Toning/whitespace tip: fill in the negative space, then invert

Here's a simple little tip that didn't occur to me until recently.

When I'm drawing a page, I usually have a background behind the characters, so I need to fill in whitespace underneath the characters' ink lines, to block out the background.

Until the other day, I did this by using the Fill tool with the All Layers option and filling in the lines of the characters with white, clicking on each little space created by the lines I'd drawn.

Then it hit me: Fill in the negative space, then invert.

Here's what I start with (click the thumbnail to see the full image):

What I do is this:

1. Turn off all layers except my characters.

 

2. Fill in the negative space with a color (I use black).

3. Select the negative space with the "Select Color Range" option.

4. Invert the selection.  You now have a selection covering all the space where your characters are, and none of the space where they're not.  A perfect silhouette.

5. On a new layer, fill the selection with white.  The background is now obscured and the characters are opaque.

6. Above the white layer, fill in with tones or colors as desired.

And you're done!

In this example, I was using Manga Studio, but the same principles apply in Painter, Photoshop, or any coloring program.

I'll be inking the figures on this page next.  I'll see what kind of tutorial I can come up with for them!

Jeff