Using Illustrator outlines to build alpha channels, friskets and the anatomical features of freshwater fish as digital paintings in Photoshop

Note: These projects were painted completely using only a mouse, software and a Power PC Macintosh computer in 1999. No digital tablet was invlived.

In Tutorial 001 I explained how I created vector outlines of all of the major features of each fish species for this project. These outlines all exist now as separate files ready to be imported and used in Photoshop.

I chose the Redbreasted Sunfish as my example in the previous tutorial using Illustrator. In this lesson I’ll change to the Pumpkinskin Sunfish. Illustrations 01 and 02 show the outlines and templates created for this new fish. I followed the very same procedures with each drawing. I’m just using different species per lesson herein to provide you with variety and close ups of the different paintings. Illustrations 01 and 02 are screen shots while still in Illustrator. In Illustration 01 you can see the dimmed scan I used for reference, showing the animal’s blotchy skin pattern. In Illustration 02 I’ve removed the reference drawing and you can see the guidelines I’ve built to serve as reference for these blotches in Photoshop. REMEMBER, these blotch guidelines are on their own layer and they are also SAVED as their own Illustrator file so I can import them on their own into Photoshop.

From Vector to Raster!

Once Photoshop is open my first decision before opening a new file is page and image size and resolution. As I mentioned in the previous lesson, I’ve decided to create all of the paintings on a tabloid size page at 200 dpi. This gives me uniformity and a final original that offers a lot of freedom in terms of what I may want to do with them when finished. Higher resolution allows for publication and I can always make versions in low resolution for the internet or as 3D image maps.

This decision was actually made while working in Illustrator and all of the work done there is also at this size, resolution not being an issue in a vector program. But this uniformity makes importing the various outline files easier, so they match up and register to each other within Photoshop. All I need to do is remember to assign 200 dpi as the incoming resolution to each file as I import them.

The very first step in Photoshop is to OPEN the keyline file from Illustrator, the file that includes the animal’s overall outline. Once this file is in Photoshop, on a transparent layer, I SELECT the background, outside the fish drawing, using the MAGIC WAND tool (set at contiguous). This selection is SAVED as the first alpha channel and named “background removal.” Illustration 03 shows you this work. The incredible value this step serves will become apparent as we proceed. I then create a NEW LAYER and name it “background painting.” I then activate the previously created alpha channel and INVERSE it. I SAVE this selection as a new alpha channel and name it “silhouette.” Leaving this selection active (but invisible using COMMAND-H in Macintosh), I spray various colors that represent the basic body color of the species I’m painting.

No shadows, no modeling at this stage, just indigenous body color. Illustration 04 shows this work and the channels described. Please notice that I’ve left the fin areas slightly transparent, like real fins. This will be real helpful at some later date when I place the finished drawing over some background and it shows through a bit. This is just one of the deceptive little tricks that have made these fish paintings so popular.

Color and texture of the skin surface are my first priorities, the scales are last and are painted transparently over the skin. In life this is how the fish is built as well. When you remove the scales of a fish before cooking you’ll notice that the scales are actually nearly colorless like little glass plates or overlapping shingles, the fish’s color is in the skin... under the scales. So, we paint the fish in the same order, from the surface beneath to the scales on top.

By now I have imported the “blotches” guidelines and named the layer, “blotches template.” Just beneath it I’ve created another layer named, “blotches painting.” Into this layer I begin painting the blotches, slightly transparent in a brown color. Clicking the “blotches template” layer on and off lets me check my painting, how it looks without outlines. ALL of the “template” guideline layers will be discarded at the completion of the painting. Illustration 05 shows the first steps of this work. Illustration 06 shows more of this work, you’ll notice that two “guideline layers” are also active for visual reference. But NO actual painting is done on these guideline layers, they are references ONLY that can be turned on and off as needed. Another tip: You’ll notice in Illustration 05 that I’ve embedded small rectangles of the primary colors I used in the background blend. These spot colors are placed on a non-painting layer. They are handy to click on with the EYEDROPPER tool whenever I need to use the paintbrush to paint with the original colors. I suggest that you acquire this habit of bringing your color palette along with you as the picture develops.

Cookie Cutter Shapes... and their value:

The next big tip to share, and its use, is a major part of the technique used here, is the creation of many alpha channels, created from the MAGIC WAND selections of the open areas within the imported keylines. These “windows” become “friskets” which provide control when sparaying color or erasing color from the image. Illustration 06a shows this selection process as a light gray.

The first example of this use is in Illustration 07 along the gill slit. I’ve airbrushed a highlight that has a soft edge and a hard edge. This is accomplished by using the alpha channel created in Illustration 06a. Activating this channel as a SELECTION, turned invisible with COMMAND-H, and then used to do painting on the appropriate LAYER, allows for an intermixing of colors and shapes that form the final composite.

ALL of the face anatomy and fin detail was painted using this technique.

Illustration 07 shows the use of this process and Illustration 08 shows the affect with the keylines and channel turned OFF. Illustration 08 also shows the beginning modeling of the lips using this same technique. The lip shape was selected on the keyline layer, as visible in Illustration 07, SAVED as a new channel, activated as a selection, and painted into on a painting layer. The eye detail was done the same way. See Tutorial 002b for a picture of this step completed on the face.

This completes the first half of the Photoshop portion of this tutorial. In the next chapter I expose all the secrets behind my 3D fish scales.

GALLERY - Fish Paintings

Created in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop combined:

Species illustrated include:
Largemouth Bass, Carp, Smallmouth Bass, Pumpkinskin Sunfish, Walleye, Striped Bass, Black Crappie, Grass Pickerel, Yellow Perch, Spotted Bass, White Crappie, Bluegill, Sauger Fish, Red-breasted Sunfish, Northern Pike, Great Lakes Muskie,  White Bass.