Help with separating this drawing

[kfalconer]

Hi,

I've been reading the forums for awhile and learning a lot about screenprinting. I feel confident in separating spot colors in Illustrator and now I am ready to move on to the next level. In all of the reading I've done, I haven't figured out the best way to approach the seps for a color drawing. I can do it in illustrator using the trace feature but I don't like all the Illustrator-ish shapes. I am assuming I should do the seps for the attached drawing in Photoshop but I don't know how to do it. I'd like to print this using 3-5 colors and halftones of those colors.
Any ideas or suggestions as to the best approach?

[RichieGoodtimes]

Hire somebody.

[kfalconer]

I want to add that I don't want the screenprint to look just like the drawing. The screenprint will have a much more graphic look to it. It will be obvious I used only a few colors. I'd really like to learn to do the seps myself.

[wearefriends]

You could use the Select>Color Range method in PS. I will be honest though, it'll probably suck. Good luck pulling it off without at least 8 colors or 4 color process.

[crosshair]

Make a black keyline and hand-cut rubylith for a dark grey underbase and transparent sky/pavement blue, green, orange, and red overlays.

Seriously, if you really want to learn how to do the seps, that's the place to start.

[Josh Rickun]

or just go for the gold and do it like crosshair
Open City process- Crosshair 17-color art print for Devil Town at G1988

[ImJustRickG]

Hire somebody

Listen to this advice. I'd suggest you look up this "Goodtimes" character and hire him.

[alexfugazi]

If you want to silkscreen a line art drawing w/ color, you really should just do the lineart and scan that first, and then start laying in the colors in photoshop (or by rubylith if you're a crazy person, also known as a more patient person than I). You could probably print something close to that with 6 colors, but there are easier prints to start with.

I would do...
1- light green for the trees and grass and tree trunks
2- blue for the sky and canoes, and to overlay the leaves in the trees to make it a dark green
3- red for the house and roof, and overlay it in the dark green in the trunk of the trees to make that a brown
4- process yellow to overlay the house an orange, and to put grassy texture in the grass, picking out highlights and stuff in the roof as well.
5- trans black to put on shadows and more detailing in grass, rocks, modelling in the canoes, etc, etc.
6- black for the lineart.

But that's me. I'd also go into and pick out highlights here and there, but you'd probably need a steady mouse-hand, or a wacom to pull those lines out.

This would be a lot, lot easier if you started with just lineart- as it is now, you'll have to scan it and pick it out from the colors.

[kfalconer]

Hey all - thank you for your input. I guess I was thinking I could rely on photoshop's cutout filter or something of that sort to breakdown the colors for me. I guess shortcuts never really work like we want them to though.
I'm down for scanning in the line art and re-figuring the color for a screen print.
Alex - thanks for the breakdown in the process you might follow. It's totally helpful.
That 17-color process print Josh linked to is amazing!!
Thanks again.

[Thornysarus]

yeah... That's why they call it an "art." Only crazy people or artists have the patience for it.