Diving into color

ksblair

Ive been recently trying to experiment with color more in my drawings and figured I would ask for another critique from the fine PA community. Also im still having no luck getting good consistent lines, seems my stuff will always look sketchy : /. All advice is welcome!


Ive been a little eager to see the new spiderman...


and the original sketch/example of my poor ability to draw a straight line.

Godfather

The color choice is too soft for the mood the character is trying to display (menacing I assume). Darken everything up a bit to get better results.

supabeast

Read some stuff on basic color theory. Most colors don't get blacker when they get darker, thus skin gets gray on corpses, not in shadows.

NightDragon

Agree'd with both above posts.

Also, it's typically a good idea to put down a solid, neutral background color first. White is horrible as a background color, because it really screws up your color perception. With a background that's a medium grey-brown, or grey-purple, etc, it helps you put down colors that are more realistic. I think this would especially help you with your colors being too light - when placed against a white background, they may look fine, but against a neutral background, they'd be pretty bright.

srsizzy

I'd like to add (though it may be of no help) that the lower half's abdomen doesn't line up with the upper half's chest. Or, the bottom half doesn't line up with the top half at all (waist to shoulders, etc.).

On the subject of the colors, they're soft/pastel as Godfather said. Additionally, the light source is ambiguous, which tends to happen when you start coloring. You kind of throw shadows where it seems appropriate, and then highlights in the opposite areas. Good start though.

World as Myth

As to your problem with consistent lines, I have found that using the pen tool is pretty useful for major lines. It will give you no variation whatsoever, but you can just the eraser to get your variation. The pen tool is a hell of thing to learn to use well, though, and I can't claim that I have, but it's the best option in Photoshop (I'm assuming that's what you're using).

ksblair

srsizzy wrote: »

I'd like to add (though it may be of no help) that the lower half's abdomen doesn't line up with the upper half's chest. Or, the bottom half doesn't line up with the top half at all (waist to shoulders, etc.).

On the subject of the colors, they're soft/pastel as Godfather said. Additionally, the light source is ambiguous, which tends to happen when you start coloring. You kind of throw shadows where it seems appropriate, and then highlights in the opposite areas. Good start though.

Yeah the torso thing is really a product of the suite going from a sport coat to a more body fitting style, so it supposed to be skin tight at the waist but wide enough to make up the jacket up top, but what you point out is that I wasn’t very successful .

And to everyone for the advice in general its much appretiated, keep it coming if you see any more glaring issues!