Airbrush Step by Step – July 2019

STEP BY STEP | Tradition and Modernity

58 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 03/19 E

23

CMYK colors

This photo shows both the co-

lor portion of each pass represented

here (color appearance/layers) as well

as the amount that color is used (co-

lor saturation/application).  The darker

the value under the color saturation

label, the more generous the applica-

tion of that specific color.  Each color

sample seen in this chart is reflective

of the combination of the current co-

lor and the color prior.  For example,

the image marked with *magenta is a

combination of both magenta (Createx

5096 CMYK Magenta) and cyan (Crea-

tex 5095 CMYK Cyan), the following

a combination of the three-magenta,

cyan and yellow (Createx 5097 CMYK

Yellow). Unlike printing, I may go back-

and-forth between those three colors

as well as mix my own from them as I

see fit. I will use the black illustration

color for tinting mostly. 

Part 2: Color

22

Color breakdown

For my reference photo color breakdown I use Ad-

obe Photoshop to isolate the process colors as if I was go-

ing to make a 4-color process print. There is a plethora of

information online as to how to do this. Adobe Photoshop

and Illustrator makes access to this information fairly easily.

Process color printing is a process in which all colors are re-

alized using only cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. It is usu-

ally dependent upon print angle and print frequency as well

as color distribution from a printer, but in this case, it is color

saturation along with our pushing and pulling painting me-

thod that allows

us a similar ver-

satility with co-

lor distribution.

It enables a wide

range of color

based on overlap-

ping transparent

passes as well as

physical mixing of

colors in a similar

fashion that one

may obtain mul-

tiple colors from

the three primary colors.