Thursday, April 16, 2009

Speedy Mouse

I drew this a few weeks ago, when I didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to art. Everything is very simple, so I figured it would make an easy-to-follow step-by-step piece... This was done in Photoshop CS3. Everything is in its own layer, which might seem like a lot of work, but allows you to be lazy later on...























Rough sketch. This was done in its own layer on top of a white background layer. I used the hard-edged round paintbrush tool in gray at about 70% opacity.
























Lines. I set the hard-edged round brush to have shape dynamics. I made a new layer on top of the rough sketch and traced with the regular round brush in black at 100% opacity. When I finished, I made the sketch layer invisible.

























Rough colors. Basically, I threw a bunch of colors all over the place, like a three-year-old. It's messy, but everything is in it's own layer (background, mouse's feet and tail, mouse's body), so I can erase the mess later.

























Final. (Hey, I told you it was a speedily-done pic...) I blended the colors by using the eyedropper tool and painting at an opacity of about %4o on top of other colors, and then using the eyedropper tool to use the newly blended colors. I fiddled around with mixing the colors until I was happy with them. I also used the soft round brush at a low opacity (about 15%) in pink to add blush to the mouse's ears and face. Now the "everything has its own layer" bit comes in. Since each colored section is separate from the others, you can just go in and erase anything outside of the lines in each layer.

8 comments:

  1. oh my goshh !! .... 'i basically just threw a bunch of colours all over theplace like a 3 yo !!! but this is freakin aweeesome !!

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  2. Tehe... I'm sure there are better ways to color, but it's quite fun to make a mess of things at first. :D

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  3. awesome tutorial! I'm going to give it a try : )

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  4. Amazing...! I wish I had that sort of talent.

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  5. You do! I've been admiring your blog for the longest time - your food, your crochet, your photography - all gorgeous! <3

    Also, thank you for the sweet comment. :)

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  6. Interesting process you have here Sara, I learned a new thing today. Thanks to you.:)

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  7. thank you! what a nice little tutorial.. I am beginning to miss drawing... I think I might try to do this, wait.. got to read back, did you ink it by hand or on the computer?

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  8. I inked and sketched this on the computer, in Photoshop CS3 (which I should have specified and will add in now that you've reminded me). Both the sketch and line art are in their own layers on top of a white background layer.

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