
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
3. Then adjust the mask’s contrast (to be a very subtle light grey) using the levels palette, by bringing the black point along the bottom left of the palette across to the right.
Guy Shield’s advice to aspiring artists.
© 2015 Wacom
12
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
4. The key here is restraint, as you don’t want to completely lose your beautifully drawn artwork in the ploy for some subtle light (unless that’s the look you’re going for).
© 2015 Wacom
13
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
© 2015 Wacom
14
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
ABOUT THE ARTIST Melbourne-based illustrator Guy Shield has a background in design and an obsession with drawing. Growing up in Australia, Guy taught himself how to draw by littering the pages of his schoolbooks with the depths of his imagination, hoping one day his talents would not only find him fame and fortune but also distract women from the fact that he was really bad at sports. Though neither truly prevailed, Guy did develop an undying love for image making and a successful career in publishing and illustration, creating cover illustrations for renowned magazines such as “Kill Your Darlings”, among others.
© 2015 Wacom
The artist works mostly in pen and ink before moving to his Wacom tools, carefully crafting scenes that provoke intrigue and familiarity through formal compositions and engaging color palettes.
To find out more about his work, visit: guyshield.com facebook.com/thatguydraws @guyshield
15
LEARN MORE ©2015 Wacom Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Wacom and the respective logo are registered trademarks of Wacom Co., Ltd. All other company names and product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Please be aware that we have put a lot of work and effort into designing and developing this e-Book. Please note that Wacom retains all copyrights relating to this e-book and its content. While you are free to use all that you have learnt from this e-book, you are prohibited from redistributing or selling the e-book or its content, posting it on a website for download or sharing it on social networks. © Adobe, the Adobe logo, Creative Cloud and the Creative Cloud logo are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
You can find more information at www.wacom.com
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION Light Effects, Color Adjustments & Finishing Touches by Guy Shield
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES
“I pretty much began drawing as soon as I could hold a crayon in my little hand, and I haven’t really stopped since.” - Guy Shield
© 2015 Wacom
02
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES
Guy Shield’s Artwork
© 2015 Wacom
03
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES
Table of Contents
01
© 2015 Wacom
COLOR ADJUSTMENTS
02
LIGHT EFFECTS & HAZE: WASHED-OUT BACKGROUND
00
Tutorial INTRODUCTION
03
LIGHT EFFECTS & HAZE: BLEACHED LOOK
04
About the ARTIST
04
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
CREATE MORE DIMENSIONS If you’re reading this turorial first, go back and read the other two eBooks first. Trust me! They’re integral to a lot of what I talk about in this tutorial. Finishing up a piece can be a long winded process of trial and error, and knowing when to call it a day can be difficult, as there’s always the temptation to keep adjusting, fixing and working on it. In this tutorial, I’ll show you a few tips and tricks to bring some finishing touches to your artwork. We’ll cover a few of the adjustment layers, and also some neat tricks to bring some haze or light to your work, so lets get started.
© 2015 Wacom
This eBook is your fun step-bystep guide to: adjusting colors and setting the overall tone of your illustration; adding light effects to your piece; and finishing off your artwork with a washed-out background or a bleached look All digital work shown in this eBook was carried out with the Wacom pen tablet Intuos Pro, using Adobe© Photoshop. Visit the Wacom website to find out how to enhance your workflow and efficiency as an artist using modern digital technology: Our pens and tablets open up new possibilities for speed and precision and give you more freedom to experiment.
Guy Shield Illustrator guyshield.com
05
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
Color Adjustments So if you followed my last two tutorials, you should have all your artwork set up into nicely organized layer sets, from foreground to background. Each set should contain lots of color fill layers, some shading layers and an individual toning layer. With any luck you’re starting to see a nice amount of depth and form to your color. The next step works towards giving your piece the overall tone and adjustments to enable the layer sets to work together. 1. I generally start by creating a hue or saturation adjustment layer (from the ‘Create New Fill or Adjustment’ menu at the bottom of the layers palette). 2. Adjust the ‘Saturation’ dial to get a bit more oomph out of the color. 3. Next, consider playing around with the ‘Lightness’ and ‘Hue’ dials to see what else can be tweaked here.
© 2015 Wacom
06
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
4. Create a new levels adjustment layer. 5. Get a bit more lift out of the piece by moving the three triangles below the graph inward to give it a bit more crunch. This isn’t always necessary, but it’s definitely worth playing around with in case there’s a bit more contrast required.
6. You can also try playing around with the curves palette if you feel inclined, and some of the photo filter options can also provide warmth or coolness to the piece with minimal effort.
© 2015 Wacom
Get to know your adjustment layers well, as they really make a difference.
07
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
Light Effects & Haze: Washed-Out Background Effect There are literally dozens of ways to give a piece a bit of depth and lightness, and creating that hazy sunlight can be a lot of fun, but here are two methods I’ve subscribed to over the years for achieving this effect. The first effect, which is probably the easiest, is to introduce gradient layers (from the ‘Create New Fill or Adjustment’ menu at the bottom of the layers palette) in between your layer sets. 1. Create a gradient layer starting with white (or cream) at 100% and grading out to complete transparency (imagine a ray of light, dissipating over space). 2. Angle the more opaque side of the gradient towards where the light source is.
© 2015 Wacom
08
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
3. Set the layer opacity to somewhere between 5-10%. 4. Obviously the more layer sets you have and the more gradient layers you introduce, the more washed out your background is going to be, so be careful! But trust me, it’s a nice effect.
© 2015 Wacom
09
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
Light Effects & Haze: Bleached Look The other lighting effect involves creating a mask for your ‘artwork set’ (see the previous tutorial) and very subtly fading back the artwork. This gives the image a slightly bleached look. 1. To do this, I like to paint with a giant (5000px) soft airbrush, set to 5-10% opacity.
2. Alternatively you can use the gradient tool set to ‘Radial’ or ‘Linear’ and create a flare of light from the light source.
© 2015 Wacom
10
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
Watch how to add the finishing touches
© 2015 Wacom
11
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
3. Then adjust the mask’s contrast (to be a very subtle light grey) using the levels palette, by bringing the black point along the bottom left of the palette across to the right.
Guy Shield’s advice to aspiring artists.
© 2015 Wacom
12
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
4. The key here is restraint, as you don’t want to completely lose your beautifully drawn artwork in the ploy for some subtle light (unless that’s the look you’re going for).
© 2015 Wacom
13
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
© 2015 Wacom
14
ADD DEPTH TO YOUR ILLUSTRATION LIGHT EFFECTS, COLOR ADJUSTMENTS & FINISHING TOUCHES Contents
ABOUT THE ARTIST Melbourne-based illustrator Guy Shield has a background in design and an obsession with drawing. Growing up in Australia, Guy taught himself how to draw by littering the pages of his schoolbooks with the depths of his imagination, hoping one day his talents would not only find him fame and fortune but also distract women from the fact that he was really bad at sports. Though neither truly prevailed, Guy did develop an undying love for image making and a successful career in publishing and illustration, creating cover illustrations for renowned magazines such as “Kill Your Darlings”, among others.
© 2015 Wacom
The artist works mostly in pen and ink before moving to his Wacom tools, carefully crafting scenes that provoke intrigue and familiarity through formal compositions and engaging color palettes.
To find out more about his work, visit: guyshield.com facebook.com/thatguydraws @guyshield
15
LEARN MORE ©2015 Wacom Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Wacom and the respective logo are registered trademarks of Wacom Co., Ltd. All other company names and product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Please be aware that we have put a lot of work and effort into designing and developing this e-Book. Please note that Wacom retains all copyrights relating to this e-book and its content. While you are free to use all that you have learnt from this e-book, you are prohibited from redistributing or selling the e-book or its content, posting it on a website for download or sharing it on social networks. © Adobe, the Adobe logo, Creative Cloud and the Creative Cloud logo are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
You can find more information at www.wacom.com
