Author: Brock
Submitted by: Brock   Date: 2008-04-16 17:47
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Starting Out

Personally, I started out by picking an easy to use image. The image I picked for this tutorial was of Marilyn Monroe, which can be found below if you'd like to follow the tutorial step by step. Take any old image you have that's black and white, and you can easily add color to it and make it look like it was recently done.

Opening, Preparing, and Starting

First, we want to start out by opening Photoshop. I'm sure that's self explanatory, but if you don't know how... please press Alt+Ctrl+Del repeatedly, and then take a magnet to your hard drive***. Now that that's out of the way, we want to open our file in Photoshop. Do this by going to File > Open or alternatively, press the key combination of Ctrl+O. Locate the file that you want to edit, click on its name, and press Open.

Now that our file is open, please familiarize yourself with the tools that we will be using. The tools that we will use in this tutorial are the brush tool and the eraser tool.

The Brush Tool

The brush tool is only one of the many tools in Photoshop, and it's a VERY useful one at that. It can be used to do many things, including coloring. To select the brush tool, either press the B key, or click and hold the icon we show below and press Brush Tool.

Feel free to play around with this tool in another document to see how it works and such. To adjust the tool, you can right click your document with the tool selected, drag the size bar, drag the hardness bar, and select a new brush. Alternatively, you can click the arrow next to your brush near the main menu and do the same there.

The Eraser Tool

The eraser tool we use when you go a little over the edges when coloring the image, so it will be very handy. To select it, you can either press the E key, or you can select it just like we selected the brush tool.

To change the settings, you can do it identically as you did with the brush tool. Just right click, change the settings, then you're good to go.

Start Coloring!!!

Start off by making a new layer. To do this, either click Layer > New Layer on the menu bar, or press Shift+Ctrl+N.

I usually start off by setting the layer's mode to Color. This can be changed later depending on your results for each part you are doing, but it's a good start to see where your colors stand.

Take out your brush tool... change the colors on your color tabs... and start brushing on that layer you made with the color of choice. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

Changing Colors

It's rather easy. All that you have to do is click the color tab you want to change the color on, and find your color of choice in the pop-up box.

Brushing

Now that you have your color, just brush over your image as if you're using a crayon. You will see that sometimes it doesn't look realistic, and other times it looks great. If you see that it doesn't really fit, either try another color or change the layer settings. I usually try to make a new layer for each part of the image, such as eyes, hair, clothing, skin, or anything that deserves a part of its own (usually using a different color). Erase any excess brushing you may have done, and take your time brushing your image.

What colors did I use?

I only used about three or four colors in total. Below you will find pictures of the colors, what they were used for, and the hexadecimal code that goes with them.

Final Product

Time Lapse

Have fun!

Hopefully you have enjoyed this tutorial and will benefit from my teachings. You will notice your skills improving over time if you keep at it and continue to work hard to get a great outcome. Picking the right color is the essential thing, and once you find a nice base color... you can work on layer settings to make them look perfect. Sometimes you might not nail the right color the first time, but eventually you get a knack for it. Enjoy, and remember Photoshop Is God.

***Disclaimer: The Web Design Database is not responsible for any harm to your computer/self due to your stupidity, idiocracy, lack of artistic ability, computer illiteracy, or all of the above.