ok, so i just saw the most convoluted method for this ever, and i see a lot of convoluted methods for isolating/transparent-izing your lineart, and listen, you guys, my method is so fast i can literally do it in less than five seconds. here are some pictures to walk you through it.
here’s your lineart. see, it’s only one layer, and that layer is the background layer.
make a new layer.
return to your background. select the whole thing. copy it. go to the new layer. paste it. now you have a background layer with your lineart, and a new layer with your lineart. now, make sure you’re on your new layer, not the background layer, before you do this next part.
so you’ll note in my little hovery tool box thing i keep “layers” and “channels” together. this is the main reason i keep “channels” in a tab. so, you’re going to see that list of things – red green blue etc – and then at the bottom, there is a wee dotted circle. see? click that circle.
holy mother of god what’s happening here!!! a whole bunch of dotted lines vaguely outlining your lineart should appear. look down at your keyboard. find the delete button. hit it. then, go back to your “layers” tab.
see how on the new layer, the lineart seems to have disappeared? it hasn’t. look where it says “lock” just above the layers. while on the new layer, hit the square directly next to “lock.” then click anywhere in your image to deselect and make those lines go away. switch to your background layer and just turn the whole thing white. you can use a big brush or whatever, i like to select white and white and then just run a gradient across it.
either way once your background is pure white, you’ll see what’s happened to your lineart. it looks kind of faded, right? that’s because what you just did was delete every ounce of white from your lineart. awesome, right? sure. but you don’t want your lines to look faded like this. this is easy to fix.
switch to your new layer. select a color – any color you want your lineart to be. i like to use colors other than black, like dark blues and reds and so on. get a big brush. run that brush over every inch of your lineart. see how it darkens up again?
so now your lineart is transparent, and just as nice and dark and vivid as before. make another layer, between the background and the lineart layer.
color that shit however your heart tells you to.
the end.
there are honestly way more pictures in this tutorial than, like, the amount of effort that goes into this. i usually just open picture, copy paste, delete, lock, recolor, and it’s over. genuinely less than five seconds. try it out!
this method also enables you to recolor your lines if you like – if you want to make the hair lines hair colored, or whatever. it’s really flexible and i like it a ton better than just using multiply. hope it’s helpful!
You might be surprised to learn there are a lot of different species of raven and crow! The taxonomic difference between a raven and a crow (that is, whether a species gets named of or the other) is size and lifespan rather than genetic grouping. When comparing the species most of us are most familiar with – the American crow (C. brachyrhyncos) and common raven (C. corax), which will be the two I’m focusing on here – you can’t exactly tell the bird’s age most of the time, so if you have other animals or objects to compare the bird to, size is often the first clue.
The common raven is is massive for a passerine. It’s the size of a red-tailed a hawk, with a wingspan over four feet. Crows, on the other hand, are typically about the size of an African grey parrot. Compare someone holding a crow vs someone holding a raven:
And lemme tell ya, it’s one thing to READ about how big they are, but it’s another to SEE it.
If you see a corvid in flight and can’t get a bead on its proportions, the shape of the tail and flight feathers is another good identifier. A crow’s tail is triangular or fan-shaped, while a raven’s is wedge-shaped (ie the middle tail feathers are longest). Both have well-defined primaries, but a raven’s are much deeper and tend to spread wider. Ravens tend to soar a lot, too; crows are consistent flappers.
Finally, if you can get a good look at the head, the differences are pretty obvious. A raven has a beak that hooks at the end and is as long as its head (or in the case of a Chihuahuan raven, longer than!) while a crow’s beak is straighter, shorter, and lighter-looking in general. Both have nasal bristles, but the shape these bristles form is different due to beak size (a raven’s often looks squared off). Crows are kinda shiny and a bit fluffy; ravens are iridescent and have a very distinctive “beard” of shaggy feathers at their throats which bristles up like hackles when they call.
Finally, their voices are a bit different – a crow’s flat, high caw vs a raven’s deep, resonating kronk – but both species have a very wide range of natural vocalisations and are accomplished mimics. [This video] has some great examples of the caw vs kronk sounds.
Hi! First, I want to say thank you for the kind comment and I’m glad you’re interested in the medium I’m using!! ^^ I get this question a lot on my twitter so I guess I’ll answer and compile it on this post. It’s a very long post so I’ll put it under this cut, but get ready!
Layering technique for vibrant greens, using Dr Ph. Martin’s Hydrus liquid watercolours. 3 colours used – Turquoise Blue, Hansa Yellow Medium and Blue Aqua 🙂
return to your background. select the whole thing. copy it. go to the new layer. paste it. now you have a background layer with your lineart, and a new layer with your lineart. now, make sure you’re on your new layer, not the background layer, before you do this next part.
switch to your new layer. select a color – any color you want your lineart to be. i like to use colors other than black, like dark blues and reds and so on. get a big brush. run that brush over every inch of your lineart. see how it darkens up again?
color that shit however your heart tells you to.
