The Adventures of Simpbad (& other fanart)

But 1st: The Alpha of the Layer & Understanding Transparency

To understand any amount of how I do this I need to explain what the alpha of a layer is. It is the part of the layer that has something on it. The rest of the area is transparent which lets you see what's under it. Each layer sits on top of the other like a stack of paper cut outs.

You can see the green line on the layer under the line art layer:

There are a few different ways I manipulate the alpha for coloring any aspect of my art. I use all of them in my line art for different affects.

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Method 1 Every program I've ever used to make digital art has alpha locking -more recently called as transparency locking. This is a layer setting you can turn on and off. When the layer is transparency locked you cannot change the opacity level of any pixel of the layer. This makes is easier to draw new details in the active area without changing the edge.

Here you can see the alpha/transparency lock button in the layers tab and the layer with the locked symbol on it so you know it is locked. (Make sure the layer you want to lock is the one you select before hitting the button) Then I select all (Select>Select all). (CSP brings up a bar of options when you select anything with the selection tool)

Then I pick the color I want to change the lineart to and click the fill button. If I don't lock the alpha/transparency first, this happens when I fill. (Since the FX and signature were made on a layer above the lineart you can still see them.)

While the lineart is locked I air brush lighter and darker areas. (I couldn't get the cursor to show where the brush was but you get the idea) Using the alpha transparency lock method has one major down side. If I want to change something afterwards, I have to completely redo the air brushed areas or it won't match anymore. It can also be used for affect, but often I want the color to be soft or smooth. (you can see some darker lines in the hair in right example)

To get around this I do all of my air brushing on a separate clipping layer. You can get a lot of cool FX with this so it's still a useful method.

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Method 2 Clipping layers use the layer they are clipped to as a layer mask.

(Quick explanation of layer masking:

Layer masks are also a standard tool. They let you erase the pixels of a layer without actually erasing them so you can make them reappear whenever you want. I will regularly draw my characters naked and bald, so that I can get the anatomy and posing right before I draw the clothes and hair different layers on top. I use a layer mask to hide the areas of the body covered by clothes or hair.

Since I drew this all on one layer, here is an example with the green line from earlier: SS1- Select the layer mask created on the layer in the layers window to edit it. The white outline shows if you have the layer or mask selected (example above and below). To define what areas are masked you erase on the mask (displays black on the mask preview); then you can draw to bring back the erased area. In other programs you might need to only draw on the mask in black and white (black erases, white reveals).

SS2- that the green line is erased in the same spots that are black on the layer mask.

SS3- And if I draw on the layer (not the layer mask) only the white areas of the layer mask are visible.

SS4- If I then delete the layer mask all of the green on the layer, that had been hidden, shows back up.

Now back to clipping layers)

To clip a layer, place it above the layer you want to clip it to. Then click the Clip to Layer Below option in the layer window. Some programs hide the option in the layers menu or when right clicking a layer. After clipping the layer, I air brush on it.

When I unclip the layer I airbrush on you can see that the full brush strokes of the airbrush are there even when they are hidden by clipping. This lets me adjust the lineart if I realize I need change something after I've already messed with the final colors. I often keep all of the final lineart colors to the clipping layer. This lets me draw the linart in different colors to make it easier to see separations.

In CSP, clipping layers can be stacked onto the same base layer which can also be a folder of layers instead of just one. You can also clip folders to layers or other folders, however the layer settings will be lost and only the folder's layer setting will count. Most other programs I've messed with can only have one clipping layer and have to clip to the affected layer directly (won't clip to folders). An example of stacked clipping layers from a different project:

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Now for the even fancier stuff:

I'm going to explain these in the order I found them and why I went searching.

In CSP there are a ton of 2 toned brushes that really speed up the process. I've made a few of my own pattern brushes to make drawing characters signature outfits a lot easier. These brushes work by using you main and sub colors at the same time. (The main color is the left circle, and the sub color is the right circle)

Now, if I use these with the white sub color (matching the paper color) I don't have to worry about the layer underneath because it will be covered by the sub color of the brush.

However if I clip a layer onto the lineart or merge all of the lineart and then fill all, all of the pixels become the same color and I don't want that. The white is acting as a mask for the layers under it.

The first way I got around this was by using the layer tool "Convert brightness to opacity." (Edit > Convert brightness to opacity) It does exactly what it says on the tin. It treats the value (black to white) of the color as a transparency setting. The closer to black the more opaque, and the closer to white the more transparent. This, of course, makes the white areas transparent which reveals whatever was on the layers underneath, so I needed to mask or erase the unwanted bits.

That got really time consuming and annoy fast, so I found another method using layer settings. Now whenever I know I'm going to draw something complicated, I draw in black and use a clipping layer on the lineart folder to make the color I want from the beginning. Then I set that clipping layer's layer setting to "Lighten," or "Lighter color." Since I'm drawing in black and all colors are lighter than black, the clipping layer will only affect the black lineart and not the white. And since I'm using brushes with filled areas, I set the lineart folder's setting to "Darken" or Darker Color." This makes the white areas of the displayed folder content transparent, so anything under that folder will show through the lighter areas.

Lighten/Darken is a similar layer setting to Multiply in that it mixes with the colors on the layers under it. There are some differences with how it mixes the colors though. Lighter Color/Darker Color only shows the pixels of the layer that are lighter/darker than whatever is under it, so it might not look as good depending on the anti-aliasing of the lineart. Even if I gave a bunch of examples here you would better learn by playing with the layer settings on your own.

Here is an example of having both a Lighter Color layer and a Darker Color layer clipped to the lineart folder at the same time. This way I can change the the white and black of the lineart separately. I use this mostly for adjusting text bubbles.

I wanted an easier way to adjust the line art than having to make 2 clipping layers all of the time. It really clogs up the layers window.

Then I learned that in CSP you can set the darkest and lightest colors the layer displays in the Layer Properties. I set the darkest to the the color I want the lineart and the lightest to the color I want the highlights or accents. Then I draw in black and white and the let the layer settings do all of the work. I will warn though that this can be a lot more process heavy on your system if you use it on a bunch of different layers. It does make changing colors as I go a lot easier, so I still use it for designing. I've only made one full color piece using this for every layer and it was rough on my PC so I'm probably only going to use it in the designing stages until I can upgrade my system. But here is how you do it:

Since it is a setting in a window that is not turned on by default you need to find it in the drop down. Window > Layer properties. Then it should appear in the layers tab

There's a ton you can do with these but for this the only one that is important is the one on the right. When turned on you can set the main layer color and the sub color. The Layer color is what will show instead of pure black and the Sub color will be what is shown instead of pure white. The layer automatically makes a gradient between them. When you turn it on the Layer color automatically turns cyan.