Dear readers,
I would like to share my method of coloring children’s illustrations using Photoshop. I have tried more coloring methods, and found this as the easiest way. We can draw a singer bunny and a dancing duckling.
You should do a pencil sketch first. If you are comfortable with pen tablet, you can sketch directly in Photoshop.
Erase the unwanted pencil lines and make the subject clear. Scan the pencil sketch in 300 dpi resolution.
Open the illustration in Photoshop. Increasing contrast & brightness (Image menu->Adjustments->Brightness and contrast) and applying threshold (Image menu->Adjustments->Threshold) will make your illustration sharper.
Convert the illustration to a layer (Double click on the layer panel). We can use this layer as a reference layer, so please lock it (Layer panel->lock icon). You can hide this later.
Now insert a new layer and name it as bunny’s head. Using direct selection tool, draw a path by tracing bunny’s head from the reference layer. Convert the path to selection and fill the color you want. The same process can be done for drawing each object, such as bunny’s body, legs, hands, guitar, duckling head, duckling body, duckling wings, and duckling feet. Objects can be easily edited when they are in different layers.
You should be more conscious while selecting background color. Using cool colors (VIOLET-BLUE-GREEN) for background and hot colors (RED-ORANGE-YELLOW) for subjects will look better. Hence I have used green for background and hot colors for bunny and duckling. Now hide the reference layer
Adding light and shade will make your illustration more attractive. Select each layer and color them with appropriate light and dark tones.
Adding action lines to your illustration will look your illustrations live. Put some action lines.
