Hello everyone! I'm somewhat of a new artist and I'm looking for some help coloring in my graphite drawings. I'm putting them on the tag omoreshi (there's only 1 post as of me writing this so you'll need to type it all the way in) so you can see what I mean. Right now I'm digitally coloring them in using a multiplication layer in a very old version of photoshop but in the future I'd like to get some more solid methodology. Other tips would help too!

Judging from the one pic I see in your profile, getting a quality image to start with is really something that needs to be handled before any question of how to color. That upload is probably going to get deleted because of quality standards, frankly, and the blurriness is a big factor there.

It seems likely that the base image was photographed using a camera phone. It's unclear whether the blurriness is due to bad focusing (which can be helped via adding more lighting, as long as the lighting doesn't directly hit the page) or due to digital zoom (zoom settings > 1.0 are just equivalent to upscaling the image, more or less; there's no good reason that I know of to use them for this purpose.)

There are other technical issues. Contrast is a big one. But (assuming you are intent on uploading here) there's not much point in discussing those other issues until this blurriness issue is addressed.

savageorange said:
Judging from the one pic I see in your profile, getting a quality image to start with is really something that needs to be handled before any question of how to color. That upload is probably going to get deleted because of quality standards, frankly, and the blurriness is a big factor there.

It seems likely that the base image was photographed using a camera phone. It's unclear whether the blurriness is due to bad focusing (which can be helped via adding more lighting, as long as the lighting doesn't directly hit the page) or due to digital zoom (zoom settings > 1.0 are just equivalent to upscaling the image, more or less; there's no good reason that I know of to use them for this purpose.)

There are other technical issues. Contrast is a big one. But (assuming you are intent on uploading here) there's not much point in discussing those other issues until this blurriness issue is addressed.

I don't own a scanner so I need to use a public one, and my drawings are incredibly small (that one was abt 5.5in by 3.5in) so I understand your blurring concerns. I uploaded another drawing, which may be better? It looks a little better to me. It's a shame that it'll get deleted though, that makes me sad, especially since 8 other people have already added it to their favorites.

For one thing, you could clean up the specks and unwanted pencil strokes. Plus, you could manually smudge your pencil strokes to blend in the shadows and then overlay them if you want it to be darker.

alexyorim said:
For one thing, you could clean up the specks and unwanted pencil strokes. Plus, you could manually smudge your pencil strokes to blend in the shadows and then overlay them if you want it to be darker.

Cleanup does sound helpful! I could probably do that digitally. I recently bought tortillions but I haven't used them much yet. I'm still learning! Thanks for the input though

goldenreshi said:
Cleanup does sound helpful! I could probably do that digitally. I recently bought tortillions but I haven't used them much yet. I'm still learning! Thanks for the input though

👍🏽

This second upload is definitely better, blur is not a major issue there. There are a few things at this point:

• Use the clone tool with a smooth brush to remove the holes leading down the left side[1]. That's a compositional problem that should be a simple fix.
• Digital blending is certainly a possibility. The direction of blending matters though - I'd suggest blending along the form to start with. Personally I'd say it's easier to blend directionally by hand, unless you have a graphics tablet.
• It's not entirely clear, but I think from the line quality that having a softer pencil (2B or darker) would help significantly. That should produce a less scratchy result. My guess is you are currently using a B or HB, which is fine for linework but is more difficult to produce solid tones with. A different pencil tip may also help (example)

[1] Clone is GIMP's name for this tool, I don't know what PS's name for it is.

savageorange said:
This second upload is definitely better, blur is not a major issue there. There are a few things at this point:

• Use the clone tool with a smooth brush to remove the holes leading down the left side[1]. That's a compositional problem that should be a simple fix.
• Digital blending is certainly a possibility. The direction of blending matters though - I'd suggest blending along the form to start with. Personally I'd say it's easier to blend directionally by hand, unless you have a graphics tablet.
• It's not entirely clear, but I think from the line quality that having a softer pencil (2B or darker) would help significantly. That should produce a less scratchy result. My guess is you are currently using a B or HB, which is fine for linework but is more difficult to produce solid tones with. A different pencil tip may also help (example)

[1] Clone is GIMP's name for this tool, I don't know what PS's name for it is.

Thank you! I'm using mostly an HB with work in charcoal and .3 size H mechanical drafting lead. I plan to do most of my blending physically based on your description of the issues with blending digitally, but erasing digitally is still feasible. I did some practice with my tortillions and I'm getting better with them! Other than that, I'll try out a 2B pencil in the future. Thanks for all your help!

goldenreshi said:
Thank you! I'm using mostly an HB with work in charcoal and .3 size H mechanical drafting lead. I plan to do most of my blending physically based on your description of the issues with blending digitally, but erasing digitally is still feasible. I did some practice with my tortillions and I'm getting better with them! Other than that, I'll try out a 2B pencil in the future. Thanks for all your help!

Yes, start with 2B pencils. Once you get used to shading using 2B pencils, go with pencils with darker shades like 4B or 5B.

alexyorim said:
Once you get used to shading using 2B pencils, go with pencils with darker shades like 4B or 5B.

Do you mean by default? It's good for practicing gesture and modelling, but it's very easy to make a dirty drawing that is too dark, if relying only on a dark grade, IME. That makes the forms weak/'soggy'.
(with some exceptions -- things with generally dark local color like metal)

I think this video does a good job of defining how to structure shading and avoid some pitfalls.

If I've misunderstood you then never mind (but the video is still good. Honestly, I think every artist should watch it, it's that good)

savageorange said:
Do you mean by default? It's good for practicing gesture and modelling, but it's very easy to make a dirty drawing that is too dark, if relying only on a dark grade, IME. That makes the forms weak/'soggy'.
(with some exceptions -- things with generally dark local color like metal)

I think this video does a good job of defining how to structure shading and avoid some pitfalls.

If I've misunderstood you then never mind (but the video is still good. Honestly, I think every artist should watch it, it's that good)

If I keep practicing, I'd hope that I can eventually overcome any pitfalls that darker grades cause, although I admit that I digitally darken my drawings so using a darker grade (or at least pressing harder) could do my shading some justice. Cool video btw! I appreciate it.

savageorange said:
Do you mean by default? It's good for practicing gesture and modelling, but it's very easy to make a dirty drawing that is too dark, if relying only on a dark grade, IME. That makes the forms weak/'soggy'.
(with some exceptions -- things with generally dark local color like metal)

I think this video does a good job of defining how to structure shading and avoid some pitfalls.

If I've misunderstood you then never mind (but the video is still good. Honestly, I think every artist should watch it, it's that good)

Huh. There's subtlety and a line between light and shadow. The more we know.

goldenreshi said:
If I keep practicing, I'd hope that I can eventually overcome any pitfalls that darker grades cause

Sure. I wasn't saying that darker grades are bad or shouldn't be used. I realize that might have been ambiguous.
I was just attempting to point out that Alex's message had two extremely different possible interpretations, because of his use of a particular idiom ("go with"), and I thought this could cause an unrecognized misunderstanding. In either case, obviously he is entitled to his opinion and you're capable of deciding for yourself whether it's advice that will work for you.

I'm just still not sure what that opinion actually IS.

savageorange said:
Sure. I wasn't saying that darker grades are bad or shouldn't be used. I realize that might have been ambiguous.
I was just attempting to point out that Alex's message had two extremely different possible interpretations, because of his use of a particular idiom ("go with"), and I thought this could cause an unrecognized misunderstanding. In either case, obviously he is entitled to his opinion and you're capable of deciding for yourself whether it's advice that will work for you.

I'm just still not sure what that opinion actually IS.

Pardon for the confusion due to my vague choice of words. What I meant to say was, once you shade a drawing with a 2B pencil, shade where you want to put the darker parts of your drawing with a darker grade pencil like a 4B. If you overrely on 2B for shading, such as shading on hard pressure, then if gives off a pencil glare.

alexyorim said:
Pardon for the confusion due to my vague choice of words. What I meant to say was, once you shade a drawing with a 2B pencil, shade where you want to put the darker parts of your drawing with a darker grade pencil like a 4B. If you overrely on 2B for shading, such as shading on hard pressure, then if gives off a pencil glare.

True. Thanks for clarifying. Doesn't seem to be a problem when scanning. Well, maybe that's my scanner. Very light tones / harder grades disappearing from the scan is more of an issue. Apparently that problem is universal + so people aiming to digitally color tend to just omit very light tones from the paper copy.