Hello! In this tutorial we are going to learn how to achieve a candy-like coloring over any kind of line-art.

Step 1

First we will need to draw a sketch that we will use for this tutorial. The image below is what I have made.

Step 2

As you can see it’s pretty dirty so the first step will be cleaning, but before anything else we should add a bit of contrast, it looks pale. Be careful not to exaggerate: between 10 and 20 is enough. Too much contrast is cheap.

You can find it in Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. After you enter your value click ok.

Use a soft eraser tool and keep in mind that you will be able to erase some more later. Focus on areas like the ones below.

Step 3

Notice I didn’t pay any attention to the outer “dirt”. That’s going to come off smoothly later in the tutorial.

Change the blending options of the layer to “Multiply”. Multiply leaves only the dark areas visible while make the bright areas transparent. Nothing will happen on the screen, as there is nothing behind the image.

Step 4

Create a new layer and place it under the line-art. Call it “flat”.

Start laying down some midtowns in whatever way you want. I used a round hard brush and the following colors.

Step 5

I’ll use paths on the eyes to better control the shape.

Step 6

When you’re ready right-click on the path and choose “Make Selection”. If you’re settings correspond with the ones in the following image click ok and the fill that mask with white.

Step 7

Don’t forget to paint the eyes with dark grey (black is too strong and leads to a big contrast) and the candy stick with white.

Step 8

I’m going to add some freckles using a small brush (sizes between 2 and 4) of the same color as the hair and just lay down a few random spots.

Step 9

Next we’re going to be adding shadows so create a new layer and name it accordingly. It should be under “scan” and on top of “flat”. We’ll use paths to make selections and then we fill with one color (avoid black; I used #5F5F5F). We will control the tone thought the Master Opacity of the layer.

Start with the nose first.

Step 10

Next is the face.

Step 11

Continue with the rest of the body (Arms, shirt, hair). The result should be something like this:

As you can see I tried different degrees of opacity in order to find the one I like.

Step 12

Highlights. It’s the same procedure as the one we used for shadows. Path. Selection. Fill (white).

Step 13

Here is were the magic begins.

Make a selection of the “flat” layer (Hold down Ctrl and click on it in your layer panel). Go to Select > Modify > Expand and expand your selection by 2 px, then go to Select > Feather and enter 1px.

Step 14

Invert your selection (Select > Inverse or SHIFT+CTRL+I) and move to the “scan” layer. Press DELETE. This was to further clean our image.

Invert the selection again and create another layer (put it on top of all of the other layers) and click the “Add Layer Mask” button.

Step 15

You have created a mask for your layer (which will be named “candy”), a b/w thumbnail will appear beside it. Click on the chain between them. Now that the chain has disappeared it means that the two layers are no longer linked and can act independently from one another.

Step 16

How do masks work? Masks show the white areas while hide the black areas. If your mask layer is fully-filled with black your mask won’t show anything, as if the layer doesn’t even exist, respectively, a white mask layer will show everything in that layer.

What about grays? A medium gray reduces visibility to 50% therefore dark-grays tend to hide and light-grays tend to show.

Duplicate the “scan” layer and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

Step 17

Beautiful effect, but it’s not enough. Go to the “candy” layer and with a huge and soft brush start spreading powerful colors like in the picture below. Notice the role of the mask when you go over the lines (going over the lines here is essential).

Use soft brushes, various brush sizes and use different opacity levels (as you go inside the line-art lower it; start from around 70%).

Step 18

Apply another Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to make it look fuzzy.

Step 19

Now it looks too fuzzy. Select the mask of the “candy” layer and with a soft black brush and low opacity paint wherever you feel like hiding some of the fuzziness.

I did that on the eyes mostly and I also used a Polygonal Lasso Tool to make a selection of the nose highlight (filled it with black hiding the that part of the candy layer which was obscuring the highlight).

Final

Finalize your work with a very nice and interesting background, maybe a texture and use the candy technique.

Thank you for reading.