Psychedelic Melty Space Face: Digital coloring step by step

I decided to go for a Psychedelic black light poster vibe while coloring my previously posted Melty Space Face

I took the image into photoshop and used color select to remove the whites and put the blacks onto their own layer.

Then I began coloring in each area and creating a new layer for each part that I wanted to be a separate color for tweaking later on. I was rather sloppy during this stage since the black inks layer covers so much.

Without the black layer over-top. Doesn't look like much.

I decided to use Layer Styles with Gradient Overlays to get some nice color fades. It took a lot of trial and error. Another shot without the inks.

I also added a gradient overlay to the black inks layer itself, as well as a white border on top. I'm happy with how it turned out and wish I could see it on velvet with a black light!

Some of my other step by step posts
Sally Dog: Oil painting step by step
Green Skull: Oil painting on wood step by step
The Ritual Master: Ink drawing step by step

Love it:) What you need is an ink jet printer loaded with glow in the dark inks.

Thanks! That's a good idea!

I have never seen that technique of using gradient overlays for colorizing, it's very clever and the result is very impressive. An advice of mine would be that if you're ever interested in getting smooth custom color shades rather than linear or radial gradients, then you could use SAI's brush tool for the base colors and then blend the colors using the ol water tool at a low density, about 10%-15%. However, this tedious to do and requires a great deal of patience and effort, especially if you don't use a tablet.

Thanks, I assume you are talking about Paint Tool SAI? I've never tried it out before but I will give it a look.

you are an excellent artist. I love your work! I will follow you