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Layering in Photoshop
By  Liz Chesterman
This technique should work in Photoshop versions from at least
4 and up.
So you have some line art and you want to layer it, or in other words, have
the lines by themselves on one layer so you can put colors underneath. With
this technique if you want to color your lines or play with them in some manner
without interfering with any othe rpart of your image. Should your line art
not be as contrasted as you like, check out Image -> Adjust -> Levels
and play with the sliders until you you get the amount of contrast you like.
The anime caricature is Taylor Hord, fellow Elfwood artist.
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Anyhow, here's my ready-to-layer line art. Head on over to the Channels
pallet. Both greyscale and RGB work for this. Just remember, don't
flatten when you change to RGB mode later if you started in Greyscale.
Anyway, hit the little dotted circle on your channels pallet, which
will select the white parts of your image fully, the grey parts partially,
and the black parts not at all.
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| Hit the little dotted circle on your channels pallet, which will select
the white parts of your image fully, the grey parts partially, and the black
parts not at all. |
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Going from
<=- to -=>
you only have to hit Ctrl/Cloverleaf+Shift+I
or
Select -> Inverse.
Now your blacks are fully selected, your greys still partially,
and your whites not at all.
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On your Layers pallet, hit the little button that looks like a piece
of paper with a folded corner. This makes a new layer. (Or Layer -
New -> Layer, or Ctrl/Cloverleaf+Shift+N, Enter.)
You will be put on the new layer automatically. (Note: Your document's
bottom layer is probably 'Background,' not 'Layer 1.') If your default
colors aren't already black on white, then hit D on your keyboard,
then X to switch them.
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Now, Ctrl/Cloverleaf+Backspace will fill black in all your fully
selected areas, grey in partially, whites not at all. (See the correlation?)
You can deselect, then go back to your background layer, hit X
again to switch your colors back, and Ctrl/Cloverleaf+Backspace
to clear your background with white, or any other color of your choice.
(Whatever color is in your bottom color box will be the fill color.)
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If you like, go back to your layer with the lines and rename it 'lines'
or whatnot, and hit the Lock / Preserve Transparency box.
This means anything on the layer is locked so you cannot make new marks;
only work with what is there. (Thi is what makes it easy to color the
lines later.)
You're all set now. Just add another new layer above your background
and below your lines, and you can start coloring.
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FARP Article Guestbook
| Date | Name | Comment | | | 11 Dec 2003 |  Blackdragon286 | You wrote: "Just add another new layer above your background and below your lines, and you can start coloring.". My question is: How do I add a layer above my background and below my lines? | |
| 27 Dec 2003 | Jess | I'm starting out with photoshop elements 1.0 and I'm having a hard time but I think its because I'm not working with only the line art. I cant find the channels pallette! Its not in my pallet well. help please! | |
| 12 Feb 2004 |  Siv June Hebnes | Jess: I donīt know your version of photoshop, but make sure every toolbox is opened (you hit the button "window", then see if there is anything thatīs not shown. ) If everything seems to be shown, make sure youīve taken a good look on the boxes to see if there are more choices than you thought. If you still donīt find anything, I donīt know.. I just know versions 5-7. | |
| 26 Mar 2004 | Faith | Okay, maybe I'm just photoshop stupid >< I read the tutorial on coloring and then yours, but I can't correlate the two. It may be because I'm using photoshop 7, but I'm *so* confused. My blacks are black, and now I want to color but I can't get rid of my gray scale. Can you please help me? Or should I just give up and chunk this stupid program? | |
| 9 Nov 2004 | Maisha 'Elenwyn' Foster-O'Neal | Okay, I'm having trouble following this tutorial. It seems like whatever you're trying to tell us is something that would be very useful to me, if only I could figure out what it is that you're saying! First off, what is this mysterious "Cloverleaf" key? I don't seem to have it on my keyboard. Also, exactly what is it that you're trying to do? I have some drawings that are just black pen linework on paper, then scanned in to my computer, and I'm looking for an easy way to colour these comics in Photoshop without having to create a new layer and redrawing (by mouse/hand) all the "background" linework in that new layer. I tried to follow what your tutorial explains, but haven't had any success and am now slightly more confused than before I started. Can you clarify or add to the tutorial maybe? | |
| 1 May 2005 | blitz | this was so clear and simple, thank you! I was so confused by other sites' tutorials and all the layer this, layer that instructions. The only confusing thing in your tutorial was the phrase 'coverleaf' key -- I worked out it was the asterisk/star key (*) but I'd never heard it called a cloverleaf before. Maybe it's just us Brits though...! | |
| 24 Jul 2005 | Joiku <perhospaimen@hot...com> | Hi! I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for making this so simple and clear. Now I finally figured out how to color a handmade lineart. Searched throught a bunch of tutorials but didn't understand a bit of them. I'm glad you made this. Again, thanks! *heart* | |
| 6 Oct 2006 |  Marika Viklund | Oooh! I think I almost understood it! Now goin' to check if I can do this in PS 9! Arrgh... I have never used Photoshop before at all! It's so complicated, so thank you! This is very helpful!  | |
| 27 Apr 2007 | Anonymous | If I can answer a few people's questions...
- Photoshop Elements (at least my version) does not have a channels palette, sadly. This technique only works in real photoshop.
- Using 'multiply' works fine, but it means you can only really have one layer for your colours. This technique is great because you can have multiple opaque colour layers overlapping each other underneath your lines
- To add a layer 'above your background and below your lines,' click on the background layer and then create a new layer (shift-control-n)
- I believe that only Mac keyboards have the 'cloverleaf' key. If you're using a PC, just use select-inverse.
... And that's all I've got for the moment. | |
| 9 Apr 2008 |  Ryan Corwin Costal | what the heck is clover leaf?
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