Coloring Fish

I wrote this tutorial on my own.  Any similarity to another tutorial is purely coincidental.  I claim the copyright to my tutorial. You are free to do whatever you please with what you make, but please do not take my tutorial.  Do not send the tutorial through email.  Only share my link.

This tutorial is intended for a beginner to learn about shading outlines.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

To do this tutorial you will also need Photoshop CS or CS2.  You may download a free trial at Adobe.

Remember to save as a .psd file often!

Download Supplies.

1.  Open the fish outline you want to use.  Image > Duplicate.  Close the original.

2.  With the wand, select the outside of the fish.  Hold the SHIFT key down to select more than one region

3.  Select > Inverse

4.  Selection Load/Save Selection > Save Selection.  Give it a name (outline)

5.  Layer > New > Layer  Drag this layer to the bottom.

6.  Selection > Load Selection > choose Outline in channel

7.  Flood-fill this selection with your base color for your fish.

8.  Layer > New > Layer

9.  Choose the brush tool

10.  In the brush tool bar at the top, choose the airbrush tool (circled).  Set brush size = 22, opacity = 40%, flow = 42%

11.  Click on the Brush tab (Windows > Brushes  if you can't see the tab).  Set spacing = 24%, hardness = 75%, place a check in Noise

12.  Select a darker color than your base color for the foreground color.  Spray this color around the edges of your fish.

13.  Layers > New > Layer  I called it Highlights1

14.  set your foreground color to white.  Spray this color in areas of your fish where you would want highlights to show.

15.  Change the width of your brush to about 10.  Layer > New > Layer.  With the dark green color, spray dark green around the outside of the eyes and mouth.

16.  Layer > New > Layer.  With white as your foreground color, spray white around the top of the eyebrows and the moth.

17.  Click on your first shadow layer (above the fish background).  Filter > Noise > Add Noise.  Set the Amount = 8, Gaussian and Monochromatic

18.  Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.  Radius = 5

19.  Slide the Opacity to 60%.

20.  Repeat steps 17 - 19 on EACH shadow and highlight layer.  You may have to adjust the opacity level to your liking.

21.  Click on the Fish layer at the top.  With the magic wand, select the whites of the fish eyes.

22.  Select > Modify > Expand.  Expand by 1

23.  Layer > New > Layer  Drag below the Fish layer.

24.  Fill this with white.

25.  Now click back on the fish layer and select the eye pupils.

26.  Repeat Steps 22 & 23, then flood-fill with black or other eye color.

27.  Layers > merge Visible

28.  Save this as a PSD file.  File > Save As

29.  Then save this as GIF file to send through email or web pages.  File > Save As

 Please do not remove this tutorial from my site.  Share my url.