How to Add Color to a Scanned Picture in Photoshop ?

Put your drawing on the scanner. If your drawing needs to be inked you may do so by drawing over your pencil lines with a pen. Better tools won't magically make your picture 10x better, but they do help any experienced artist.

Scan your picture. There should be a window with options such as DPI settings and a Brightness/Contrast setting. If you are unsure of your computer's Virtual Memory then set the DPI to 150 or lower. Photoshop is usually better for cleaning up, so finish scanning your picture and open it in Photoshop.

Size your picture to your liking. Many scanners size the picture based on the DPI levels; if the picture looks too big for you, you can size it down by going to Image > image size and entering the dimensions you prefer ex: 800 x 800 pixels.

Go to Image > Adjust > Brightness Contrast and mess around with the sliders until the whites are whitest and the lines are black, make sure your lines are still soft though, if you are not satisfied with the results you may go to Image > Adjust > levels.

Erase any unwanted specs or dirt that was picked up by the scanner.

Clean the lines.

• Press CTRL and 'A' at the same time, then CTRL and X (same time), SHIFT and CTRL and then 'N'.
• Name the layer lines or lineart or even Molly; you just need to name it so you don't mix up the layers.
• Use the paint bucket tool and fill the whole layer with black (don't worry we're just 'unsticking' your lines). Make sure you are still on the 'Lines/Molly' layer and press the 'Quick mask' button.
• Press CTRL and V. Your lines should appear in red against a black canvas, now press the other quick mask button (to switch the other one off), your lines should look like they have little ants crawling around them. Use the eraser to remove the black then press CTRL and D. Your nice black lines should be on the Line/Molly layer with no white stuff.

Use the Airbrush to colour and shade since it's a very soft brush, make a new layer under your lines and colour in what ever skin tone you'll be using. Colour each part of the picture on a different layer, and then shade them with the airbrush. If you want to shade all of them at once, make a layer above all the coloured layers, but under the line art, and set it to 'multiply' and use a colour like peach or blue (depending on what sort of colour scheme you're going for) and shade everything, you'll notice the colour you shaded with changes a bit when you colour over each different part.

Mess with the transparency bar until you get your desired results; be sure to use airbrush.

On a new layer, add the highlights and pink to his/her cheeks if you want, lower the transparency and add some more highlights (white dots etc.) on a new layer.

Go to the line art layer and select the little box that says 'preserve transparency' and colour the lines a bit darker than the parts of the picture, ex: if the hair is blond colour the hair lines light brown. Do this with all the line art, if you mess up it's okay you can colour it again.

Clean up your drawing and you're done!