Planning Color Schemes with

Photoshop Elements

By Dan “Funaka” Salas

www.funakatown.com
One of the best things about building Gunpla
and Mecha Models as opposed to historical
tanks and airplanes is that you’re allowed to
dream up whatever color scheme you want to
paint on your model.
 I like to create color schemes for my
models using Photoshop Elements. You
can also use Photoshop and the freeware
GIMP. The basic concepts apply across the
board.
 What is Photoshop Elements?
Photoshop Elements (PSE) is a pixel-based
image editing program. It is a stripped-
way-down version of Photoshop (so it
doesn’t cost $700). There are many
versions, older ones work just fine for
making color schemes, but may not work
with newer operating systems. I had PSE 4
and it would not work with Windows 7.
Why use a computer program to plan
your color schemes?

Because people literally

laugh at you when you
do it on paper.
And when you do it on
paper, every time you
start a new version of
the color scheme, you
start from scratch.
 Because you can add a level of
detail in your color scheme in the
computer that you probably can’t
hold in your imagination and you
can SEE it on the screen and make
judgments about how something
looks.
 Because once you put in the basic
work to rendering a color scheme
on the computer you can easily
swap out colors and add and
remove details to work out several
different versions of your color
scheme.
Because it’s creative and fun once you
get the hang of it. And it will help you
on your way to Carpal Tunnel
Syndrome.

Seriously, you’re going to click

your mouse about 1,000 times
when you make a color scheme.
Remember to stretch your mouse-
clicking hand every so often.
Because you can make schemes you
would never put on an actual model…
Or make a scheme you wouldn’t even
show your friends…
Ever…
 Start with black
line art on a
white
background.
There are several
sources for line
art.
 You can scan the line art from your
Master Grade instruction manual if it
is an older kit that has the line art in it.
Or you can download
somebody else’s scan.
Good sources are…
• Dalong.net - don’t forget that
earlier kits (1.0) or HGUCs of
the MS you are building may
have line art.
• Hobby Magazine scans from
Dengeki Hobby or Hobby
Japan.
 You can draw your own lineart or trace it
and then scan your trace. Or you can trace
and scan it and then render your trace into
a nice line art in a program like Illustrator
or Corel Draw.
 If you find a smaller scanned image
you can blow it up in Photoshop
Elements (PSE).
• Many old line art scans appear
smaller due to increases in screen
resolution over the years. Some
newer scans will be small because
they are taken from small pictures in
a magazine.
Open the line art in PSE. Go to Image
 Resize  Image Size…
• I like to use
percent. Since
pixels are squares
you’re probably
best off going in
multiples of 25%
(like 200%).
• Make sure to
check “Constrain
Proportions” so
you blow up width
and height
together.
• Resample the
image using
Bicubic Smoother
so it doesn’t look
like 8-bit graphics.
Things may look a
bit blurry but that
will matter less
once it’s colored
in. Plus IMO blurry
is better than tiny.
Once you have a workable line art, you
can get to work. When you first open
your line art, it will appear in the
layers organizer as “Background”
Right click it and select “Layer from
Background…”
 I usually call this layer “Lineart”. Set the
mode to “Multiply”. This mode allows the
white in the line art to become
transparent.
Make another layer by selecting
Layer  New  Layer…
 Call it “Main Color” and set the mode to
“Normal”. Except for the Lineart layer, all
layers will be in Normal Mode.
Drag the Main Color layer beneath the
Lineart layer in the layer organizer.
 Now that this normal-mode Main Color
layer is beneath the multiply-mode Lineart
layer, you can paint in it without
overwriting the line art.
Note that the paint only appears in one
layer. It’s very important to remember
what layer you are working in.
Now you want to use
the Polygonal Lasso
tool to create a shape
to fill in color.

PSE has lots of

“smart” selection
tools but none of
them has ever been
smart enough in my
experience.
Choose the Polygonal Lasso Tool and make
sure the “Anti-aliasing” box is unchecked.
 The bottom of the lasso is the tip of
the cursor. Click it repeatedly to draw
a series of straight lines around the
edge of your mobile suit. Since the
lines in the line art are a bit fat you can
cheat a little but basically you need to
click every time the line in the line art
changes direction.
This part is a pain…
Eventually you get back around to the
point you started at. As you hover
over the very first point you set, the
icon will change slightly. Click again on
this point to close the polygon you
clicked around the outline of the
mobile suit. The lines you drew will
become an active selection with an
animated “marching ants” effect.
“Marching Ants”
Now that you have established this shape,
anything you do (paint brush, paint bucket,
eraser, enhancements, etc.) will only
happen within this selection.
Choose the Paint Bucket Tool.
Next choose a color to fill with the
Paint Bucket by clicking “Choose
Foreground Color”.
 In the window that opens, move the
slider on the right through the
“rainbow” of the color spectrum to get
close to the color you want and then
move the cursor somewhere in the big
square of color and select a shade of
that color.
Click inside the box.
 You can also select the color
from somewhere else in the
picture (later, when you’ve
added some different colors)
or from another picture you
open up in PSE using the Color
Picker Tool. Select the tool
and click the tip of the eye
dropper on a color on the
screen.
 Once you have your color, click the Paint
Bucket inside the selection you drew with
the Polygonal Lasso Tool. Bam! The whole
shape is filled with that color.
Note that the color
stays inside the
“Marching Ants”
selection.
 Just like with the Polygonal Lasso Tool, I like to
turn off anti-aliasing with the bucket. This gives
you jagged hard-edged lines, but they disappear
behind the lineart.
Why am I anti-anti-aliasing???
Later on, when you are using the bucket
tool to swap out the colors of your color
scheme, the soft edges made by anti-
aliasing will become fuzzy and soft. It can
be fuzzy enough that it looks like you
“colored outside the lines”.
 There are often “holes” that have to be
erased in the solid block of color you just
filled, often around the arms and hip
armor.
Start by pressing “Esc” on the keyboard to
turn off you “marching ants” selection.
Use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select
the “hole” you need to erase.
 There’s an erase tool and since you’ve
made a selection you can grab the erase
tool and sloppily run it around the
selection and it will only erase what is
inside the shape you selected. However,
it’s even easier to just press “Delete” on
your keyboard. Everything in that layer
within that selection will disappear.
 Once I have my main color filled in
behind my line art, I like to add a third
layer called “Background” and fill it in
will a light, neutral color. This is
especially helpful if you are working on
a color scheme with lots of white in it.
If the background is white, the white
parts of your mobile suit can get lost.
No matter how much tan background I
used, this picture was still butt-ugly…
The model came out better.
• Now you can start to add detail. I usually
start with two layers, one called
“Internals” where I paint all the joint
mechanisms and things like that in a gray
color. (or blinged out gold if you’re
building a Strike Freedom).

• I add another layer called “Lenses” for

the eyes and any other sensor lenses,
assuming they’re all the same color.
Your basic monochromatic Mobile Suit
You want a layer for
every color, and you
want to place those
layers between the Line
Art layer and the Main
Color layer. The order of
the layers determines
whether something you
paint overlaps other
parts of the picture or
gets hidden below
them.
Note how when I put the “Main Color”
layer on top of the “Internals” layer, it
overlaps them, and the internals
disappear.
Another way to make a layer disappear
is to toggle the layer visibility. This is
much better than trying to hide layers
behind other layers.
 I can put the Internals back on top of the
Main Color where they belong but still hide
them with a click using layer visibility.
Click it again to bring them back.
 Now that you have a basic
monochromatic mobile suit
with internals and lenses, you
can start to add trim colors
on new layers. It helps to give
them descriptive names
because there’s a good
chance you’ll end up with 10
layers or more.
 So whoopee… three
hours later I’ve created
a picture that’s the
same as the picture on
the side of the kit’s
box, except in crappy
low resolution.
Just a side note. When
I filled the white in this
version of the scheme,
I did not have anti-
aliasing turned off on
the bucket tool. Look
carefully and you can
see in several places
how the white shows
“outside the lines”.
 Now that you’ve madea basic color
scheme, the hard part is over, and it’s time
to get creative. For starters, this dark bird
poop green and white color scheme has
got to go, so let’s recolor it purple.
Why Purple?

Don’t
ask
why…
 Choose a new color. Choose the
paint bucket tool. Make sure anti-
aliasing is unchecked, and uncheck
“Contiguous”.
Click the bucket somewhere inside the green
and now you’ve got a purple mobile suit.
 Unchecking the “Contiguous” box
means that everything this color on
this layer will be changed, and not just
the one contiguous part you click on.
That way you can change an entire
color in one click. This means a lot
more when you get to the trim layers
which have lots of little “islands” of
color.
With contiguous selected, I didn’t have
to click each of these red bits one by
one; I got them all with one click.
 This is good because that red is
horrible so I want to pick a better
color and change it. Then I’ll
change the rest of the colors in the
layer until I get to something I like
a lot better…
 If you’re having trouble choosing
trim colors there are websites like
http://www.colorpicker.com/ that
can help you choose
complimentary colors.
 It works like PSE and you can pick
different color combos with the links
on the bottom.
Color you selected 

Complimentary Colors 

Click these links to

see different
complimentary color
combinations 
I like this color scheme better but it’s
still pretty boring. The ReZel is a
chunky polygon-filled mobile suit and
all those nice shapes are really lost in
what is a pretty monochromatic color
scheme.
 So I chose a fifth color (a very pale
green) to add to the scheme and used
it to pick out some panels.
I keep an eye on the instructions and pictures of
the real model because I can add color in places
where the parts breakdown lets me avoid
masking, or where a hard edge on the part
makes masking really easy.
With a little planning, you too can
be a lazy model builder!

I used parts breakdown

on most of the tan and
green camo on my
Cherudim. That way I only
had to mask 7 or 8 pieces.
I also avoided
demarcations across two
different pieces which
made masking easier.
 I decided the purple ReZel was STILL
too boring so I started making optional
layers for the other colors until the
ReZel looked like a funky mosaic.
Make separate layers
for your optional
colors. This way you
can turn them on and
off.
At this point it may be a bit much
but I can keep messing with it.
Maybe that maroon is just too
strong and I can tone it down
some.
Maybe reverse the purples?

Maybe not…
 Somewhere during that process I
looked and said, “Oh, hey, I missed
a spot.”
 So I use the color picker tool to select
the white color and move to the white
trim layer and then color in the hoses
on the backs of the legs.

Don’t forget to go
back to the layer with
the white trim 

If you put the color on

the wrong layer, the
next time you use the
bucket to change
colors, the hoses won’t
“follow” the other
white parts.
 Any time you think you’ve got
something good, use “Save As…” to
keep a PSD file with that version.
Choose a descriptive name since you
may end up with many versions.
 Once you have multiple versions,
you can open several at once, both
to compare them and to use the
Color Picker to swap colors
between them.
I also like to use “Save As…” to create a
JPEG of any versions I’m serious about.
Select a file size and press “OK”.
You can view JPEG pictures in Windows
in a slideshow and easily print them. I
also tend to display them in my WIP
posts so I can show people what my
plans are at the beginning of a project.
You can’t do all that stuff with a PSD
file.
Advanced technique – Camouflage
Let’s start with better base colors
for camouflage.
Select you Main Color layer and then
select the “Magic Wand Tool”.
Click inside the main color and you
will select the whole mobile suit.
Now make a new layer called “Camo”
and place it just above the Main Color
layer. Choose a camouflage color.
Select the “Brush Tool”. Select the size
of the brush stroke with the slider and
then start painting camouflage.
The camouflage will only be painted
within the selection so don’t worry
about going “outside the lines”.