Heidi week 6 part 1: values

Working on color now!

Heidi Week 5 - Poster Line art

Here's the inked version of my line drawing, for a Pushing Daisies poster

I made some complicated overlapping choices in my composition, so I used varied contour lines to reinforce whats in front of what and help create depth.

I did a much better job of not over-lining these faces, than in the sketch cards. It was fun to practice making those tough choices and remembering that my work as an artist includes simplifying for the sake of concept curation and storytelling.  I'm happy with this so far, excited to put the color in.

Here's my photobashed reference:

I didn't do any tonal corrections to this photobash, with the exception of the grass background.   I'm doing a sepia value lay-in, so it'll be fun to watch my poster emerge with greater color unity than in my reference.  

Week 6 - tones to color notes

This is my poster demo continued. 

Video is here

Step 1 - Last week we traced the photo reference that we created. This week we'll start by hand drawing on top.  Clean up the drawing and hand draw some things so that it doesn't look too traced.  Make design decisions such as where to use straight lines, where to use curves.  Where to use hatching, stippling, or other techniques to indicate the edges of where shadow patterns change.  Indicate the planes of the faces.  Don't draw too many lines including hatch marks on young characters and attractive female faces because it will make them look old really fast.  Characters should have more straight lines if they are older and or more masculine.  Linda Hamilton from Terminator 2 for example is one heck of a femme fatale so it's not just limited to guys only.

Step 2 - add tones to a layer below the line art layer.  I eyeball values using a desaturated version of my photo reference. Make more decisions on how to control contrast.  My reference is darker but the indie film this is for has a hopeful ending so I made the decision to brighten up the overall values of the poster so that it won't look too sinister.  I love the half shadow on the house but I decided to remove and use a soft ambient light instead because the ending is more light-hearted and not as dark or overly dramatic.  Remember that "making artistic decisions" is what makes a piece look hand done.  For the sky, it's common practice to just paste a photograph in and use it like a texture clipped to the sky shape below.   Notice that the top is dark, but the  bottom is lighter.  That is my way of hinting about the overall direction and tone for this specific film.  My choices are intentional for the purpose of this specific story.  Don't make arbitrary decisions.  Try to find a reason for your choice of lighting whether it is high contrast for a very dramatic film, or softer for a more dreamy or hopeful story.

Here's my photo reference:
I purposely don't edit the heck out of my photo reference because I want to leave room when I hand draw things to make decisions.  And sometimes I don't even care if my photo reference is poor as long as it'll help me get close.  The main actor on the top left for example, I wanted this head angle but couldn't get a good photo reference so this reference is good enough, plus I like the side light because he starts out in turmoil.

Step 3:  Use a layer on top of the tonal value set to the color layer mode.  This adds color to our existing tones without changing the values.  This is a safe method to make sure the values are good first before going to color.  Get the colors as close as you can to what you have in mind.  Then use the Camera Raw filter to adjust sliders to get them to the finish level.  For color palette, I usually like to use a split complimentary.  So instead of using blue and orange, I use the color that's next to blue towards green so I get teal.  I didn't want to use too much of red and green directly because it would be too much Christmas looking.  I tried purple and it looks good too but I think teal and orange will be more eye catching to the general audience who have no idea what this film is about.  I think about the purpose of the poster.  In this case, the short 12 minute short indie film might not even have a trailer so this poster has to get people interested enough to want to check out the movie.  This is a real world example and the film is currently being edited.  This is the final poster.  I try really hard to make good decisions but NOT noodle it to death.  The drawing, toning, and coloring took about an hour and a half each.

Here is how I organize my work file.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Photoshop layers

Solid black layer set to color layer mode to check values

Copy Merged layer (of all of the below layers) with Camera Raw filter adjustments
Copy Merged layer (of all of the below layers)

Color Dodge or Screen layer on top to highlight focal area
Color hold layer (clip to line art layer and fill with a dark color like a dark skin tone or cool color)
Line art
Color (clip to flat gears flat shape, layer set to color layer mode)
Tones (clip to flat gears shape)
Flat shape (gears)

Background texture (set to overlay or multiply)
Background solid

Notes:

Part 1 - Draw

First we "created" our reference by making the photo collage/photo-bashing.  Then we traced it to get a rough drawing.  In order to make it look hand drawn, we hide the photo reference and hand draw more details and edit that rough drawing.

Part 2 - Add tones

Part 3 - Add color using a layer set to color layer mode.  Use layer modes such as screen, overlay, and color dodge to make your colors and tonal contrast look good.  Use an overlay or multiply layer to add a global texture to make things look less flat and more organic.  I use two because I wanted to vary the texture intensity on the art from the subtle texture of the paper background.

The color hold layer clips to the line art layer and is filled with a color that you want your lines to be instead of a solid black.  This helps soften the "ink" lines, thus moving it closer to a softer edge drawing and closer to being a painting or photograph.

This is not the only way to do it, so if you have another way you would like to use, please do.  The main point is that you should have a way to check your values even after adding color.  I hope this is helpful.  Let me know if you have any questions.