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RejectAll-American — Mane Tutorial
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Published: 2010-06-01 20:45:17 +0000 UTC; Views: 4445; Favourites: 123; Downloads: 48
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Description
Download for full size.A lot of people have asked me how I do my manes and tails, so I figured that I'd make a tutorial on it. It's simple, really.
I use Photoshop Elements 7, but I imagine that other programs have a similar brush (oh yes, this is all done with one brush). As for those of you who use a mouse, I don't what to tell you. I do know it's possible, because before I got my tablet I was mouse bound, but it's going to be much harder than this seems.
My only advice to you is to either invest in a tablet or lower the opacity levels. The brush I use is the Airbrush Opacity Flow. On this particular piece, my starting size was 11. I don't bother with gradually making it smaller: I jump from 11 to 3 to make my individual strands.
Any questions? Just ask.
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Comments: 36
I love this!!! 
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Could you do a paper based one? That would be a lot more helpful... 
Your art's great though!
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I can try. Traditional tutorials are somewhat harder because It's somewhat difficult to stop and scan, and make the scan turn out well enough to see, but I can try once I get a chance.
It's virtually the same process, it's just you have to mark where your highlights are going to be beforehand.
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Mmm, thanks for the advice!
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Just remember- darker strands at the bottom, shine typically in the middle!
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can shine be added to traditional art too??
Please reply!
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Shine can be added to anything. Just in traditional, you have to plan out where your shine(s) are going to be BEFORE you color because you don't have layers or a back button to create it.
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Seems likie it would take forever to do the darker and lighter strands. 
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It doesn't take near as long as it looks, but I use a tablet as well
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Hahaha, yeah I have a tablet too~ Which helps a lot!
Thanks again!
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my pleasure! you can also just use different shades of grey then use hue/saturation to change colors
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Hmm...okay! I might test that out.
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Hey I hope you don't mind me using this and your coat tutorial for Fhebral's new colouring comp...
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haha no problem!
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I'll be using your mane and tail tutorial as well although It'll take me some time to finish it! Are you entering the competition?
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Awesome! If you would post it here and send it to me, I'd love to see what you do with it!
And maybe. Really busy now with the end of the school year, commissions, and trades that I need to get done, so if I do it will probably not be the best thing I've ever done.
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I sure will!
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WOO! We use the same program! Lol, I'll have to use this soon cause it looks amazing.
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Your manes and tails are stunning. Thanks for the tutorial, I'm definitely going to use it sometime.
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oh so you delete outline the art? and how do you kno how to shade every muscle? do you look at a picture? and what tools do you use? haha sorry a lot of questions XP
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No, it's not deleted. I simply hide the layer so that I get a more accurate feel for the hair and dont have a bunch of black lines crowding the space and confusing things.
As for shading, sometimes I look at a picture, if I use a reference, but a lot of it (this picture I had nothing to go off of-it's pre-made lineart for an international contest that I'm entering and am required to use) comes from experience. You can't learn to shade over night. It just doesn't work.
As for tools. My pictures start as a sketch on normal piece of paper. I don't draw it digitally, mostly because I'm not near that good with a tablet. I sketch the picture first, then I scan it into the computer and trace over it in photoshop to make the lineart with a regular brush on normal settings, and it's a size 3. My program is Photoshop Elements 7. After that, I use grey scale for the shading/highlighting and I use the airbrush opacity flow brush on 60% opacity. Manes and tails I normally do in color, and this is how I do them.
And don't worry. Questions are meant to be answered and I'm certainly happy to answer any for you about how I color/draw. I plan to upload another tutorial on how I color the actual horse!
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could you explain grey scale plz? and if you trace your drawing how do you make your lines so straight? do you just have a really steady hand and a lot of patience? and my computer is a little slower so if i try to sketch out hair at a normal pace it doesn't work right away and does that one thing if you move the mouse too fast for the comp. (you would kno what im talking about if you have the bamboo fun tablet) and what are the airbrush tools? im fairly new at this tablet thing (as far as figuring out the settings and tools and such) i've had it for a year now but im still not really getting it as well as i think i should
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Greyscale is a matter of shading using different scales of grey and then using an overlay to create the color.
Here's how I do it:
Part 1: [link]
Part 2: [link]
As for tracing over the sketch, yes, it does take a steady hand and a lot of patience. Mostly it just takes practice. I also zoom in at least 500%. My personal tablet is a Wacom Intuos 4. I've never worked with bamboo, so I don't know what to tell you there. I also work on a laptop that has virtually nothing on it except my photoshop and tablet.
The airbrush tools should come with your program. Above your tool column when on the brush tool, there should be a drop down menu that has all the different brushes. If you roll your mouse over them, a thing should pop up telling you the name. There are several different ones, such as "clogged" but the most important one is "Airbrush Opacity Flow." It's how I do all of my shading and highlighting and it's designed specifically for the tablet pen pressure. However, experiment with all of them. You might find that a different one suits you better, and your computer.
As for the tablet, my advice would be to play with it constantly. I was a completely traditional artist before I got my tablet (It'll be a year in August). They take a lot of practice to use and it's a matter of becoming familiar with it and your program. Experiment with it- use a bunch of different brushes, change the brush settings and opacity, practice with different layer styles. That's what I did. There are also several tutorials online that can give a few helpful hints here and there.
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You're welcome!
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