My technique drops out the background white of drawings that are scanned and allows illustrators to work on the sketch in Normal mode. The advantage to this process is to do away with converting the scanned sketch into Multiply mode in order to color it. In Multiply mode the sketch loses integrity when paint fills "multiply" through the sketch from below and becomes mingled as a tint of the sketch color above. Furthermore, you have to convert the sketch back to normal mode to color it and all the white comes back obscuring the effect the color change has with the colors layered underneath.
Technique
My technique drops out the background white of drawings that are scanned and allows illustrators to work on the sketch in Normal mode. The advantage to this process is to do away with converting the scanned sketch into Multiply mode in order to color it. In Multiply mode the sketch loses integrity when paint fills "multiply" through the sketch from below and becomes mingled as a tint of the sketch color above. Furthermore, you have to convert the sketch back to normal mode to color it and all the white comes back obscuring the effect the color change has with the colors layered underneath.
Recording the steps as an action
If this seems complicated, you can abbreviate the series of routines I just described by recording them as an action in Photoshop. I perform the whole process by simply hitting my F1 key, which I have assigned as a keyboard shortcut for the action. If you're unsure, follow these steps:
- Open an image to which you want to apply this technique;
- Pull down Window from the Menu and select Action, or hit Option>F9 (Mac);
- Click on the "Create new action" icon next to the trash icon at the bottom of the palette;
- Name the action;
- Assign a Function Key to start the action;
- Click the Record button;
- Now, go through each step I outlined above to achieve the effect of dropping out the white background;
- When done with the routines, click on the square button at the bottom of the Actions palette and the action is created. From now on when you need that scanned file converted, just hit the key command(s) you assigned for this technique.
Biography
Carl Clingman is a Wisconsin native. He received his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned an Associate degree in Commercial Art. Carl has a Master of Arts from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
After graduate school, Carl worked for two years in Chicago at the Anatomical Chart Company as an Associate Art Director before moving to Texas to work for ten years as a staff medical illustrator at Baylor College of Medicine. After Baylor, Carl worked as a Medical Illustrator/Senior Graphic Designer at University of Texas-Houston Medical School.
Carl moved back to the north central Midwest to accept his lifelong dream job as a medical Illustrator for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.