Colouring greyscale bases in photoshop

a finished greyscale base

 This is a finished greyscale base I created. I spent quite a while on this, making sure the contrasts were good and that it was detailed properly.

To start colouring it I first make a new layer with a clipping mask for each part of the base- so for the body, hooves and hair. All you need to do to make a clipping mask is check the box for it when the New Layer window pops up.

my layer palette with all the clipping masks added

 As you can see in the layer preview window, I've scribbled all over the body colour layer. Because I have a clipping mask added to the previous layer it means that everything on the colour layer will be confined to the space of the base layer.

the result of the clipping mask

Then to actually use the base properly I change the Layer Style of the coloured layer to 'Soft Light'. There are many other styles to be chosen from however I think 'SL' gives the best balance between tone and colour.

all the layer styles in photoshop

'Soft Light' layer style VS 'Overlay'.

Above is a comparison of two layer styles, 'Soft Light' (which I use) and 'Overlay'. Personally I think the overlay setting makes the colour too saturated- especially when working with brighter colours, and if it looks a little underexposed like the one on the left you can always use the Curves tool to edit the contrast and lightness of the base.

a bay and black tobiano coloured horse

a liver chestnut leopard horse and a RAINBOW PONY :D

With more complex greyscale bases you can build up layers and layers of different colours, however I can work with one layer just fine.