Using layer blending modes to simplify the process and get dynamic results.

• Getting Started

Here are the basic steps describing how I colorized this image.

It is done in a three step process:

1. Block in the area to be colored

2. Add shadows and highlights

3. Add effects

For this tutorial, I'm just going to redo one of the gloves. Once you get the fundamentals down, then it is just a matter of repeating the steps for all the other areas in the image.

The first thing you need to do is put the original lineart image at the top of the layer stack. When you open the picture to be colorized, it will probably be called the "Background" layer. Photoshop forces the background layer to be at the bottom of the layer stack, but we want it at the top of the stack.

What you need to do is copy that background layer to make "Background Copy", then delete the original "Background". Now you have your original lineart on a layer that you can freely move up and down the layer stack.

• Painting the Lineart

In the following screenshots, the lineart layer is called "Layer 1". Use the dropdown box on the layer palette to set the blending mode of the line art layer to MULTIPLY. You are done with this layer for good. You don't want to do any editing on it at all. The only thing you need to do is make sure it stays at the top of the layer stack.

• Shading Check the box to preserve transparancy for the fill layer.
  

That is extremely important. If you're not sure what I mean, it is the box highlighted in yellow in the following screenshot. By preserving transparancy for the layer, there is no way you can screw up and color outside the lines. It is a huge timesave when you can start slopping paint down where ever you want instead of meticulously trying to stay within the borders.

Now is the fun part. Pick a lighter shade of your base color and select the airbrush tool with flow set to about 5%. You are going to want the softest brush possible, so use the shortcut SHIFT+[ three times to soften up your brush edges. Now, just start painting in the highlights. You'll need to figure out for yourself where they go.

Once you are satisfied with the highlights, choose a darker shade of your base color and paint in the shaded areas. I ended up with something like this:

• Lighting

To really make it jump out, duplicate your fill layer and set the layer mode of the copy to HARD LIGHT from the drop down box (highlighted in yellow in the following screenshot).

As a last step, I like to add a bit of noise to the fill layer.

That's just about all there is to it. The only other things I did was to use the smudge tool a bit on the highlights and shadows and a bit of experimentation with changing the hue/saturation of the hard light layer to tweak the colors after the hard light step.

Good luck!

• Starting out

First of all, what does this thing do? Well, it's quite simple. We're going to take something like this:

• First Thing

Well, the first thing you've gotta do is a straight, white line that covers the Lightsabre as accurately as possible. If you cant cover it, make it smaller than the sabre. In this picture, the sabre is 6 pixels thick.

The 2nd blade blur will be twice as thick, and the third Three times as thick as the line. If you want, you can go on and on and on, until you hit a reasonable limit. Eventually, this is what you come up with:

• Have you saved yet?!

What do you mean no?

The following step is where things might go wrong, so you gotta save. The .psd file will keep the layers as they are, and then you proceed ahead and merge all the layers which you previously blurred. It should now look like this:

• It comes to life...

Now starts the real magic. Anyone will tell you the trick with lightsabres is the glow - it has to be strong enough to be noticed, subtle enough to look natural and allow the objects behind it to be seen. How does one accomplish this? Regular techniques call for you to use Neon Glow. We, however, will not. We'll play with the Blend type and the Outer Glow color.

Select your merged layer and change it to "Screen". Now, right click it and select Blending Options.

Click Outer glow - it should look like this:

• Crossroads

Here you have two options.

A) Play with the Color Balance.

• The Outer Glow

If you're here, it means Color Balance dissapointed you, or you wanna try out another method.

This is the method I personally use.

You probably noticed when you did the outer glow effect that it has a yellowish-color to it. That's what we want to change.

• Final Product

By now, this

has become this:

And all done in Eight simple pages. But this isn't limited to lightsabres, no sir! You can apply it to Logos, People or even Shiny, Shiny Shoes, like this:

• Skulls and bones

• Adding details

• Dirty Laundry

• Finished