Imaginative Illustration with J.P.

Targete
Volume 3: The Final Color Illustration

1. Beginning the Colorization Process

2. Painting Opaquely
3. Unifying Colors / Foreground Characters
4. Foreground Characters Continued
5. Final Foreground Character / Atmosphere
6. Overall Adjustments
7. Final Touch-ups and Thoughts

all contents copyrighT © THe gnomon Workshop and Design Studio Press
all contents copyrighT © THe gnomon Workshop and Design Studio Press

1. Beginning the Colorization Process

The whole point of creating the black and white tonal underpainting is to simplify the color painting process by
using Photoshop’s layering and color adjustment functions. This does not take away from the enjoyment of
color painting but helps the process along and creates a tighter more detailed color final.

For the color palette, I go with warmer tones similar to the sketch. I want to give the piece a classical feel as if
it were painted by a 17th century Flemish painter.

These are the first steps I do before I start colorizing the black and white tonal image:
1. Turn the image mode to RGB color.
2. Flatten the black and white image and duplicate the layer. I do this to preserve a copy of the black and white
in case I need to rework the color from the original black and white.
3. Give a general color to the whole painting. I do this by opening the color balance sliders, under image/adjust-
ment in the Photoshop toolbar. I move the green and red sliders to the right. This takes the black and white
image to a more sepia, greenish color.

I am now able to start colorizing, or glazing in color, with the brush tools. I use the brush tool with the color
dynamics on and play with a few of the sliders. Turning on color dynamics will give you color variations of the
foreground and background colors. This is a great way to get more mixtures of color into your painting.

I begin to color areas of the painting with the brush tool, I use my color sketch to help with picking colors. It’s
good to use a brush that has some texture to it, meaning not just the soft or hard brush. I use a Photoshop
brush called stucco. As you view the colorizing process, the painting will not look like it is changing in a dra-
matic fashion, it’s more of a subtle transition into color because of the tonal ground already laid out. Be aware
of your highlight colors. For this painting I want warmer highlights suggesting a stormy late afternoon with the
sun still present.

Key Points:
Decide on your color palette.
Manage your layers properly, save your black and white version.
Quickly colorize your black and white tonal image with Photoshop’s color balance adjustment.

2. Painting Opaquely

When I refer to the term “painting opaquely” I don’t necessarily mean your brush tool opacity setting has
to be at 100%. I instead mean painting on the top-most layer and building up the color. In this stage of the
painting I am moving through different areas and painting opaquely. I select local colors on the painting and
use these to paint different areas. I focus on the riders and creatures since they are the main characters and
the lighting is mostly on them. As I’m painting I try to paint over any of the remaining line-work left from the
original drawing. I do this carefully so as not to paint out contours I want to keep.

I constantly go from warm colors to cool colors - this is sometimes very subtle. Adding these subtle variants
of cools and warms creates a greater sense of real world ambient and reflected light. Have the RGB sliders
open to keep track and see the colors you are picking with the color picker. I mostly use the RGB sliders to
pick colors from (HSB sliders are fine to use also but I prefer RGB).

Imaginative Illustration with J.P. Targete volume 3: the final color illustration
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all contents copyrighT © THe gnomon Workshop and Design Studio Press

3. Unifying Colors / Foreground Characters

In the beginning of this chapter I unify the color throughout the painting with the glazing technique I
showed in chapter 1. As I attempt to harmonize the colors I go back and forth between painting opaquely
and glazing. Painting can be very spontaneous for me so I like to try different tools as I am working. One
of the tools I like to use is the smudge tool, I use it sparingly just to mold certain areas in the painting.

As I start to paint the foreground characters, the one thing I need to keep in mind is the hierarchy of value
from foreground to background. The particular warrior I’m painting is not being fully lit like some of the
characters behind him. This character has dark skin so I will need to rely on very subtle values and rendering.
Though the character is very dark I try to use a wide range of different cool and warm colors to paint him.
There is a faint light source from the upper right that is lighting his body, so I hint at that in the painting.

4. Foreground Characters Continued

In this chapter I continue to paint the foreground warriors. Though these characters are in the foreground
and not lit very brightly, their silhouettes still need to read well. The important thing to do is to keep the
edges very simple and clean so they read better. Another thing I do is I use the lasso tool to create a shape
selection around weapons so when I paint in it I get a nice crisp blade edge. I also use some of the colors and
light that emanate from the second rider’s weapon to create rim lighting on the warrior’s forms.

5. Final Foreground Character/Atmosphere

For the last foreground character I have a lot more leeway to redraw some parts of the underpainting that
were unclear. I re-draw his face a bit by painting in colors/values. Like the two before, this character is not
being affected too much by the main light source in the painting, but he is receiving a lot of bounce and
reflected light. I choose key areas on his body like his arm to show some highlights. I also like to paint some
of the areas with the brush opacity set to 50% or less so that some of the under-color can show through
- this makes it seems like traditional medium.

I might have mentioned this in my previous DVD, but it’s a point I like to repeat here, pay very close attention to
the specularity size of your highlights. The smaller and brighter the highlight the shinier and harder or wet a
surface will seem. For instance an unpolished brass knife handle will have a specular that is duller and covers
more area on the handle than a polished chrome handle. This is a simple concept to grasp but I cannot tell
you how many artist actually don’t use this in their work. Rendering realistic objects is all about balancing
values, shadows and highlights. Look at the world around you and take notice of the different highlights on
various surfaces.

I never stop adding or adjusting the background atmosphere or dust effects. This an ongoing process as I
move along with the painting. It’s just like being on a set of a film in which the director calls for more fog and
smoke. As an artist, it’s up to you to know when too much is too much etc. I like to add smoke and dust on a
separate layer, then erase the parts that cover up foreground elements.

Key Points:
To make your foreground elements read better but not over power the image, make crisp edges.
Controlling specularity/highlight size and brightness will help define material surfaces.
Atmosphere, dirt and debris is good to dirty up your painting.

Imaginative Illustration with J.P. Targete volume 3: the final color illustration
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all contents copyrighT © THe gnomon Workshop and Design Studio Press

6. Overall Adjustments

In this stage I am adjusting small and large parts of the painting. To adjust the overall lighting and values I cre-
ate an adjustment layer (found on the bottom toolbar of the layer window). I select the brightness and contrast
sliders and adjust accordingly. I turn the layer on and off to see the difference. I want to create god rays com-
ing from the upper right so I erase part of the adjustments layers to bring back the original lighting in the key
areas. I make small adjustments including tweaks to the foreground characters using the transform distort tool
and adding some rim lighting.

Key Point:
The one mistake many artist make is they tend to over-analyze their work. If you over-analyze your work you
will stifle your creativity. Their is no direct formula or magic technical information that will help you become a
creative genius. Take pride and pleasure in your abilities and work hard but don’t scrutinize your work to the
point where it stops being fun. As you make adjustments to your work keep that in mind.

7. Final Touch-up and Thoughts

Wow, what a great ride this has been. The painting is basically complete but of course there are small touch-
ups to be made. One of the touch-ups I do is on the 2nd rider, adding some highlights on him from the
light from his weapon. I also touch-up the energy smoke around the riders which helps tie the composition
together a bit more. I usually like to flatten out most of the layers I am not using, but you should always keep
a file with your layers intact in case you should need to make adjustments at a later time.

The Story Behind the “Dark Riders”

A band of mercenary pirates and warriors sailing the greek isles in search of the buried treasure of
Poseidon in ancient times find themselves ship wrecked on a forbidden island. There they find an ancient
castle/temple which was built by ancient religious fanatics who worshipped Hades. As the legend goes
Zeus, his brother was angered and jealous at the tribute temple and destroyed most of the temple. In that
destruction 3 mortal men were crushed to death in the debris: high priest Cheferus and his two servants
Glaxdemo and Rhedus. Hades, angered at his brother Zeus’s disrespect embraced the dead souls of these
priest and transformed them into avenging gods of the nether-world and rewarded each of them with
weapons, armor and mounts crafted from the deepest pools of evil in the nether-world. Any mortal who
finds themselves near the ancient temple of Hades will fall victim to his avenging wraiths and their souls
will burn in Hades’ fires for eternity.

Final Thoughts:
It’s been a fun experience doing this painting and all the steps to get to the final. I hope it was informative
and enjoyable for you as well. I love to ramble on about creativity and imagination so I’ll do just that.

Always remember your creativity and imagination are rare assets. Technique can be taught and learned
but your imagination lives deep within. You have to unleash it, embrace it... revel in it.

Think back to your favorite comic book, movie or song and how it touched your imagination when your
were a kid. Well, imagine being able to spread that feeling to others. Being an artist gives you the ability
to touch other people’s imagination, but first thing’s first, nurture your own.

J.P. Targete

Imaginative Illustration with J.P. Targete volume 3: the final color illustration
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