Draw Something, Color the Outlines

785 Draw something, color the outlines

In this week’s free Deke’s Techniques episode, Deke shows you how to color inside the lines in Photoshop. Not, of course in a conformist way ((this is Deke after all) , but in a completely literal way that uses the colors of an abstract painting to infuse drawn outlines with color.

He begins with this soothing watercolor background from our friends at Dreamstime.com (click the link for deals and details):

An abstract watercolor from the Dreamstime image library

And this self-portrait which Deke drew, scanned, tweaked with a tablet, and then saved as a PNG to preserve the transparency:

A black-on-white sketched self-portrait by Deke

Which juxtaposes a fairly bold and crunchy self-portrait on top of a dreamy, Easter-eggy background.

The sketch outlines laid over the bright background

But with the addition of this second watercolor image (again supplied by Dreamstime)...

A darker abstract watercolor from Dreamstime

...which is applied as a clipping mask, and some layer tweaks, the lines of the portrait take on their own watercolor effect.

Colorized sketched lines and the Layers panel

Deke’s Techniques, where controlled conformity is overtaken colorful creativity.

Next entry:Combining Multiple Works of Line Art

Previous entry:Actioning a Full-Color Hedcut in Photoshop

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