1.
Open your file in Photoshop, and create new layer.
Select the brush type and size that will allow you
to work most easily within your project.
2.
Once you have selected the paintbrush tool, several
options will appear in the toolbar above, one of
which is the option to change your opacity. This
option lets you make your painted areas completely
opaque or somewhat transparent. My preferred setting
for painting color onto an image is to set the opacity
at 25%, which will result in a more natural look,
and allow the textures in the image to show through,
adding realism.
3.
With your opacity set to 25% and your brush tool
selected, choose your paint color from the colors
palette and begin painting.
The
one thing that makes this method so difficult is
that you have to paint as much of your image as
you can in one mouse-stroke (or pen stroke) because
additional strokes over an area will leave more
"paint", and will double the intensity
of the color being applied.
Increase
the image to as large as you can, allowing you to
work in a detailed way. You will need to release
the mouse from time to time to move around within
the image. In these instances, be careful to come
as close to your previously painted edge as possible
without overlapping it (*see hint below). If overlapping
does occur (and it will), you will need to do some
correcting to reduce the overlap lines which will
look darker than the rest. Use the healing brush
(the band-aid icon) to sample an area that is next
to your overlap line, and then brush over the overlap
line to correct it.
4.
Once your image is colored to your liking, flatten
the layers and save your image as a new filename.
