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Posted on 27/01/14 11:18:22 PM |
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nickp99
* Posts: 13 Reply |
Grisaille / glazing
The Old Masters often used a technique where they would at first paint just in black-and-white, with no color. Then they would add color later using thin transparent 'glazes', more like varnish than paint. They even would use multiple layers of glazing with different colors, giving the painting a kind of depth unattainable otherwise. The black and white underpainting is called 'grisaille'. This issue was discussed obliquely in another forum post: http://www.howtocheatinphotoshop.com/cgi-bin/simpleforum_pro.cgi?fid=01&topic_id=1313487019 but included no details. I have been trying to figure out a way to do this for years, to no avail. The problem is that even if you use a low opacity, the color builds up too fast -- by the time you have close to the right color you've covered over the underpainting. The layer blending mode called 'color' sort of approaches this, but it warps the colors in an odd way that is difficult to predict. This is obviously related to the 'colorization' problem, discussed here: http://www.howtocheatinphotoshop.com/cgi-bin/simpleforum_pro.cgi?fid=04&topic_id=1268184855 and in many other places, all over the net. I've not found any method that works the way I have described, with transparent glazing. Most people seem to use large numbers of complex masks and, typically, a hue/sat adjustment layer in colorize mode, or a gradient map. Instead of a mask, I'd like to use a brush! Here's another way to look at it. Say I have a color image, and right beside it I have a b&w conversion of the same image. I would like to be able to pick up colors (or perhaps just the 'hue' component, in some way) from a region on the color image, and be able to paint over a small area in the same region of the b&w and have it look somewhat like the color original. If you've ever tried this, you'll see what I mean about the total inadequacy of opacity. The 'color' blend mode is doing something mathematical that is sometimes useful (for light colors, if you crank up the saturation of the color it sometimes works; you can sort of random walk around the HUD picker until you find the right color to feed it.) Sometimes by dodging and burning the too-opaque version you can use your knowledge of what the underlying image is supposed to be like to reconstruct correct grey values. Sometimes D&B'ing a 50%gray soft-light layer gives better results, and is certainly less destructive. I don't know much about CMYK mode, maybe there is something there that will help out. Or perhaps some other digital painting program will do this, but I sure would like to be able to do it in pshop. Many thanks for any insight that you can provide! |
Posted on 28/01/14 05:18:04 AM |
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vahn
Blue Planeteer Posts: 55 Reply |
Re: Grisaille / glazing
I dont know whether it is just me or if it applies to everyone else ( I am by the way self taught artist -if you want to call it that) ... When it comes to digital art , no matter what the application , I most often than not , I use the exact opposite procedure when it comes to colour build up ... That being said , and from my understanding of what you are trying to accomplish ... Maybe if we were to try to add the B/W ON the colour instead . ? |
Posted on 28/01/14 08:11:04 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7012 Reply  |
Re: Grisaille / glazing
I regularly need to colour black and white photos for Reader's Digest magazine. I find the trick is first to use Levels to lower the brightness of the original, so the white is not pure white. I then create new layers for each item, set to Color mode, or occasionally Hard Light for areas I want strongly tinted. I'll often paint in a stronger colour than I need, and then drop the opacity of the whole layer afterwards. I find this produces decent results nearly all the time. |