Urg, I'm not as good at this as you guys are-27 March 2007

[CameronCN]

How you manage to color at such a low resolution is beyond me.

[Richard K Niner]

Zooming in and using smaller digital brushes? (In addition to the multiply layer)

[Sage]

Ah, Codecat and I have different ways of doing it. I was thinking of doing it his way, but I figured it would be easier to do backgrounds my way.

But yeah, first work on the coloring of the characters. Easiest way is to zoom in and make a new multiply layer. It'll only work on a white background though

I don't know what CodeCat uses to actually fill it in though. I use the polygonal lasso.

As for the muzzles, the pen tool works wonders.

There's a tutorial on the House Rules website but if you want I can go more in-depth

[CodeCat]

I use a multiply layer group with several sub-layers (set to normal blending) to create a hierarchy. That way I can paint background behind the characters without trouble (except when they're white, i.e. transparent).

To fill most surfaces, I use the magic wand tool on the surface. Then I expand the selection by 1 pixel, and most of it is already done. Fill it in, and then check for any pixels in corners that escaped the selection.

I often like to fill in the selection with blue first. That way, it's easy to see where some bits missed. And it also helps in spotting areas that I somehow forgot when I applied the real colour ('hey what's that blue bit doing there? Oh, damnit!'). I normally use that trick on the background only, not the characters, except for Ozy cause it's hard to spot when you missed a grey-on-grey pixel. So that's how we got our blue Ozy.

For the muzzle border, I just use a soft eraser and go along the edge, making white where I go. The hardness is always 25%, and the size depends on the detail the character is at. For smaller characters I use size 5 or 6, sometimes 4 or even 3 if they're particularly tiny. But upwards the more detailed they get. Usually 10 for a close-up face shot.

[CameronCN]

Sounds like too much work. I just wanted to try it out. It seems obvious that I should stick to my own art. Seriously, with all that stuff that needs to be done I could probably draw a whole page of my comic in the same amount of time.

[Richard K Niner]

Seriously, with all that stuff that needs to be done I could probably draw a whole page of my comic in the same amount of time.

I think I can see what you mean... when I do my drawings, I spend more time colouring them than I do actually drawing them.

Then again, my colouring consists of: clearing away the specks of dust, fixing the line art (either where I already noticed the error before scanning, or where the first step caused problems), flat-shading at 300dpi with nothing but the pencil tool (I don't trust the wand anymore) and flood fill, smudging markings for a better fur effect, and shading/lighting, all before scaling down to 96dpi. That being said, guess how many of those steps are required for colouring an O&M strip

[Sage]

Sounds like too much work. I just wanted to try it out. It seems obvious that I should stick to my own art. Seriously, with all that stuff that needs to be done I could probably draw a whole page of my comic in the same amount of time.

Think of it as coloring in a coloring book using a $600+ box of colored pencils.

Mmm...

[Richard K Niner]

If you're referring to the computer hardware, I'll point out that I got it for other purposes. If you're referring to Photoshop, I've got a free alternative that doesn't require piracy.

[Sage]

Or, you could of course use GIMP I guess...

[Tom Flapwell]

I look at the second panel now and think, "Powerwag!"

I look at the last panel and think, "Antisemite."

[CameronCN]

I look at the second panel now and think, "Powerwag!"

I look at the last panel and think, "Antisemite."

????

[Mista_B]

I actually like that coloring as it is. No offence to the really talented colorists here, but having the bulk of O&M strips colored in identical style, well, it's cool that it's in color, but something like this can be fun and interesting too.

I wouldn't mind seeing other strips colored in this style if you're up to it, CameronCN.

[Sage]

I do agree that the somewhat faded and chopped-up backgrounds can look nice...