Digital colouring - Part 1

The aim of this exercise is to be able to colour in the artwork while still keeping the surrounding lines, this is used quite often in the comic industry.

FIrst off open up Photoshop with your selected image.
Make sure your in RGB mode. (Image > Mode > RGB Color). If prompted, choose Flatten.
Now on the layers tab click 'Channels' You will see a list of channels (RGB, Red, Green, Blue)
Click and hold down the Blue Channel by slecting it. The dragging the channel to the icon at the bottom.

This will create an extra channel named Blue Copy.

Now go back to the layers tab, and Add 2 layers above your current picture.
They will both be transparent (this can be noticed by the checkered grey and white).
Select the layer above your current picture and fill it all in White.

Now select the top most layer.
Go to Select > Load Selection.
On the channel box choose 'Blue Copy' and make sure Invert is ticked.

Now you need to make your old picture invisible, to do this click the eye on the left of the layer.
Now choose black and select the brush tool. Start painting over the ant-lines till you have gone over all of your image.

When you have finished hold down CTRL and press D.

There you have it, the lines are now a seperate layer ready to be used for colouring.

*Please note that the Artwork used in this tutorial is only for reference, the actual artist who did it is named Greg Moutafis and all rights to the art are his.