Coloring line art

[DoubleOhDave]

Hi all,

I want to color in the attached image and can't find a tutorial online. I have both Designer & Photo and what I want is to make the woman's hair blonde, the rose red, etc. Not the lines themselves, but the blank parts that make up the image (not sure if that's clear enough a description?).

Which of the software would be easiest for a noob like me, and how might I go about it?

Any help much appreciated!

[GarryP]

I think you might find this difficult to do and you may need a lot of time and patience to get something which looks good, with probably a lot of vector manipulation.

One thing you need to make clear is how you expect to handle situations where, for example, the hair is drawn over something else – e.g. over the heart at top-left. What do you colour in these situations; the hair, or the heart, or both, or neither?

Also, when the lines do not fully surround the area you want to fill – e.g. the left-hand side of the rose where it overlaps the vertical line – how should that be handled; where should the fill ‘come out to’?

[DoubleOhDave]

1 minute ago, GarryP said:

I think you might find this difficult to do and you may need a lot of time and patience to get something which looks good, with probably a lot of vector manipulation.

One thing you need to make clear is how you expect to handle situations where, for example, the hair is drawn over something else – e.g. over the heart at top-left. What do you colour in these situations; the hair, or the heart, or both, or neither?

Also, when the lines do not fully surround the area you want to fill – e.g. the left-hand side of the rose where it overlaps the vertical line – how should that be handled; where should the fill ‘come out to’?

Yes, I understand, thanks. Ok, is there a way to maybe roughly paint in using a brush - I think using a mask? I am dreadful at understanding how to use masks though..

[GarryP]

One method would be to:

• Use the Erase White Paper Filter to remove the background.
• Then add a new Pixel Layer and put it behind the original background layer.
• Then use the Paint Brush Tool to colour the hair.
• Then add another Pixel Layer, put that behind the other layer, and use a brush to colour the rose.
• Repeat as necessary.

See attached video for a very quick-and-dirty example.
You will need to be more careful and experiment with your brushes to get a better effect.

Someone else may have a better workflow.

[DoubleOhDave]

Thanks GaryP - that looks good to me! 

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.

It’s worth noting that this technique works with this particular image because the design is fully-black on a totally white background; it might not be as effective on other similar images.

One other thing I would mention is that, if you are using this for something other than personal use, you should make sure that you can legally make derivatives of the original image. It might look old, and therefore ‘out of copyright’, but it might not be either; best to check first.

[DoubleOhDave]

3 minutes ago, GarryP said:

You’re welcome.

It’s worth noting that this technique works with this particular image because the design is fully-black on a totally white background; it might not be as effective on other similar images.

One other thing I would mention is that, if you are using this for something other than personal use, you should make sure that you can legally make derivatives of the original image. It might look old, and therefore ‘out of copyright’, but it might not be either; best to check first.

Thanks - yeah I am a noob at the Affinity stuff, but an old pro at the licensing side.

[PaulEC]

Depending on the effect you want this might work.

Add a new fill layer above your image, set the blend mode to multiply, paint on it with the paint brush. You can also use a brush directly on the image, (using the same mode) but it is more difficult to rectify any mistakes. The best way, but a bit more long winded, is to put a fill layer above your image, (again set it to multiply) fill it with the colour you want to use, add a mask that hides the fill layer (hold alt when creating the mask) then paint on the mask with white or black to show or hide the colour. Use a new layer for each colour.)This way you can mix colours on the same area. Try different brushes for different effects. You can also experiment with colour and hue blend modes for different effects.

[DoubleOhDave]

26 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

Depending on the effect you want this might work.

Add a new fill layer above your image, set the blend mode to multiply, paint on it with the paint brush. You can also use a brush directly on the image, (using the same mode) but it is more difficult to rectify any mistakes. The best way, but a bit more long winded, is to put a fill layer above your image, (again set it to multiply) fill it with the colour you want to use, add a mask that hides the fill layer (hold alt when creating the mask) then paint on the mask with white or black to show or hide the colour. Use a new layer for each colour.)This way you can mix colours on the same area. Try different brushes for different effects. You can also experiment with colour and hue blend modes for different effects.

That looks great! Thanks!

[BarKeegan]

You can also use one of the colour Channels to make a Pixel Selection of the black line art, copy it to a new layer, and paint with colour on a blank layer beneath