Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Here's Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone done using the same method described below.
 Watching U-tube demonstrations gave me a better way of working with color. 
First scan in your sketch. Then put a grey layer below it and set the sketch layer to darken. Make a new layer above the sketch and set it to dodge and another layer to burn. Put your darks in with one layer and lights in the other.  That way you can make adjustments in them without disturbing anything else.  Once you have all the darks and lights worked out, add a new layer and set it to color.  Paint in colors there. The tone will be set automatically by the dark and light greys below.
 Finally, combine them all to a flattened layer
 Do that by creating a new layer at the top, then hold down the option key (alt on some other brands of computer) and select "merge visible" from the layers menu.  On this last layer you can tweak the image by painting as you normally would, and apply filters where you want.  For flesh areas I like to add some noise and then a slight blur to give it a less plastic look. 
In case you are too young to recognize this guy, it's is Raymond Burr as Perry Mason.