Hello!  If you are reading this, then you have managed to stumble into
my nascient art tutorial studio.  Things are still under construction
and will be for a long time to come, but due to popular demand, I am
putting this up for people to read and get a little insight into how I
computer color artwork.

Note, these instructions assume passing familiarity with Adobe Photoshop
and what the various tools are capable of. Someday, I will add much more
detail, but not today.  Also, there are no step-by-step graphics yet for
this.  That is planned, but will take a long while to work on.

Anyway, I hope this helps the curious!

--- Philip Moyer
(2/16/2003)

===============================================

My usual setup (as of 2/2004) :

Computer: Power Mac G4 -- 867 MHz PowerPC G4
                          1.12 GB Memory

Running:  Mac OS X Version 10.2.8

Software: Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1
          Bryce 5
          
Additional: Wacom Graphire 3 4x5 Tablet
            UMAX Astra 1200S SCSI scanner 
               (runs off a networked PowerMac
                that I pretty much just use for
                scanning and emergency net 
                connects)
                
===============================================

My usual process (some variations will apply):

1)  Scan in the artwork at 200 dpi, unless it's
    'special' (ie, Fred Perry art or John Staton's),
    which gets scanned at 300 dpi.  Scanning mode is
    lineart, with auto-adjustment.

2)  Open the art in photoshop, save it as a .psd 
    document with an apropos name.

3)  Change the art to greyscale, not bitmap.

4)  Duplicate the grey channel to make a 'master 
    lines' and 'master fill' channel.

5)  The 'master fill' channel has the major portions
    of background white space filled with black.  Care
    is taken to make sure the figures and objects are not
    filled in (use the pencil to fill in any line art
    gaps).

6)  Clear the grey channel.

7)  Duplicate the 'Master Fill' channel, multiple times,
    for each character or major color/theme grouping 
    desired.

8)  Use fill, pencil, etc, on the successive channels
    to make various sections isolated (like all the
    character's hair, all the parts that will end up
    being blue, skin tones, etc.)

9)  Change to your color mode of choice (I use RGB)

10) Create a new blank layer for the artwork.  I often 
    use multiple layers for multiple characters to add
    depth later on.
    
11) Create a new blank layer on top of that for the 
    lines (it will be removed later).
    
12) Use the 'Master Lines' channel as a selection.
    Invert it, and fill the topmost layer with
    black.  This creates your lines.
    
13) Use the channels defined in step 8 to fill in 
    the other layers with white for the characters,
    etc.
    
14) Start coloring in the layers, using the channels
    as selections to keep from bleeding over.  Use
    whatever techniques you desire.
    
15) Use the 'Master Lines' Channel, inverted as a 
    selection, to fill in the lines for the other
    layers.  (either in black, or reasonable colors
    to match the figures/items, etc).  Keep from
    going too far away from the figures! (pencil
    generally helps.)
    
16) remove the original Master Lines layer, unless
    it's got guidelines for free-drawn stuff in the
    image (like buildings, forests, etc.)
    
17) Use the channel selections on the individual
    layers to keep other parts of the images from
    being messed with when you use smudge to 
    smooth creases, add hair strand highlights, etc.
    
[Side note -- This is usually the stage, if I
want, to use Bryce to simulate a scene and experiment
with lighting.  It's a good way to play around with
light sources and the general coloring/shading of
a scene.]    
    
18) Now, we create new layers for highlights.  Create
    a layer for each item you want to be 'lit', and
    set the blending mode to screen for them.
    
19) Use the brush tool, set to airbrush 50%, to add
    highlights WITHOUT doing selections, on the 
    highlight layers.  Modify with erasing, smudging,
    etc.
    
20) Add more lighting screen layers as appropriate
    for multiple light sources.
    
21) Create your backgrounds/intermediate stuff with
    more layers.  This is also the stage where major
    effects (motion blurs, distortions, overlays, etc) 
    can be added -- duplicating a finished layer and then
    modifying the copy can help back out changes.
    
22) Finally, check the image to see if it works for you.
    Revise and rework, and such.

23) Save the image as a full-rez jpg.

24) Open the jpg, use Image Size to scale down to 72
    dpi.  Re-save it with a new name.
    
25) And that's it, it's done!