Manga Coloring Tutorial

Well, this is something new. Requested by aleyshav ages and ages ago. If you're reading this, I'm sorry it took so long. AP tests happened. I give you full permission to slap me with a fish. >_>

Going from to .

Involves: PS7, curves, and color balance.

01: I chose this scene, cropped the image, and used filter >> sharpen >> unsharp mask a few times. (There were problems with the original image I needed to fix - such as the black borders - but since that wouldn't be relevant to any other image, I'm going to skip those steps.)



02: I created a new layer on top of the picture, and set the new layer to "multiply." Using a few image references and the brush tool, I colored in the characters.



03: I made another layer on top of the colors and set it to "multiply." I flooded the layer with a light yellowish peach color using the paint bucket. (If you want to be technical, it was #FFF0D6.)



04: Then I made a new curves layer by going to layer >> new adjustment layer >> curves. What I basically wanted to do was make the image brighter and the colors slightly redder. Other than that, I just played around with it until I thought it looked good. The specific inputs and outputs were:
RGB: 131,124
RED: 140,155
GREEN: 131,124
BLUE: 143,140



05: Made a color balance layer over the curves layer by going to layer >> new adjustment layer >> color balance. Everything that I said about the curves layer applies here too. The points were:
MIDTONES: 10, 5, 7
SHADOWS: 15, 0, 5
HIGHLIGHTS: 10, 5, 2



06: So then I pasted this scratch texture over the layers, and set it to "color dodge." The change is really so subtle that I probably could have skipped it.



07: I made a new layer, set it to "multiply," and colored in the sky.



08: Finally, I made another layer and set it to "lighten." I chose a reddish orange color (#F15916 if you really need to know) and a soft-edge brush, and highlighted a few regions. At which point, I was done.