Digital Painting help

*djwagLmuffin Jul 7, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

I have this serious problem with coloring right now. I've seen several tutorials on the subject and there are severl approaches but when i have a question nobody responds.

The first question I have is about the overlay coloring where you start with a gray base and shade everything from there but when I add the color to the gray and set it to overlay it looks way too washed out even though I followed the tutorial to the letter.

Here's the piece I am working on now:

[link]

I like the 5th attempt, I think the sky looks better and it provides a better foundation for the rest of the piece but then when I get to the character I seem to have problem with what colors to use and when I tried that the first time (the second attempt) it was turning out really dark.

Doing the individual colors wasn't working either so if anyone has any ideas or pointers I could really use it. I want this to finish strong but I feel stuck somewhere in the coloring phase of it all and it's hindering my push forward.

Tutorials are also a big help even though I'd like some one on one time with someone who knows this stuff.

I also bought an awesome book for this but applying what I've read is a different thing all together.

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Devious Comments

*Marmaladde Jul 18, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Hello! I made a tutorial on coloring

I would be happy to answer any questions. [link]

~JacobyBeckz Jul 9, 2012

have you ever tried [link] ??

*djwagLmuffin Jul 11, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

I have now! I'll check it out, thanks for this. :]

~JacobyBeckz Jul 14, 2012

you're very welcome

=Cnids Jul 8, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

I don't know about all these fancy layer modes and shading and stuff, but the best way I've found to paint with is to use a sort of digital glazing technique. I like to block in colours roughly with the airbrush over the background but under the lineart (so I get some blending). Overtop of this I set the brush to a lower opacity (I'm usually around 20-30%) and a lower flow to make things more painterly (like 70%). Then you just layer on thin layers of colours.

I usually have the underpainting between a midpoint and a shadow, and then I work mostly by working up the lights. I find that makes me really focus on where the light source is coming from, as well as any "colour carry" from other areas. Doing a rough underpainting of colours also lets me figure things out, and I can select individual areas and change their hue/saturation/brightness easily until I'm happy.

I've never really liked the working from grayscale technique because I find it kind of limiting and it doesn't give me time to think about how colours interact and blend together. Things can get a bit monochromatic too with this technique; like your shirt will be dark red, medium red, and light red, and your pants will be dark blue, medium blue, etc. which makes things look a bit disjointed.

I'm not an expert by any means, but I've found this style of working to be very streamlined and it helps me stay motivated throughout a piece. I like to have a lot of colour harmony in my images and it works well for this too.

Here's some pretty good examples of how I work: [link] or [link]

*djwagLmuffin Jul 8, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

I think I understand.

With your background layer, do you just paint the character on the same layer or a different layer?

And what do you do with your linework? Lower the opacity, color the lines, get rid of it?

See, I'm so used to the heavy line thing (worked really hard to get my own thing down) and have yet to land on a color or black and technique that I like. So I'll try what you've suggested. Hopefully it'll come around sooner or later.

=Cnids Jul 8, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

I paint just about everything on different layers in case I screw up or want to change the colour of something. So usually I have at minimum, a flat colour background layer, a detailed background layer, an underpainting with the figure colours, lines, and then the detailed and refined overpainting.

I just paint right over my lineart. Usually I leave some of it visible because it gives some areas a nice blackness, but I will sometimes erase part or set to a lower opacity if it's overpowering. If you like having defined lineart, you can always just have your lines as the top layer and do the detailed painting below it.

~achipps Jul 7, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

I see you just brush in everything like you can select the area of the whole character. You should try that with each part like the dress, the skin, leather belts, and anything that will be the same color. Then you can work on each thing as much as you want.

It don't know why you would color everything gray when you can just color everything with colors.
That seems to be adding an extra step to the finished work that don't help.

There are things that have a different color for the shade than the highlights, like skin, silk, metal, metallic paint, and paint made to shine different colors. Things like that looks better when you paint with colors so you can blend shades, or control the color, and saturation while coloring shadows.

I think your imagination can work better when you work in color. People say you dream in black and white and we know how much that is a lie. So do all you can to help your imagination.

*djwagLmuffin Jul 8, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

When I do it this way I have a tendency to lose sight of the light source but I'll keep practicing with this. The overlay thing is actually done by quite a few artists but there's a lot more to it then they say in the tutorials. Genzoman, for instance does this.

I've been studying color theory for a while now but applying it is a whole other ball game for me. I'll have to keep working on it. Thank you for this, I'll certainly give it a try.

~achipps Jul 8, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

I guess when you get the hang of it, it will seem very simple.
Color everything in the midtone color, imaging where the light comes from and color draw in the highlights and shading and shadows on the other side, and it's done.
White for highlights or what ever color the light is, then Black on the shading side, and if needed add a touch of color.
The Color theory made simple.
I learned on my own so I was never sure what the color theory was. But I know lighting, and the Buttercup effect.
The buttercup effect if the reflection of a color from colored objects. Something yellow will bounce or reflect a yellow light because it is a bright color, and can only reflect it's own color.
The shy reflects it color on everything under the clouds, because that reflection is the brightest light source when the sun is not shining direct light. The buttercup effect is lighting in the dark reflecting color like a little yellow flower under your chin reflecting sunlight in the shadows.

First hand experience helps with colors, and playing with colored lighting. Play with a prism, to split sun light and white light. It can be a lot of fun with things you will never forget.

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