Introduction

Hi everyone, Evelyn here. Hope you are all doing well. Today I'll be showing you guys some tips and tricks that I use to speed up my drawing process and I hope they will be useful to you guys.

 

Thank you!

Tip 1.) Mirroring and Compartmentalizing Layers

Part 1. Mirroring.

 

Mirroring is really important, especially in the first stage of drawing, sketching. It allows you to flip the canvas from left to right, up and down, and back as many times as you wish without actually flipping the canvas.

 

This is great because if you end up looking at your drawing for too long you might not realize that it's slightly crooked or tilted until it's too late. By mirroring the image, you'll be able to catch onto those mistakes and fix them​.

You can mirror the image by going to the navigation bar on top, and if you click on the, "flip horizontally" or "flip vertically" tap, it will appear darker, so you'll know the image is flipped.

Part 2. This is a trick I use to keep everything neat and be able to find everything quickly. I group all of my layers into different folders depending on what section of the drawing I'm doing. I even label them so I don't get confused.

 

I also like to start from back to front when I paint.

 

So typically it would be "Background" > "Skin" > "Eyes" > "Clothing" > "Hair" > "Foreground" (if it applies) > Effect Layers.

 

I generally like to leave the hair as the last thing because depending on the drawing, if a character has long hair, or hair that goes over a certain part of their clothing, I don't want the clothing layer(s) to get in the way of the hair.

 

The interesting thing about placing your layers in a folder means that you can change the setting on the layer. Lets use the "Hair" folder as an example.

 

1.) Multiply

2.) Screen

3.) Add Glow

4.) Overlay

 

Fun fact! You can also clip layers to folders! I used a raspberry red to color in the layer and clipped it to the hair "Hair" folder. You can see what interesting effects it can give.

 

1.) Normal

2.) Multiply

3.) Screen

4.) Overlay

Tip 2.) Select > Increase Pixil Size

Do you ever select and area and realize that the "Magic Wand" tool, or maybe the "Marquee Tool" didn't get the entire area?

 

It's a bit annoying having to fill in those gaps one by one, but you can increase the area you select by going to the Select Tab > Increase Pixil Size > Adjust Number.

Also if you're coloring in the area, there is a difference using the "Bucket Tool" vs using a brush tool. One comes out less jagged than the other.

 

1. Select > Fill in with "Bucket" tool.

2. Select > Expand selected Area > Increase by 2 > Fill In with "Bucket" tool.

3 .Select > Expand selected Area > Increase by 2 > Fill In with a brush.

Note:

Sometimes I have a bit of a problem getting the right colors in a drawing, especially if it has to do with a specific time of day where light colors can seem darker, and darker colors seeming light. Thankfully we can fix these errors through "Color Balance", "Tone Curve", and "Gradient Map".

 

You can also clip any of these correction layers to a layer or folder if needed, also change the setting of the layer as well.

 

Instead of changing colors through the "Hue/Saturation/Luminosity" correction layers, maybe trying out these correction layers​ will give you a faster and better result.

Tip 3.) Color Balance

"Layer Tab" > New Correction Layer > Color Balance.

 

You can also get the result by:

 

Right click on layer > New Correction Layer > Color Balance.

 

Color balance will allow us to change the colors.

It has two parts:

 

1.) Color Balance - Adjust the colors

2.) Gradient Balance - Adjust the balance of the colors, but each one will change each level separately, unlike the Color Balance that changes all three sections.

 

There is also a separate option for "Keeping Brightness"

 

Cyan < --- > Red

Magenta < --- > Green

Yellow < --- > Blue

Tip 4.) Tone Curve

"Layer Tab" > New Correction Layer > Color Balance.

 

You can also get the result by:

 

Right-click on layer > New Correction Layer > Color Balance.

 

Tone Curve will allow us to change how bright the colors are and how they contrast with each other

It has 4 Channels:

 

1.) RGB- Change brightness in all colors at the same time.

2.) Red- Change the Red

3.) Green- Change the Green

4.) Blue- Change the Blue

From Top to Bottom. Then the next row.

 

1. Original

2. Inverted

3. RGB

4. Red

5. Green

6. Blue

Tip 5.) Gradient Map

Last tip is for using a Gradient Map.

 

"Layer Tab" > New Correction Layer > Gradient Map.

 

You can also get the result by:

 

Right-click on layer > New Correction Layer > Gradient Map.

 

Gradient Map will change the colors based on the colors of the original image. It will map it out into black and white, and then once a gradient is selected, it will turn it into that.

 

You can Import, and create your own gradients, as well as add, delete, and duplicate gradients.

 

Gradient Map is divided into 3 parts.

 

1. Gradient Bar - Each bar has it's own number of nodes (little arrows on the bottom) and you can move them from left to right, add more, or delete them. You can also change the color on the bottom right in the "Mixing rate curve".

2. Gradient Set - Has a list of gradients you can pick from. You can add your own, edit pre-existing ones, or delete them. By double-clicking on your choice of gradient it'll appear under the "Color" section to the right, under "Specified Color".

3. Mixing Rate Curve - allows you to adjust how the colors blend/mix in that section or node.

 

Here is an example of one, "Sunrise (Purple)".

 

The colors were too harsh so I just adjusted the layer to "Soft Light" and lowered the opacity to 76%.

Here is a second example, "Sunrise".

 

The colors were too strong so I changed it again bu playing with the nodes. I changed the layer to "Lighten", and lowered the opacity to 34%.

Thank You!

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