All right I think I have to admit this is the best I'm gonna do at my current ability level (in part because I have no idea how shadows work), so FINISHED HALLOWEEN DOODLE
It's always tough for me to decide to call something 'done' and try to move onto the next thing! Diminishing returns and all that
I love that I know exactly the kinda fella your BIL is from this drawing. A jolly fella, merrily disregarding cold weather in favor of flip flops and shorts
In exchange for your helpfulness in the advice thread, behold my distinctly marginal efforts. She makes me happy with how far I've come in terms of making a person who kinda looks like a person wearing clothes which resemble actual clothes in the last 5 months.
I have titled this piece "Free solo El Capitan at Night, 2020 edition"
Is the insect plotting some kind of heist? I like it’s map
I forgot to mention is a fan art from a game I've been playing recently. It's a map vendor sort of speak, but yeah the bug looks like it's scheming something!
Heck yeah, Hollow Knight rules! Love the colors on that, Square.
Yeah, it's a shame I had the pleasure to play it only recently, the game's atmosphere is beatiful.
By the way I'm glad you liked the colors, I'm still experimenting a bit with my style but I feel I'm getting somewhere.
Looking for a bit of advice, if anyone is in the mood to give it!
I'm a bit lost when it comes to digital coloring right now. I mean, I'm a bit lost when it comes to most things with drawing, but coloring especially!
As an example, I'm relatively happy with the lineart of the SnowFox cartoon thing, but am not at all happy with the coloring or background.
Lineart for reference:
Any advice on resources for super, duper beginners for digital painting? I'd love to achieve a storybook/ fable effect, but my blending skills and understanding of shadowing is coming up majorly short. I tried to circumvent it by going with base colors only, but I think it ends up looking very... jarring? Like none of the pieces really 'belong' in the illustration, if that makes sense.
I think James Gurney might have some good resources (certainly his books are excellent), though his blog is kind of an organizational mess. Some haphazard posts I found with a quick squint that seem relevant
In general I would try not to think about what colors things ‘are’ (color is an optical illusion, after all) but instead think about what mood/idea you want to invoke. Is this a sunset, with cool blue shadows and warm pink/orange mid tones? Is it a crisp cold midday, or a deep evening? Then start with a limited palette (two or three colors max) and use those as your base. That will help you keep things cohesive.
Feel free to look up references to help you with palette selection. I often save images that I think have an interesting color vibe and then use them as inspiration when I’m not sure where to go with a painting.
With that particular piece, you have thin charming penmanship, and bold, saturated colors could easily overwhelm the line work. I’d probably be thinking more about pastels, nothing too intense or dark.
That's a broad enough topic that it's somewhat hard to know where to start. Certainly I'll back Tynic's recommendation of James Gurney's stuff- if you've got the money, his Color and Light book is probably one of the better resources on the subject. I'm sure there's probably a Proko video or two on the subject worth checking out as well.
To try to be brief, I'll try to give you basically a quick bullet point synopsis of the stuff I'd want to cover in a class or book on the subject, which hopefully will give you some direction in hunting down some more specific resources covering each topic.
The way I would think of it, good usage of color relies on having a decent understanding of two objective, factually-based areas: Understanding the science of light (at a decent layman's level- thankfully a physicist's level of understanding isn't necessary), and understanding color theory.
Light
-Planes and rounding volumes, casting shadows
-Light bouncing, reflectance/refraction
-Light color and its effect on local color
-Lighting properties of different surfaces
-Direct vs. Diffused lighting
-Common scenarios of natural light
Color Theory
-Color wheel
-Color mixing
-Understanding the Hue/Saturation/Value construct of color
-Color schemes (complimentary colors, analogous colors, etc.)
-Emotional effects of colors
-Analyzing colors from reference/life
When it comes to making a specific image, one draws on both of these knowledge bases to form a color design- using the objective to realize your subjective, personal vision of a piece.
Color Design
-Choosing an overall color scheme based on intended mood/effect
-Using color & contrast to drive the eye to areas of importance
-Designing local colors to flow or contrast with the overall color/light scheme
-Lighting design/cinematography
-Embellishing color variety or reducing color variety for effect
-Choosing a style of lighting (realism, cel-shading, flats, etc.)
-Losing detail in lights and darks (overexposure/underexposure) for effect
Notice that Tynic and I aren't talking about 'digital' as you asked for, because there's nothing about digital specifically that would change any of these principles or ideas- in the same way the principles of math don't change if you're doing it manually, or with the help of a calculator. The tools can make things more convenient, but you need the underlying knowledge to use either well.
Also, when you talk about 'blending skills and understanding of shadowing'- these aren't specifically color issues, really. Important not to conflate separate issues, as it just makes solving things in a piece harder.
If you want to improve those things quickly (which will in turn serve to improve your color work), it's likely to go faster by working on those issues in grayscale first, being able to create a convincing effect of light and shade with just value. Not to discourage you from exploring color of course, but art exercises just tend to be more effective if you limit yourself to working on one specific aspect at a time, rather than wrestling with a bunch of different factors all at once. (ie: in my last two posts, I wanted to work on brushwork, so I used a reference picture rather than also trying to make up a design and composition as well. I wanted to explore some variety in inking, so I inked over the same picture 6 times, instead of making 6 different pictures to ink. Reducing the number of things I could get lost in the weeds on, to focus on a specific thing.)
Thanks so much, both of you! I really appreciate your thoughtful responses. I'll check out those resources, and try narrowing my focus a bit as you suggest, Bacon. Tynic, thanks for the point about overwhelming the linework, since I've mostly been using the 'india ink' brush which has very saturated colors, and it didn't feel right. I'll play around with different, softer brush and color options.
The good faces in there are copies of some Jerome Opeña stuff. I'm trying to work out some of his techniques. He gets a really aggressive, gestural style that's kinda scratchy and rough but his lock on anatomy is fuckin aces. I haven't come across a lot of artists who can draw the human form so accurately while still staying loose and dynamic.
I've been coloring a lot lately using layer masks and sheets of benday dots and zipatone and such. It occurred to me I could use the exact same process with other scanned paper. So I doodled HST, painting with scans of his texts.
So that sprite is above isn't a sprite, but a 3d rendering under various layers and shaders made to look like a sprite?
Because if so, that's mind-blowing (for me). I mean it is a cool sprite on itself, but I can only imagine the applications for people working 16-bit style games and wanting smooth animation.
So that sprite is above isn't a sprite, but a 3d rendering under various layers and shaders made to look like a sprite?
Because if so, that's mind-blowing (for me). I mean it is a cool sprite on itself, but I can only imagine the applications for people working 16-bit style games and wanting smooth animation.
tl;dr: Cool sprite, yo
Thanks man!
Making 2d sprites from 3d assets is nothing new- I worked on a Nintendo DS game that we did this with back in 2009 using Maya, and I'm sure it was a well-trodden technique even then- it's just that required a lot of post-render palettization and manual pixel cleanup work to get a decent result. (Maybe Maya had the tools to do this back then, and I just didn't have the knowledge to make it this efficient. Well, they didn't hire me to be a tech artist. )
This Blender take on the idea would still require some manual cleanup (there's some stray pixels and broken outlines in there still), but god I could have saved myself and my colleagues a lot of time back then.
Render of the same walkcycle from a different perspective, which makes the 3d-ness more obvious.
This is Olga, a Tortle bartender for a DnD campaign I'm going to run. She likes to collect wigs (this one's a pompadour), and decorates her shell with feathers and cheap jewels. Thought It'd be fun to draw her 'avatar' for Roll20.
Posts
It's always tough for me to decide to call something 'done' and try to move onto the next thing! Diminishing returns and all that
Twitter
Twitter
In exchange for your helpfulness in the advice thread, behold my distinctly marginal efforts. She makes me happy with how far I've come in terms of making a person who kinda looks like a person wearing clothes which resemble actual clothes in the last 5 months.
I have titled this piece "Free solo El Capitan at Night, 2020 edition"
Is the insect plotting some kind of heist? I like it’s map
I forgot to mention is a fan art from a game I've been playing recently. It's a map vendor sort of speak, but yeah the bug looks like it's scheming something!
Pumpkin season is over, time for a new avatar.
Yeah, it's a shame I had the pleasure to play it only recently, the game's atmosphere is beatiful.
By the way I'm glad you liked the colors, I'm still experimenting a bit with my style but I feel I'm getting somewhere.
Love the foxy, that scarf is hella cute.
Twitter
Twitter
I'm a bit lost when it comes to digital coloring right now. I mean, I'm a bit lost when it comes to most things with drawing, but coloring especially!
As an example, I'm relatively happy with the lineart of the SnowFox cartoon thing, but am not at all happy with the coloring or background.
Lineart for reference:
Any advice on resources for super, duper beginners for digital painting? I'd love to achieve a storybook/ fable effect, but my blending skills and understanding of shadowing is coming up majorly short. I tried to circumvent it by going with base colors only, but I think it ends up looking very... jarring? Like none of the pieces really 'belong' in the illustration, if that makes sense.
http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2020/04/new-video-tutorial-comes-out-monday.html
http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2020/01/frank-brangwyn-color-and-tone.html
http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2018/03/two-color-cartoons.html
http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2018/06/how-to-apply-warm-and-cool-approach.html
In general I would try not to think about what colors things ‘are’ (color is an optical illusion, after all) but instead think about what mood/idea you want to invoke. Is this a sunset, with cool blue shadows and warm pink/orange mid tones? Is it a crisp cold midday, or a deep evening? Then start with a limited palette (two or three colors max) and use those as your base. That will help you keep things cohesive.
Feel free to look up references to help you with palette selection. I often save images that I think have an interesting color vibe and then use them as inspiration when I’m not sure where to go with a painting.
With that particular piece, you have thin charming penmanship, and bold, saturated colors could easily overwhelm the line work. I’d probably be thinking more about pastels, nothing too intense or dark.
That's a broad enough topic that it's somewhat hard to know where to start. Certainly I'll back Tynic's recommendation of James Gurney's stuff- if you've got the money, his Color and Light book is probably one of the better resources on the subject. I'm sure there's probably a Proko video or two on the subject worth checking out as well.
To try to be brief, I'll try to give you basically a quick bullet point synopsis of the stuff I'd want to cover in a class or book on the subject, which hopefully will give you some direction in hunting down some more specific resources covering each topic.
The way I would think of it, good usage of color relies on having a decent understanding of two objective, factually-based areas: Understanding the science of light (at a decent layman's level- thankfully a physicist's level of understanding isn't necessary), and understanding color theory.
Light
-Light bouncing, reflectance/refraction
-Light color and its effect on local color
-Lighting properties of different surfaces
-Direct vs. Diffused lighting
-Common scenarios of natural light
-Color mixing
-Understanding the Hue/Saturation/Value construct of color
-Color schemes (complimentary colors, analogous colors, etc.)
-Emotional effects of colors
-Analyzing colors from reference/life
When it comes to making a specific image, one draws on both of these knowledge bases to form a color design- using the objective to realize your subjective, personal vision of a piece.
Color Design
-Using color & contrast to drive the eye to areas of importance
-Designing local colors to flow or contrast with the overall color/light scheme
-Lighting design/cinematography
-Embellishing color variety or reducing color variety for effect
-Choosing a style of lighting (realism, cel-shading, flats, etc.)
-Losing detail in lights and darks (overexposure/underexposure) for effect
Notice that Tynic and I aren't talking about 'digital' as you asked for, because there's nothing about digital specifically that would change any of these principles or ideas- in the same way the principles of math don't change if you're doing it manually, or with the help of a calculator. The tools can make things more convenient, but you need the underlying knowledge to use either well.
Also, when you talk about 'blending skills and understanding of shadowing'- these aren't specifically color issues, really. Important not to conflate separate issues, as it just makes solving things in a piece harder.
If you want to improve those things quickly (which will in turn serve to improve your color work), it's likely to go faster by working on those issues in grayscale first, being able to create a convincing effect of light and shade with just value. Not to discourage you from exploring color of course, but art exercises just tend to be more effective if you limit yourself to working on one specific aspect at a time, rather than wrestling with a bunch of different factors all at once. (ie: in my last two posts, I wanted to work on brushwork, so I used a reference picture rather than also trying to make up a design and composition as well. I wanted to explore some variety in inking, so I inked over the same picture 6 times, instead of making 6 different pictures to ink. Reducing the number of things I could get lost in the weeds on, to focus on a specific thing.)
Twitter
Also I've been thinking about the lighting and made a quick test:
Trying to get a handle on digital, using procreate on an iPad.
There's definitely stuff I could have done better but keen to get fresh eyes on this.
The first one was made for my wife’s secret Santa and the other is the design for the greeting card we will be sending out for these holidays.
Phone posting hopefully it doesn't look like garb
The good faces in there are copies of some Jerome Opeña stuff. I'm trying to work out some of his techniques. He gets a really aggressive, gestural style that's kinda scratchy and rough but his lock on anatomy is fuckin aces. I haven't come across a lot of artists who can draw the human form so accurately while still staying loose and dynamic.
I covet this power.
Hey, you been listening to Rude Tales of Magic? Because you should! It's a lot of fun! Rude Tales of Magic !!
More doodles.
Twitter
Stuff!
So that sprite is above isn't a sprite, but a 3d rendering under various layers and shaders made to look like a sprite?
Because if so, that's mind-blowing (for me). I mean it is a cool sprite on itself, but I can only imagine the applications for people working 16-bit style games and wanting smooth animation.
tl;dr: Cool sprite, yo
Making 2d sprites from 3d assets is nothing new- I worked on a Nintendo DS game that we did this with back in 2009 using Maya, and I'm sure it was a well-trodden technique even then- it's just that required a lot of post-render palettization and manual pixel cleanup work to get a decent result. (Maybe Maya had the tools to do this back then, and I just didn't have the knowledge to make it this efficient. Well, they didn't hire me to be a tech artist. )
This Blender take on the idea would still require some manual cleanup (there's some stray pixels and broken outlines in there still), but god I could have saved myself and my colleagues a lot of time back then.
Render of the same walkcycle from a different perspective, which makes the 3d-ness more obvious.
Twitter
Twitter
This is Olga, a Tortle bartender for a DnD campaign I'm going to run. She likes to collect wigs (this one's a pompadour), and decorates her shell with feathers and cheap jewels. Thought It'd be fun to draw her 'avatar' for Roll20.
Edit: Color Olga!
Productive day at work...
a little drawing of a puppy for my mom's birthday
Edit: oh yeah forgot to thank @Didgeridoo for the ref resource- thanks!
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Stuff, now in colour...
More stuff, now not in colour.
(sorry for the double post)
Edit: Hmm. Apparently I broke all of my images at some point...stand by :bzz: If you're really curious, seems to work with: http://www.aetherdrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Sketchbook-Spring-2021-2.jpg