Comic Artist - Volume 3 2016

Core skills

TAKE CONTROL OF

YOUR COLOURING

Take advantage of the power of SketchBook Pro’s Lock Transparency function

and make life easier when you’re rendering or colouring your artwork

1
Locate the Lock
Transparency option
The Lock Transparency function is located
at the bottom-right of each layer – the
padlock icon. This function enables you
to edit anything you draw or paint on a
layer, which can speed up your workf low
significantly. Bear in mind that when you
draw or paint, it’s always best to separate
your primary elements on to different
layers before applying the Lock
Transparency function.

2

Paint an element and

lock its transparency

Select a paint brush and paint an orange

circle on a layer. If you then enable Lock

Transparency on this layer, you can paint

only inside the orange circle. This means

you’ll keep your edges nice and sharp.

However, you won’t be able to erase the

orange circle as long as Lock Transparency

is enabled, because this function enables

you only to add to the layer and not

subtract from it.

3

Render the

painted element

Switch to the Airbrush tool or a soft

Round brush and choose a dark brown

colour. Begin painting around the side

of the orange circle and you’ll soon see

the effect of Lock Transparency. Notice

how accurate the edges are: your paint

stays within the painted circle. This

technique keeps your painting clean,

enabling you to focus on blending and

colouring your artwork.

and even render any element you either

draw or paint on the canvas using Lock

Transparency. The name isn’t very helpful:

it doesn’t so much lock anything as mask

transparent areas of a layer. All you really

need to remember is that when it’s active,

you can only affect content that already

exists on the layer, not draw or paint in

new areas. This is a basic formula to help

you better understand this function.

A

long with all the amazing

user-friendly tools and options

you’ll find in the current

version of SketchBook Pro for

Windows and Mac, the powerful Lock

Transparency function can make your

life much easier and help improve your

workf low when creating artwork.

In this guide you’ll learn where to find

this function, how to colour your line-art

USING LOCK

TRANSPARENCY

A. Get your layers

organised first!

My layers are always organised by having a

layer for each major element in my artwork.

In this example I have a layer for my line-art

at the top and a layer for the subsequent

base colours of my character’s skin and hair.

This means I have full control over editing

each element separately.

B. Colouring the line-art

The next step is to enable the Lock

Transparency function for my line-art layer,

which gives me the option to colour just the

outline of my character. Select the base

colour of the skin and go slightly darker.

Notice now as I paint the skin outlines, it

gels the lines with the skin colour. I then

repeat the process for the line-art of the

eyes, lips and hair.

C. Add light and shadows

to the base colours

For the final stage, I Lock Transparency for

the base colour layers, take an airbrush and

start rendering by shading in the tones. My

main focus is to play with the edges of the

base colours to reflect light and shadow.

You can always go back into the line-art

layer and adjust the colours to fit the tones.

When it’s

active, you

can affect

only content

that already

exists on

the layer

SKETCHBOOK PRO