Girl Look Toned
This is a bit of an experiment in Photoshop I'm going to be trying out for a while. The thing is, I've been looking for ways to add more value to my sketches. Specifically, ones I've already drawn in regular sketchbooks. In real life it's easy because all you need is toned paper and a white pencil.
I tried to achieve this effect in Photoshop before by adding a gray layer set to multiply and then pulling out highlights with a white brush. And it works pretty good, except that the gray is kind of overpowering and dulls the drawing a bit. But it does wonders for value and highlights, a few example are Zombie Face, Azuka, Heroine Full and The Hope.
So, I've been thinking what else I could do. I thought maybe finding a nice neutral color that I could use as a mid-tone would be better than gray. But, I couldn't think of a color that would look right.
Then, it hit me! If I wanted to replicate the effect of using toned paper, I could just add toned paper to the drawing in Photoshop. So, I set out to find a good paper texture and then adjusted it to the right color and and played with levels until I was happy with the tone. After that it was just a simple task of pulling out the highlights with a white brush.
It's a pretty easy and quick process, and the result is pretty close to what I wanted. I'm still going to see what else I can do to tweak the technique, and find ways to improve the texture.
Next step: Getting actual scans of blank toned sketchbook pages.
Also, I know it would be a little easier to just draw in a toned sketchbook from now on. But I still have 3 regular sketchbooks left to fill up, and I'm not about to start on another one. Plus, I wanted to figure out something I can apply to all my drawing to take them another step further.
I tried to achieve this effect in Photoshop before by adding a gray layer set to multiply and then pulling out highlights with a white brush. And it works pretty good, except that the gray is kind of overpowering and dulls the drawing a bit. But it does wonders for value and highlights, a few example are Zombie Face, Azuka, Heroine Full and The Hope.
So, I've been thinking what else I could do. I thought maybe finding a nice neutral color that I could use as a mid-tone would be better than gray. But, I couldn't think of a color that would look right.
Then, it hit me! If I wanted to replicate the effect of using toned paper, I could just add toned paper to the drawing in Photoshop. So, I set out to find a good paper texture and then adjusted it to the right color and and played with levels until I was happy with the tone. After that it was just a simple task of pulling out the highlights with a white brush.
It's a pretty easy and quick process, and the result is pretty close to what I wanted. I'm still going to see what else I can do to tweak the technique, and find ways to improve the texture.Next step: Getting actual scans of blank toned sketchbook pages.
Also, I know it would be a little easier to just draw in a toned sketchbook from now on. But I still have 3 regular sketchbooks left to fill up, and I'm not about to start on another one. Plus, I wanted to figure out something I can apply to all my drawing to take them another step further.