Tutorial: AKVIS Coloriage

Children’s Photo

The author of this example is Vladimir Barsukov, from Bishkek.

Certainly in your home there is a photo that is a family heirloom, a record of time. It provides a lot of information, but not all. If your photo was made several years ago it did not preserve the brightest memory – color. Now you can correct this deficiency and add color to a black-and-white photo according to reality or just your imagination.

Vladimir Barsukov sent us a photo from his childhood, a moment from the summer of 1957 in Artek. He painted this black-and-white photo using AKVIS Coloriage. You can repeat his experience in only a few seconds, by downloading this file containing the original photo and the strokes file. Open the image, start Coloriage, load the strokes file, and apply. You will have a color image of the photo.

Vladimir writes: "I hope that by looking at this photo of young pioneers from 62 years ago, someone in the photo will see themself again in this colorful seaside country."

In order to make a color image from a black-and-white photo in AKVIS Coloriage:

• Step 1. Start the program AKVIS Coloriage. Open the photo that you will paint:
  
• Step 2. In the Tools Panel choose the Pencil tool.
• Step 3. For the colors in the photo to appear as close to natural as possible, take advantage of the Color Library, which is very useful for coloring objects, such as eyes, lips, skin, etc. Begin by coloring the pioneers.
• Step 4. There are very small objects in the photo, so be patient and precise.
  
• Step 5. Draw around the flowers and grass.
  
• Step 6. Single out details on the building with strokes. You can mark every detail, but if you would prefer less detail in the background, choose fewer details to mark.
  
• Step 7. After drawing all stroke the image will look like this.
  
• Step 8. Save the strokes to a file (use the button ). You can load this file later and make more changes.
• Step 9. Start the coloring process by pressing the button . The result will be shown in the After tab.
  
• Step 10. If the result is to your liking, you can save it by pressing the button .