Changing Colors
SOURCE (use khazarj_assignment01-readytomodify.psd to demo)
This is why it's a great idea to put distinct parts of the drawing/painting on separate layers
First, make a copy of your layer by right-clicking on the layer and choosing Duplicate Layer...
Layer duplicated.
Next choose Menu > Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation
In the dialog, click on the Colorize
checkbox, and pump up the Saturation and Lightness sliders
Playing with the three sliders, you can get any color you can imagine
Here's blue. Notice that because the cube lines were on their own layer, only those lines are affected.
You can also change other colors, like the red lines on the inner cube to blue.
I don't want you to use solid colors anywhere in this project, but since I've made a layer of white behind the cube's lines, I can colorize that too. Since it's white, you have to turn the Lightness slider down to get a color.
Other Ways to Change Color: Clipping Masks
A clipping mask is a layer or group of layers to which a mask is applied. The bottom-most layer, or base layer, defines the visible boundaries of the entire group.
Select the layer you want to be colorized in the Layers panel.
The artwork in that layer will act as a mask that lets the layer above shine through. To make that happen, we'll add a new empty layer
The opacity of pixels of the line determine how much of the color will be visible when the clipping mask is applied.
Make sure you have that new layer selected in the Layers panel
Add a solid color or gradient to the layer
Right-click on the layer and choose Create Clipping Mask
from the popup menu. (You can also use control/option click to set the clipping mask)
Mask applied.
It's also possible to use layer Blending Modes to set the line colors, but it can be tricky.
Save Frequently and Save Versions
Save everytime you think of it, and save versions, as in: khazarj_assignment01-05.psd.
Use Menu > File > Save As...
Add a Scratch Work Area
khazarj_assignment01-readytomodify.psd.zip
It can be handy to add some canvas area to your image that you'll crop out later. Here you can put dabs of color to pick up colors with the Eyedropper tool.
Choose Menu > Image > Canvas Size...
Set the width wider, to like 3000. The key thing is to set the Anchor point to the upper left corner.
When complete, you'll have added a scratch area to the right side of the image. You might want to add a layer just to for the new scracth area.
When your finished with the image, use the Canvas Size dialog to trim it back down to 2400, and be sure and set the Anchor point to the upper left again.
Using Resources
iso_grid.ai
It's always an option to use resouces from photos, illustrations, and other image creation apps as resource for you work. Me, I wanted to add a grid of lines to my image that matched than angles of the cube I'd drawn on paper before the digital age.
So I used Adobe Illustrator to create a grid. Then I used Menu > File > Place... to drop the Illustrator file into Photoshop.
Keeping Variations in Photoshop
khazarj_assignment01-10.psd.zip
Layer Comps
Photoshop has a powerful feature that allow you set up multiple versions of an image in a single document. You access it through Menu > Window > Layer Comps
It essentially allows you to play around with a lot of variations and keep them for later viewing without having to make a bunch of separate files. The strategy is to make your variations on individual layers, then turn them on or off to get the variation you want.
Changing Colors In Procreate
Just like in Photoshop, it's a good idea to use layers to make it easier to change colors to limited areas.
Adjustments behave slightly differently than in Photoshop, and there's other ways to colorize lines, but using Adjustments allows you to slowly dial in the color you want with sliders.
Choose the layer you want to affect, then tap on the Adjustments menu (the little paintbrush with sparkles around it) in the upper left corner
Choose Color Balance
Fiddle with one of the values so you get some color other than black. So here, I set the Cyan/Red slider all the way over to Red.
Then use the Adjustments menu again to select Hue, Saturation, Brightness
Now you can use the sliders to change the color. Doesn't work on black lines, so you have to change the black to a color with Color Balance first.
Another way is to click once on the Layer. This opens a menu to the left. Choose Alpha Lock. This sets anything that's opaque to a mask.
Then click again and choose Fill Layer which will fill the masked layer to the color in the Color tab
Result