Now that the black outline is done its ready for colouring in. This is the boring part of the caricature…but its got to be done. If the black outline was done using normal pencil/pen and paper then it will need to be scanned into the computer at about 400dpi. Once opened in photoshop you will need to go through the next series of steps to turn the black and white scan into a seperate layer. First, turn the image into grayscale by clicking Image > Mode > Grayscale, then click on Layer > Duplicate Layer. Now we have 2 layers on the layers palette, the black and white image in grayscale and above it the duplicate of that layer.
Now, i dont know how all this works but…. it works, if you click the topmost layer (background copy), turn the layer into CMYK Image mode by clicking Image > Mode > CMYK colour, and click dont flatten on the pop up menu.
Then on the layers palette click on the drop down menu and click on Multiply. Now click on the bottom layer in the layers palette called ‘background’ and then on the top menu bar click Select > All, make sure the background colour is white and then hit the delete key on the keyboard. THATS IT!!!.
The result is a white background layer and the black outline layer above (background copy – which you can rename to black outline by double clicking it). Both ways of completing the black outline (1) pencil & paper, scanned in and (2) computer tablet completed like part 1 of the tutorial should now be at the same place. Both have a white background and above it a black outline. So now we start blocking in the colours.
First off we need to make another layer to go inbetween the white background layer and the black outline. Click on Layer > New > Layer and a new layer will appear in the layers palette (make sure its in between the other 2 layers). In the diagram here you can see Layer 1 inbetween the layers ‘black outline’ and ‘background’.
Now click on Layer 1 in the layers palette and you can begin blocking in the colour on the caricature with the paintbrush tool. You will notice the colour will go underneath the black outline image not over it so its very easy to block it all in, here i have saved the PC academy caricature at various stages to show you how it takes shape. You dont need to match the correct colours too but it helps to make it similar to the colour you want, just make sure everything is filled in with blocks of different colours as its the next stage where you will start to add all the detail and volume… which i’ll tell you about tomorrow!
tomorrow – part III ‘Adding volume and detail’
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