[INTRO TO MMA] PROJECT FOR FINALS: INSTRUCTIONAL WEBPAGE

Basic Line Art and Coloring Tutorial in Paint Tool Sai 

                INTRODUCTION

                        With the rise of technological advancements, almost everything can be done with gadgets and computers. This includes drawing and painting. Nowadays, there are many art and graphics applications intended to be used by artists to make digital illustrations and graphics. There are many drawing applications available for us to chose from, but Easy Paint Tool Sai stands out the most because of it's minimalist design and it's user-friendly interface which makes it one of the best applications for artists who wants to explore or start making art digitally. 

 

WATCH THIS STEP BY STEP TUTORIAL 

DO IT YOURSELF CHALLENGE

I've provided a g-drive folder with Paint Tool Sai and a sample JPEG sketch for you to follow this tutorial with.

Here is the link: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1V8Qh76BQGCW9GNiKzHGUqRHq9tMQQLBd?usp=sharing

GETTING FAMILIAR WITH THE WORKSPACE

MAIN WINDOW

When you open Paint Tool Sai, this is what you expect to appear. This is the main window or the workspace. It is comprised of  9 parts and a canvas. The canvas is where you draw your illustrations.

Each part is labeled with numbers to help you refer to the description below for you to be enlightened on how it works or its use.

1. Menu Bar

This is standard application menu bar.

2. Navigator

The navigator controls the workspace view scrolling/zooming/rotation.

3. Layer Panel

The layer panel controls each layer settings.

4. Color Panel

 The color panel provide drawing color selection in many ways.

5. Tool Panel

The tool panel shows tool listings and settings.

6. Quick Bar

The quick bar provide some useful buttons as shortcut.

In this panel, you can quickly access undo/redo, selection manipulation, workspace zooming/rotation/flipping, and stabilizer settings.

7. Workspace View

The workspace view shows current working canvas.

8. View Bar

The view bar controls each view selection.

9. Status Bar

The status bar reports some useful information in current status.

BASIC COLORING USING PAINT TOOL SAI

PREPARING THE LINE ART

Before starting the CG, or with the line art itself you need to do the rough sketch first. It's all up to you on how detailed you want the sketch to be.

After finishing the sketch, lower its opacity to around 10-20% and make another layer above it. Lowering the opacity will avoid confusion to the artist. 

In doing the line art. make sure that your brush settings are already set at a comfortable setting. As you can see these are the settings I've used for my brush for this piece. In doing line art, you should always use the "square brush" option, not the rounded ones.

You might also want to change pen stabilizer to a good level. This is important because it will either make you do the lineart! faster and more accurately or slower and less accurately.

In the layer above the line art as previously stated, begin doing the line art. You should also occasionally turn off the sketch layer to check on what the actual lineart looks like.

Line art finished. Before proceeding to coloring, check your line art if there are some gaps and cover them so that It'll be easier to fill entire portions using paint bucket tool.

APPLYING BASE COLORS

Create a new layer then drag it below your lineart layer. This is so that the colors you'll be applying will appear BELOW your lineart. Fill the new layer with a random pale color. This helps you spot imperfections when coloring.

Create a layer set/folder by clicking the folder icon. Label the folders so you won't be confused later when you start coloring. Make a new layer. It should automatically go inside the folder. To see if it's inside the folder, check if the layer is shorter than the folder. Do this to all parts.

Click the line art layer. Then using the magic wand and the selection tool start selecting the parts you want to color. Use the deselect tool to erase any unwanted selection. Do this to all.

Go back to the layer inside your folder then use the bucket tool to fill the areas you want to color. Use the command Ctrl + D to remove the selection applied. Do this to all parts. 

APPLYING SHADINGS

Behold the Clipping Mask. One of the most reliable features of any art software. It lets you "clip" your current layer to every visible pixel including the opacity of the layer below. Select the folder you want to put shading then make a new layer ABOVE the base layer and select the clipping group option. Do this to every shading or highlights layer.

On the clipped layer begin shading your base colors. This is the perfect time for you to experiment and familiarize yourself on this application. Also experiment on layer orders until you get your preferred look on your drawing. Using the water brush makes gradient and blends color beautifully. Do this until your illustration is finished.