First finished coloring, NEED critiques and tips please

[PattyPantz]

So this is like my second day of coloring, and I would be very appreciative if you could give me some tips on shading and whatnot, and/or point me in the direction of where I can find out how to color better.
Thank you.



Thank you for your time,
Patty.

[Telekinetic Ketchup]

you have alot of white lines showing, which probably comes from you being restricted to the lines rather than going below the lines like some sort of line ninja. Basically what you gotta do is make sure the lineart is one layer, click the select tab (if you're in photoshop) then select color range click any kind of white, that'll select all whites, then click okay, then delete all the white, then make a layer above that, fill it with black and between those two layers hold the alt key while clicking, that'll bind them together, and then you just merge em together, that'll give you clean black lineart with a nonexistant white, and thus you can make a new layer below and color.

[Electronick]

Yeah that's one way, Ketchup. You can also just set your line art layer to "Multiply" and color on layers beneath it. The colors will show through just fine, as the white of the paper on your line art layer won't shade them.

[Telekinetic Ketchup]

That's what I used to do(http://t-k-.deviantart.com/gallery/?...craps#/d1s6s5n ), but I find on darker monitors those pieces often end up looking really dirty and ugly. Which probably doesn't matter for what is clearly processed and cleaned line art like this, but if you were to do a drawing yourself it would usually end up looking somewhat awful on some peoples screens.

[PattyPantz]

Thanks for all of your replies! I'm using Gimp at the moment, since I just started, and I'm using my laptop so it's hard to be you know super accurate. I plan on getting photoshop and a graphic tablet soon, I just want to be sure it will be a good investment.
If you have any ways for taking away whites with Gimp (besides being a line ninja) please do tell.
And keep the critiques and tips coming please, it really means a lot!

[JJ Mckool]

Try just a good ol' wireless mouse, if you don't have one. Photoshop's set up fairly decent for em. Keep one hand on ctrl+z, and you can make changes pretty fast. If you go for the Elements version you'll save a bunch of cash and as far as I know, still get all the Photoshop mainstays. I got a tablet right now, but can't use it so I've had to switch from Painter to Photoshop.

[PattyPantz]

Here is my flatted (I think that's the word) coloring of a pic of green lantern I found online, I used a modified version of Telekinetic's advice in Gimp, since I don't have photoshop, so:

Now, I'm not really sure where to go from here, if any of you could be so kind as to tell me what I should shade or what I need to fix and what color I should make his gloves, that would be swell.
Also, I did this with the paintbrush mostly, should I have used the paintbucket on most of it or what?
Thank you, oh and here as the uncolored image:

Thank you again for all of your help!

[sirandal]

Take a look at a few GL comics to get an idea of where to make your "cuts" if you are wanting to do a cel shaded style. Basically it boils down to you deciding where the light is and then picturing in your mind where the highlights would fall and where the deeper shadows would be. It takes a lot of practice, so don't worry if you aren't happy with your first tries.

Your flats are much cleaner in this GL versus the Superman, though!

[pell]

Thanks for all of your replies! I'm using Gimp at the moment, since I just started, and I'm using my laptop so it's hard to be you know super accurate. I plan on getting photoshop and a graphic tablet soon, I just want to be sure it will be a good investment.
If you have any ways for taking away whites with Gimp (besides being a line ninja) please do tell.
And keep the critiques and tips coming please, it really means a lot!

Yay, GIMP! I'm using it on Linux. What do you want to do with Photoshop that you can't do with the GIMP?

I'm also using Bamboo, an inexpensive Wacom tablet that works fine. You might check it out. Even pros like Freddie Williams III use it.

There's also MyPaint, another free software app that works really well with the tablet. I admit I haven't figured out how to get pressure sensitivity working well for GIMP, but it works beautifully with MyPaint.

[PattyPantz]

Yay, GIMP! I'm using it on Linux. What do you want to do with Photoshop that you can't do with the GIMP?

I'm also using Bamboo, an inexpensive Wacom tablet that works fine. You might check it out. Even pros like Freddie Williams III use it.

There's also MyPaint, another free software app that works really well with the tablet. I admit I haven't figured out how to get pressure sensitivity working well for GIMP, but it works beautifully with MyPaint.

Yeah, my I got CS5 from my friend yesterday, so I'm trying to use that now, and I ordered a Wacom Bamboo tablet too! So I'm just trying to practice my coloring and figuring out photoshop/gimp.