This illustration technique me feels like I’m a little kid again and colouring in the lines! I really enjoy this style, as I can take my time with my B-pencil & smudge stick rendering an illustration… and then hop on the computer and create the final black & white and colour print-ready files respectively in a matter of minutes. It is an ideal style for creating a lot of illustrations in a short amount of time, as it achieves a traditional feel without the time involved in creating watercolour paintings.

The step-by-step process I follow to colour my illustrations in Photoshop is :

• Illustrate the character with a graphite pencil on bond paper (I like printer paper as it’s smooth and fits on the scanning bed!)
• Scan each illustrations at high resolution
• Create a Photoshop file for the character illustration
• Remove the character from the background and place it on its own layer, carefully removing the whitespace with a soft edged eraser tool or feathered magic wand selection (see below)

• Adjust the contrast
• Save out a flattened, grayscale version as a TIFF (I’ve set up an action to do this in Photoshop automatically for me)
• Drop the B&W version into the InDesign layout

I then return to the Photoshop file and “colour” the illustration by :
• Duplicate the graysale pencil illustration layer
• Select “Hue & Saturation” (Under Image > Adjustments) and colourize to a sepia / warm brown colour (see below)

• Add a new layer and set the layer to “Colour”
• Select a colour and paint on this new layer… which in turn tints the sepia toned illustration layer below the new colour
• Adjust the opacity of the Colour layer, or the Huge & Saturation until it is just right
• Continue to add more colour layers until satisfied with the tones (often 2-3 layers of colour is enough for a single subject)

• Create a new layer and set it to Overlay
• Paint a few white highlights on the Overlay layer, then tint the opacity back a bit so it doesn’t burn out the colour beneath

• Save the Photoshop file
• Save out a flattened CMYK TIFF and drop it into the InDesign file

This illustration is part of Shilah James’ “Little Land Adventures” and is © Heather Castles.