If you're exploring various color palettes and moods for a piece, Photoshop has a secret tool to help you speed through the process. It's actually not a secret, but many illustrators simply don't know about it. Unlike other color overlay techniques, this command will replace colors based off of their value. This means that your highlights will be treated differently than your shadows, etc. To properly use this technique you'll need to know how to create a gradient in Photoshop, though it's not discussed in the video. Luckily, gradients are a very old feature for Photoshop and Illustrator, so it isn't hard to learn about them on the internet.
The previous video encouraged you to experiment with the colors of a character design. What about the color of the lines themselves? This time I invite you to take the same illustration and to experiment with colored lines. Black lines have their place, but you can add nuance to your images with intentionally colored lines. And if you like this video, please remember to click the "Like" button at the bottom of the post! The only advertising for Ctrl+Paint is word of mouth, so I'm counting on you guys to spread the word. Thanks!
Assignment: Experiment with colored linework the provided character designs.
Things to consider: Soft vs. Hard Materials, Lock Transparent Pixels
Recommended videos:Basic Color Schemes, Unify Your Palette, Alternative Masking pt.1 (Lock Transparent Pixels)
Worksheet Downloads:Gorilla character Worksheet
One of the best ways to learn about color and color relationships is to play. In this exercise, I invite you to use my illustration as a coloring book, and see what happens when you try different combinations and arrangements. Though the digital painting you end up with is not a portfolio piece, using my provided linework should keep you focused on the task at hand: changing the colors. And if you like this video, please remember to click the "Like" button at the bottom of the post! The only advertising for Ctrl+Paint is word of mouth, so I'm counting on you guys to spread the word. Thanks!
Assignment: Experiment with color schemes on the provided character designs.
Things to consider: Complementary and Analogous Schemes, Lock Transparent Pixels
Recommended videos:Basic Color Schemes, Unify Your Palette, Alternative Masking pt.1 (Lock Transparent Pixels)
Worksheet Downloads:Gorilla character Worksheet
Movies can teach you a lot about storytelling. In this video I explain one way to use the beautiful colors found in movie stills, and apply them to your own illustration work. Like in the other videos in the Film Studies series, we dissect a frame and remove the context -- leaving us with a versatile piece of reference material.
Though color schemes like the one discussed in this video are not 'rules', they can be a nice way to help structure a painting. This time we'll move into a third basic color scheme, triads, and examine some great paintings by Tristan Elwell.
Painting color can be done in one of two ways: direct and indirect. Indirect painting is the process of glazing colors on top of one another to achieve a slow build-up. Like traditional some oil painters, many digital painters prefer this method to working 'directly'. If you want to learn about going from a grayscale underpainting to a fully colored image, check out "Grayscale to Color" in the store.
The world of "Color Theory" can seem deep and confusing. This video will help break the ice by introducing two basic color schemes, and show their varried use in a digital painting. If you like the art in the video, make sure to check out Scott Robertson's website: http://cargocollective.com/drawthrough
Color is relative. Depending on the surrounding colors, ambient light in the room, and a variety of other factors - your results will vary. This video explores the idea of relative color, and suggests some tips for carefully observing color. Training your eye to carefully ovserve color is challenging, but very worthwhile. Good luck! If you want to see the earlier video mentioned in the post, here it is -- "guess that color"
Realistic color is often pure and unmixed. Learning to paint realistically involves learning about the way light behaves, and how colors bounce from one object to another. This video shows you how you can kill two birds with one stone: create realistic color and unify your color palette at the same time.
Painting requires you to think about many things, and one of them is color. Learning to accurately observe color will translate into more efficient painting. The less time you spend re-painting the same area of yor canvas searching for the perfect color, the quicker you will be able to finish the work and move onto another. This video offers a color drill which is all about careful observation. How close can you get? Reader Aaron M. reminded me of a fantastic follow-up: The Munsel Hue Test. This is a fun way to test your hue observation skills. I would love to see scores for both of these games in the comments!