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RebeccaStapp — Grayscale to Color Tutorial
Published: 2010-09-30 02:27:12 +0000 UTC; Views: 13572; Favourites: 319; Downloads: 142
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Description
As requested, a grayscale to color tutorial.
Download for full size.
Yes, there is a lot of text. I hope I explained everything properly. As always, if you have any questions, just ask!
It was brought to my attention that I used a couple of terms that not everyone may be familiar with, so here are some clarifications:
*complementary colors are color that sit directly across from each other on the color wheel such as:
Red and Green
Yellow and Violet
Orange and Blue
[link]
Using complementary colors, or colors that are closely adjacent to those colors, creature depth and variety in your shadows and highlights. Try it!
**A good definition of contrast: [link]
Related content
Comments: 67
Truly useful! I have never thought about transitioning from normal painting to greyscales.
I usually just paint everything, shadows, lights, colors, shadow in colors, lights in color. To be honest it tends to be exhasperating, plus I always end up "forgetting" the initial painting concept to adjust it to what im doing. So this is a gamechanger, thanks mate.
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You know what, this is the simplest greyscale tutorial i've ever seen and I like it 
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Great! I'm glad that it's helpful.
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Ooo, that sounds pretty! 
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This was excellent, thank you.
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Hope it helps! And good luck.
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I have a question. How do you do your greyscale? I have followed two, the brush painting way and the burn/dodge way. I'm not so good with the brush way, but it looks really good.
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I mostly use a hard round brush with the opacity set to pen pressure and the master opacity turned down to less than 30%, usually much less, especially when blending. And I paint on the shading using just regular grayscale colors. For softer areas I turn down the brush hardness to around 50%.
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I may try that, if you don't mind. 
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No worries! I hope my rambling is helpful in some way, lol.
I don't think I've ever tried to grayscale with the dodge/burn tools but I bet it would work just the same if you started with a medium gray base. I used to use dodge/burn all the time, but I can't seem to get the effects that I want from them anymore.
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I used the dodge/burn in my last 3 uploads. As long as it is not too strong, it works well with greyscale. I applied to a college for Graphic Design, and right now I wish high school was over so I could just practice creating horse art...
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Looks like it turned out well! 
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Thank you.
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Thanks!
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thanks for the tips :3 I'll stop using straight white and black when doing my gray scales
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it will take a while to break out of the old habit XD
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used it here [link] can you tell me what you think? this was my first time doing gray scale and i have a mouse no pad
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Thanks for letting me know.
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This is great and I'd love to try it but I was just wondering-is there actually any advantage to colouring grayscale because it seems to be more complicated
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I think it depends on the person. For me the advantage is really focusing on the shading and getting the forms and details just right without having to worry about mixing colors at the same time. I don't know if it is more complicated (it is actually easier for me) but there are definitely more steps.
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Well i'm trying it out now and I guess i'll just have to see which I prefer
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Wonderful! You made it very simple for people like me. xD
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Excellent! I was going for simple! 
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Excellent tut! Will definitely be using
For step 1 (using the greys), did you smudge the greys together, or use another technique?
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For step 1 I painted with a hard, round brush set to pen pressure for opacity, sort of in a blobby swirly motion. I do the shadows first, then smudge really lightly, then do a new layer of highlights and smudge lightly. It does lose a bit of texture if you smudge too much, so blending as much as possible with the paint brush helps.
Hope it helps!
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Ah, thanks! Yes, it does help
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Girl. You saved my life. I've been searching dA like mad for good tut. Your tut is by far the easiest to understand and actually do. I've been grayscale shading like crazy but I can never seem to get the colors on right. This will surely help me!
You are awesome for making this. Thank you Bec!!
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Aw, that means a lot! I'm glad it's understandable.
And homg! I saw what you made with it for "practice." -faint- So prettyful! I'd say you got the colors spot on.
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Perfectly understandable!
Thanks love! All thanks to you!
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Very nice! this will help a lot! thanks for putting in the time to make this tutorial!
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Wonderful! I'm glad it helps!
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You can also use that to change eye colour in people
Just putting that out there.
But yeah, thanks for this. It's a useful little trick, that may come in handy in the future.
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Yes, yes you can. 
That was the first thing I tried doing when I started fiddling around with changing color, actually! Hehehe.
I hope it helps you out some.
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Well thanks
I didn't know how to change from Grayscale though, so it's super handy
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And now you know! 
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wonderful description and pictures
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