"Think Here": March 2012

Hello everyone!
This tutorial is about how to clean up the layouts so that they look like the above image.

First of all, make new layers for every step.
Step 1: Block in all the flats. Use a polygonal lasso tool. Don't worry about being super clean and accurate with the pencil line. You can still use the lasso tool with loose curves (ie. the bottom of the curtain). If there's something that needs a good circle (ie. Trashcan, pop cans), use the elliptical marquee tool.
Also, I've decided to hold off of colouring the "debris" because I want to see all the finished layouts beforehand. Leave those as a separate layer on top of the flats.

When you turn off the pencil lines, it should look like this. Don't worry if things look wonky. Notice that the shelf and the drawing table are slightly warped.

Speed tip: I blasted through this with some handy hot keys.

B -> (hold Alt)+(select colour from palette) -> L -> (select area) -> Alt+Back -> Ctrl+D -> (repeat)
If you wondering, it means [brush tool -> select colour -> lasso tool -> select area -> fill with foreground colour -> deselect]
Additional helpful keys are (M = Elliptical marquee tool) and (Hold spacebar = scrolling around image)

Both polygonal lasso tool and the elliptical marquee tool are set to Add to Selection. If you screw up with a selection, you can hold Alt which will set your tool to Subtract from Selection. It will automatically switch back to Add when you let go of Alt.
With these hot keys, you can actually work without the toolbars (Tab = Turning toolbars Off/On. F = full-screen).

Step 2: Next is the line art. If your scan is 300dpi (which it should), set your brush to 3px. Follow the pencil lines instead of the flats when you do the line art.
During this part, Alt and Shift are your best friends:

Alt+click to select colours from the palette.
(hold shift)+click to make straight lines.

This will do all the work for you. For example, to outline the shelf, I just held shift and clicked on the corners. The brush then draws the line for me. For small ellipses, I drew those freehand.

You notice that the flats occasionally bleed into the lines. Leave them for now. Sometimes these look good. But! If some of the bleeding makes the area look confusing, you can cover them up with the shadows layer.

Step 3: Adding the shadows. This is exactly like the first step except you can turn off the pencil layer from now on. You can have all the shadows on the same layer but keep the Paper's shadows on a separate layer. The light source is in the middle of the room.

Step 4.5: When you're done with the shadows, you have to re-colour the lines that are inside the shadows so that they're the light colour. Examples are the wall corner, the line in the curtain, the boxes and the floor trim behind the drawing table.

Step 4: The blue gradient. Create a new layer and set it to Overlay with its Opacity at 80%. Make a linear gradient on the upper 1/5 of the image.

And there you have it! It's done~

Also, here's the palette sheet. You can just colour pick from this in photoshop.
If I'm missing any thing other than the "debris," please tell me and I'll update this!