Simple coloring tutorial

I'm always interested in seeing the process other artists go through when they create a picture, so, I decided to try my hand at it, and show you my coloring process. The other day, I was asked to draw this muscly, red monster man, and I realized the layers of his picture could make a nifty process walk through.

I start by scanning an inked drawing into Photoshop. On a layer on top of the linework, I color the internal lines dark red, I then set that layer to "screen," coloring the lines under it.

After I do that, I select the area inside the character, and make a layer that is a gray silhouette. I put this there so I can easily select the area of the entire character.

I select that gray silhouette, make a new layer, and fill that selection with a simple gradient. This is a cheap and easy way to add a bit of light and volume to simple cartoon characters like this.

Next, I put in shading. On a layer set to "multiply" I go in with a low value brick red, and punch in shadows.

The final step is super easy. On another layer, above the shadow layer, I just flat color the character, hit multiply, and BOOM! The shading and tone shows through.

There you have is, super fast, super easy coloring.

Gotta' catch 'em all

I've always like the first set of starters from the original Pokemon games, its a bunch of reptiles and amphibians that just get bigger and meaner, so, I had to do my take on them.