What are flats anyway? And why would I need them to color my inks in Photoshop?

These are a couple of the questions I usually get asked about this topic, so before we begin I'll answer them here.

Laying down the flats for digital coloring in Photoshop is probably one of the most important thing you have to do. If you've ever seen airbrush artists paint, you'd probably seen them using masking tapes for 'fixed masking' and 'freehand masking'. Flats function essentially the same way.

Flats basically separates key objects from one another using different base colors. They wil be your tool in masking certain areas of your image, so that other areas will not be affected. Once you ave mastered this technique, it will be much easier for you to color your images in the long run.

Now this tutorial presumes you already have basic knowledge of the following:

• Adobe Photoshop (the features listed in this tutorial are available from versions 6.0 and up)
• A basic idea of how to prepare pencilled or inked line arts
• A Graphic tablet (if you can use a mouse to paint in photoshop, then bravo to you)

So if you're ready, then on to the tutorial.