[artes] Tutorials . Sun and Sea, Takes the Sunlight

Color Style (v1)

As per always usual, the start point is fairly simple and straightforward: pick, resize, and crop your base image down to a 100x100 pixel image. In this case, I've selected this image of the Hitachiin brothers and cropped to a section of just Kaoru.

Now we get into some very basic adjustments and color bases. So, first, we'll create a new layer and flood-fill it with the color #2a2005 (it'll look like this). This layer will be set to Exclusion, 70% opacity. Well... that's kind of eeeew-looking, isn't it? Suddenly, Kaoru's looking awfully blue.

Well that's not looking too pleasant. So let's try adding something more. In comes another new layer, this time flood-filled with the color #edd3da (it'll look like this). This one gets set to Color Burn, 60% opacity. That... really didn't change too much of his blue tinting. But it made things a little more bold.

New layer once again! This time, we're flood-filling with the color #8282db (it'll look like this). This time, we'll set it to Soft Light, 70% opacity. ...Okay, and now he's suddenly turning into a purple alien.

Now, I'll have you know that I'm a big fan of colors standing out. A big fan. Thus, we're going to increase our saturation by adding a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
Saturation: +40
We'll leave the layer's properties set to Normal, 100% opacity. Suddenly, his hair and his mouth and that tree off in the background are starting to stand out.

We're getting somewhere. Maybe. Now we're going to do another adjustment layer, this time in Selective Color. We'll go with:
Neutrals: -40, -5, -15, +5
Keep this one set to Normal, 100% opacity, as well. Yes, I know, we're really making that purple skin much worse.

But never fear, we're going to fix that all up right now in one shot. Time for another adjustment layer; this time we'll go with Color Balance.
Midtones: -49, 0, -15
Highlights: +35, +24, -19
Hit OK, and keep your settings on Normal, 100% opacity. Look at that; he's all cute and brightly human again.

Now, I wanted to brighten it up just a little more, so I duplicated the Color Balance layer and set this duplicate to Soft Light, 85% opacity. And that's that.

Color Style (v2)

As per always usual, the start point is fairly simple and straightforward: pick, resize, and crop your base image down to a 100x100 pixel image. In this case, I've selected this image of the Hitachiin brothers and cropped to a section of just Hikaru.

We're going to start by making a new layer and flood-filling it with the color #2c30dc (it'll look like this). This layer gets set to Exculsion, 100% opacity. Yes, freaky yellow tones are, indeed, freaky.

Now we're going to just duplicate the previous layer and leave the settings exactly as they were; our base image is now rather dulled and grayed out...

...So we're going to duplicate the base layer, drag this new layer up above the two blue exculsion layers, and set it to Overlay, 100% opacity. Welcome to the newer, brighter version of our base.

As I've said, I love having colors stand out, so we're going to dive right in into a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
Saturation: +40
Everything's starting to pop a bit now as we leave this layer at Normal, 100% opacity.

Here we're going to start some adjustments to all of the color levels; time for a new adjustment layer in Selective Coloring
Reds: -90, 0, +85, -25
We leave this at Normal, 100% opacity; not too much of a change, but Hikaru's hair is a little more orange now.

Now for a new Selective Color adjustment layer again.
Reds: -80, 0, +100, +10
Yellows: -100, 0, -35, -55
Cyans: +100, -35, -90, +85
Blues: +100, -80, -35, +100
Magentas: -20, +30, +100, +10
Neutrals: -15, -10, -25, -20
Kept at Normal, 100%, we're going to start seeing anything based in red or yellow start to kind of fade a bit while anything based in blue or cyan begins to pop out some more.

Once more with feeling! Make a third Selective Color adjustment layer.
Reds: -75, 0, +69, -15
Yellows: -100, 0, -100, -65
Magentas: -45, +65, +50, -15
Once again, we'll keep it to Normal, 100% opacity. All of our base-red and base-yellow colors are now nice and soft.

All that's left is just a nice, finishing touch. For this, I went with one final adjustment layer, in the form of Color Balance.
Midtones: -39, 0, 34
Highlights: +20, 0, 0
Once again, we'll leave it at Normal, 100% opacity. And there you have it, a nice, base-blue style with soft, almost creamy reds and yellows.