Ultimate Inking and Coloring Tutorial for Adobe Illustrator CS5 (long version)
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- Опубліковано 5 бер 2012
- The Fastest, Easiest Method to Ink and Color in Adobe Illustrator.
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See the tutorial on my blog: www.claytowne.com/beats-diggin...
Or download the companion Illustrator editable PDF file: www.claytowne.com/beats-diggin...
You can view my short demon inking tutorial here: • Ultimate Inking and Co...
The brush I used is embedded in the file.
The brush I used is this Hair Brush by ChewedKandi. You'll need a DeviantArt account to download it. Download here: chewedkandi.deviantart.com/art...
Screenshot of brush settings used screencast.com/t/cVCuDIlyyUh
About Those "Lines" You See When You Use this Method:
If you are referring to the microscopic lines where they intersect, or where you cut with the knife, that's an illusion. Zoom in to 6400%. They never get bigger. They don't print that way either. I've been using this technique for years and my stuff has always printed perfectly on posters, trade show pop ups, t-shirts, postcards - everything really - without issues. If they really bother you Try Export/Tiff. That gives a clean export. So will Save For Web/PNG or JPG. In the Web save box you can change the pixel dimensions to any size you want so you can save some pretty huge, print quality images.
Tech Specs for people who are into this stuff:
I use a Wacom Intuos 4 medium size tablet for all drawing. If you are a serious artist you MUST have a tablet. At the very least get a Wacom Bamboo. They're like $50. I'm running a custom rig that I built myself back in 2009. It's a Windows 7 64 bit box with a Asus P6T Deluxe V2 motherboard. It's got 12 GB Corsair DDR3 RAM, a Pentium i7 920 CPU, a Nvida GeForce GTX 280 graphic card, six WD Caviar Black 1TB drives in a RAID 1 configuration. My OS and programs are on one RAID array, and the other two RAID arrays hold my files. I also have two RAID 1 external drives for additional backups. Rounding out the system is a Corsair XT 750 power supply, two 1000 watt UPS backups, a USB 3 PCI Express card, an eSATA PCI express card (I ran out of SATA ports with so many hard drives) a HD Pro Logitec webcam and a pair of DVD burners.
There are a lot of excellent ink and color tutorials on the web, so what is different about this tutorial?
1. Real time. Unlike those speed drawing tutorials that blow your mind but teach you nothing, this one is a true speed drawing tutorial as it's in real time. No cuts and no sped up sections to hide the true time it takes.
2. Learn a practical but unorthodox technique for speeding up your inking and coloring in Illustrator.
3. Vector. In the print industry vector rules the roost so those Photoshop inking tutorials aren't very helpful for someone who's primary concern is clean reproduction in all mediums including brochures, t-shirts, posters, tradeshow booths, video and packaging.
This method is not the most sophisticated but it gets the job done quick and it looks great. I also discovered one of its key components by accident.
It's great for poster art, cartoon characters, comic book art or any place you need a classic ink and color look - and need it fast - Навчання та стиль
Clay I know you will never see this, but this was my first introduction to you. Thanks for all your advice and help when I bugged you about Wacom tablets etc. And thanks for being a good Facebook friend. May you rest in peace
Clay, I'm a return-newbie to Illustrator - work mostly Corel Painter, and haven't touched Illustrator for years. It's amazing how complex and comprehensive it is now, a brilliant product. And man, your tutorial taught me more than most of the ones I've been using to try and learn fast! And it's not just the terrific tips like using Live Paint to clean up the overshoots, but all the things you've made available, info that you've shared about your tools, your brush, etc. Very few seem to be thoughtful enough to cover all that stuff, leaving a heck of a lot unanswered. Thanks for the best 15 minutes I've spent in Illustrator-world! :-)
cheers, rashad
Thank you .. Thank you ... Thank you .. you have no idea how much I learned from this one 15 minutes ...
Fantastic, thank you! I love your commentary too - 'he's always washing his hair which of course makes him even angrier!' - classic. Glad I found this.
The brush I used is this Hair Brush by ChewedKandi. You'll need a DeviantArt account to download it. I added the link in the description.
The brush is also embedded in the companion PDF file.
Clay I have been looking around the web for the best way to draw a webcomic and almost everyone says or uses Photoshop. I got the Adobe Creative Suite a few months ago and started working on it.
I read a few blogs about using Illustrator, but they were like reading stereo instructions. I'm so glad I stumbled upon your video, in a few short minutes you answered 90% of the questions I had and am now learning to use Illustrator to ink and color my comic. MUCH FASTER!
Great stuff! Keep it up!
Check the video description. It has all my specs and links to support documents
You have no idea how much this video helped me! I don't have Illustrator yet but I'm getting it. I'm working on a children's book series for University of Hawaii and this will save me so much time!
It's going to be a huge time saver. Check out my demon version. It's shorter and easier to follow.
This is an Awesome and efficent technique you have there Clay, I've been Illustrating for many years now and you've opened my eyes to faster and more inspired pieces. Keep up the great work!
I wish I knew that live paint trick the day before yesterday. Certainly makes the process a helluva lot faster. Thanks a lot for sharing that. Nice tip.
It's the same in CS6 as well. If you read the video description it has links to download the brush, the file used in the tutorial and a link to the blog post that explains it all with screen shots. The pen thing just takes time to get smooth.
Great tutorial, Clay! This is a smart way to get work done fast and easy. Keep up the great work!
A true pioneer! Thank you for sharing this. I always show this rot all my students. You are an inspiration.
great guide I learned a few new things. Love how you show everything and have the reff files available. I wish everyone did that
This is awesome.. i've been hating illustrator and now i found your tutorial, i think i'm starting to love it. Thank you so much :) You're a life saver
The brush link is in the full video description.It's also embedded in the supporting PDF file.
dont remember seeing any better tutorial than this..really great..not being native english speaker, i still could comprehend you well.
Nice and simple makes the workflow soooooo much easier. Look forward to trying this offen. Thanks mate.
One of the best inking and coloring vids on UA-cam. Thanks for the tips man, keep it up!
Great tutorial! The Live Paint/Expand...etc for clean up is the tip of the day!
Thanks for sharing! This is a huge help for my vector work. I'm looking forward to saving me SO much time at work!
What a fantastic tutorial. This is going to save me so much time... And as we all know, time is money! Thank you!!
When using the knife tool to add depth it makes it easier if you isolate the object you are cutting. It keeps your cuts separate from the lines and other colors you don't want to cut up
Thanks for the extra bit on Live Paint vs. Divide. I've been using Divide for ages, never knew that Live Paint did it better!
Hey man i want to thank you ive seen so many Illustrator tutorial but this one is the best and easiest way and it looks awesome youve saved my career man lol thanks :)
Yeah. Very nice tut. Those live paint and knife tips are excellent. Always nice to learn a useful timesaver. Thanks!
THIS is absolute brilliance!! made to look too easy! I will subscribe and hope to see more!
Thanks Clay really helpful and easy to follow - Grt way for someone like me who is not a natural artist to speed up stylus flow and tidy up quickly thanks !
Thanks,bro. Very straightforward 15 minutes video tutorial. Very very helpful for an artist like me who used to do it in a traditional media.
I am checking your blog and it is wonderful, thank you!! I am so glad I speak English, so much easier to learn from this great tutorials!!
thank you. your helping my learn. im a young illustrator and i need as much help as i can get! your tutorials are my savior! lol
Yes. It sits under the eraser tool, or the scissor tool, depending on which one is set as the default.
Hulk! the customer service representative. nice.
Really just a great tutorial... and I like the shorter version you made too. Thanks a bunch!
... You're my hero.
You just made my future as an artist a million times easier.
Haven't really been using live paint or the knife tool, I've mostly just used the pen tool for everything. These tips will make my work flow a lot faster, I think. Thanks for sharing!
Wacom Intuous 4. Download the brush from the tutorial description. It's also embedded in the Illustrator editable PDF companion file.
Great tutorial. Thanks for posting. Can't wait to try out the techniques.
You're awesome man. Cool tutorial and your voice makes the interesting. Keep these tutorials going.
Fantastic tutorial, really helped me out a lot.
thanks for this, I have illustrator but we never used it to ink in class. I have been using ps but this look so much better. I'm working on it right now. always looking to improve my inking.
Fantastic tutorial, I'm fairly new to Illustrator and this has been so helpful. Always wanted to be able to create nice lines like this and now I know how! Thank you very much.
LOVE this! Thank you SO much for taking the time to put this here. I really appreciate it. You made me feel like this is doable... CAN'T WAIT TO GET STARTED :)
I don't really know because I'm not working on your computer. Did you download the PDF file in the video description and experiment with that? Are you using a good quality pen tablet like a Wacom?
Thanks for the great tutorial! It was very simple and clear. It helped me create my first piece using a Wacom Tablet. I included a link to this and your full tutorial on my wordpress blog Inside My Head. Thanks again!
great job actually ppl just don`t understand you are presenting techniques and the rest is up to them ,thank you for doing the effort :)
I just noticed something, the way the live paint feature is being used with expand to trim overlapping strokes is more or less doing the same thing that the "divide" option does in the pathfinder. Can save a little bit of time using the pathfinder for those parts.
I work in Illustrator all the time, and still only know small parts of the program. I am going to be doing some basic animation for a promo video soon, and this tutorial is amazing! I can't wait to explore some of the tools you used here that I NEVER have.
You use the direct selection tool ( it's the white pointer on the top right of your toolbar) The direct selection tool allows you to select individual parts of a set of grouped objects.
muy agradecido con usted por su forma tan sencilla y practica de enseñar esa tecnica me servira para hacer el trabajo mas rapido, lo felicito y siga adelante, saludos desde Bolivia.
Thanks for uploading the great video. The (expand - live paint make - select - expand) technique saves a lot of time.
super!! Now i have learned something very useful for the next exercises for my comic portfolio! Thank you!!
just great, I learn a lot with this tut, thx ! easy but very useful
Also, you can always select two or more slices and re-unite them and then start over and slice it again. Click shift the segments and then choose "Unite" on the "Pathfinder" window tab.
holy crap that's even better! thanks! awesome tutorial this helped my vector art tremendously
Great tutorial. Very easy to follow. Thanks!
Thanks for this. You've made my life much easier. I was struggling and spending way too much time in photoshop but you're right about Illustrator...it's much better for illustrations...hence the name. :) I've come back to this vid many times since I found it.
Good answer. Thank you. I love that about digital work, there are myriad ways of working in there to be discovered. Keep up the good work :)
Just download the brush in the description or download the pdf and open it in Illustrator. The brush is embedded in the file.
The first part on how to use the Live paint was awesomely explained, but then the shadowing part was a bit confusing
Thanks. Please read the video description. It covers specs and troubleshooting extensively.
Thanks Clay, very useful and quick!
Thank you so much Sir, I am so grateful to you for sharing this technique
Great work Clay, love the humor in your explanation @ call center lol nice one
Thanks man! Awesome method, helped me quite a bit.
Great video! I definitely learned some new techniques while watching your tutorial! Thank you for your time and effort.
Wow.... great channel I only watched two videos so far but gained alot of useful info... I subscribed.... I wanna see some shading with gradients, I'll look through your videos to see if have some on that...
You make it all look so effortless in reality I have just started digital drawing with Manga Studio I find it's like learning to draw all over again. I'm faster on paper by a mile, & I can ink on paper quite well but not at all digitally.
great tutorial, i was just browsing and ended up here, kinda made me wanna try this illustrator you were talking about
love this tutorial. you've saved me six figures worth of time!!! Spreading the word
I've learned a lot of great techniques. Thank you.
Absolutely killer clean-up technique! Thanks Clay!
awesome, i learned so much from this. thanks!
This is wonderful. I was really looking for something like this. Helps a ton!
It's just the knife tool. I just added a notation. You can also search for the shorter video with the demon. That one may be easier. Also in the video description you can download the support files and go to my blog that has a written step by step version of this technique.
I don't know. I'd need a screenshot to see why or a copy of the file. Is the layer locked or hidden?
thanks this is really easy and gets good results
Your art style is awesome
Thanks man trying to gel with illustrator and this was very helpful
Great technique! Thank you for sharing.
this looks sooo amazing! Keep up the good work!
Select the art and go to your transparency pallet. It's often grouped with stroke and gradient pallets.
Thank you so much, for posting this. It`s like a basic --> intermediate progress in minutes =P But truthfully, it helped a lot. I wish all classes could be straight to the point like that.
I just learned so much from this, thankyou.
duly noted, you've now saved me even more time by keeping me from having to learn that myself. Thanks!
Brilliant - great advice - many thanks Clay - really does save time!
that worked! thank you for the help and for a great tutorial
A little fast, but with a bit of pausing here and there, helped me out a lot! Thanks!!!
Because the blog brush is not a brush stoke. It is by definition and already expanded stroke. The blog brush is also additive by nature (one stroke merges into the other). So the part of this tutorial that will work with the blob brush are the live painting part with the bucket and knife tool. But you won't be able to clean up the stray lines with this method and the blob brush. Use the eraser, delete anchors, or manipulate bezier curves to do that when using the blob brush.
been looking for something like this.... thanks!
The people making snide comments aren't worth the time it takes you to respond. Great tutorial.
I would recommend downloading the companion PDF file and then open it in Illustrator. Then select one of the unexpanded brush strokes on the uncolored demon. Then using your brush tool, make some lines in a blank area. If it still doesn't work perhaps it's a Wacom pen setting.
Finally ! An actual tutorial :3 Thank You
Mostly. I've experimented with the divide path tool after several have suggested it, but sometimes it goofs up more complicated shapes or prevents you from dropping in color in some of the negative space after you convert to live paint. The leaving some areas unable to drop in color is the most baffling. So I just stick with this because it always works as intended. But experiment a see. The only thing that matters with these things is that it works for you and you have fun doing it.
Use the selection tool (the arrow pointer on your tool bar) that is white, not the one that is black. The white one allows you to select a specific part of a grouped object. The black one will always select the entire group.
Thanks very much for this video you save my life.....Continue to do the good work! One thing my outline is in gray how do i change it?
I don't know why either. I just noticed that recently. Check out my shorter version (with the demon). That one works properly.
I think you mean the brush strokes and how I increased their thickness. That would be by using the selection (black pointer arrow) or the direct selection tool (white pointer arrow) and then changing the stroke weight.
This is a great video, very clean and efficient process, thanks! The artist spends more time creating and less time worrying about the little things. Although there is a bit of cleanup required, its very minimal. You could also live trace in the existing drawing, saving you from having to worry about the brush tracing part, although you may have to fiddle with the live trace settings and make sure your drawing is clean.
Live trace is only really useful for clean ink lines. If you try to live trace a pencil drawing you won't get nice clean brush strokes. There's no way to really get around that problem regardless of the settings. It will instead be a vector approximation of pencil lines. So real jaggedy. Think of live trace as more of a snapshot. Whatever you live trace will come out the same but in vectorized pieces.
Yes very true, I do a tracing in ink before scanning to prevent the pencil jaggedness. (The reason this happens is the amount of value variation in a pencil stroke, many grays) Its personal preference, since in your method you are simply doing this inking step digitally. Thanks again for a cool video!
Clay, nice tutorial. I been using AI for around 20 years, but always looking for a new shortcut. Thanks. One "stupid" question. I can't select a nice "ink" profile form my brush. I am in CC. Are they default anywhere? I can pick an "ink" style to the stroke but only after I draw it, then select it, then assign the "variable width profile". Any ideas?
Really helpful! Thanks for this.