Coloring Technique Sharing

Ida · Post by **Ida** » Thu May 19, 2005 1:15 pm

Damn, I really shouldn't spend so much time on this:

As a poor excuse for my complete lack of background drawing ability, he's now got eyes.

AsterAzul · Post by **AsterAzul** » Sun May 22, 2005 1:34 am

Hey, can I ask a color question here?
*reflects that asking forgiveness is easier than permission*

OK, so I'm trying to take a sort of pastel approach to shading, and I have a pretty good pallette structure now that tells me how dark each color will be. I'm trying to go for an extremely low color look, where it almost looks like a grayscale comic with a little color thrown in. My problem is this: I don't know what color to make black people's skin. If I use actual black, it's 1) offensive, and 2) violates the sanctity of the pencils. I can't really use any of the grays because only backrounds and inanimate objects are supposed to be gray.
So, basically, I'm trying a light purple, but I'm not sure if it works. I could establish it as convention, but it's sort of awkward.
My palette is only 15 colors with 2 shades of each color, and 3 grays at the moment, but I could expand it.

Any advice?
Thanks in advance, guys.

http://asterazul.keenspace.com/d/20050523.html

Ida · Post by **Ida** » Sun May 22, 2005 2:31 am

Black people don't have actual black skin, but rather varying shades of dark brown. Well, unless you're talking about drows, that is (and then we're not really talking about people anymore, are we?). Why not use a light brown color? It'll look more realistic than purple, which I'd say isn't intuitively recognizable as the color of a black person's skin - my guess is that people will mistake your black people for aliens if you go with purple.

AsterAzul · Post by **AsterAzul** » Sun May 22, 2005 9:11 am

Yeah. The problem I guess is I can't mix a brown that simultaneously is below the color threshhold and still brown. I keep getting yellow or orange or gray when I wash it out.

I'll keep trying. I'll get a good shade eventually..

[AlmightyPyro] · Post by **[AlmightyPyro]** » Sun May 22, 2005 6:41 pm

With brown I found that you normally have to change the amount of red and orange just to get a darker version of a brown, where as any other color you can just darken it directly... does that make since?

--

Here is a picture I drew and colored today, I'm really proud of it. I followed a Phalanx coloring tutorial (that can be found at http://thejaded.keenspace.com ) and a tutorial on dragons that I found. Any suggestions would be nice.

Levi-chan · Post by **Levi-chan** » Sun May 22, 2005 7:47 pm

Ida wrote:
< really, really kickass image >

Oh my god. And I thought I was good.

[AlmightyPyro] · Post by **[AlmightyPyro]** » Mon May 23, 2005 12:15 pm

Levi-chan wrote:
Ida wrote:
< really, really kickass image >

Oh my god. And I thought I was good.

lets, face it, you suck at drawing... you just suck drawing really really good... infact yours is ten times better than mine... ok I take it all back.

ChaosBurnFlame · Post by **ChaosBurnFlame** » Mon May 23, 2005 9:14 pm

a gift!

ChaosBurnFlame · Post by **ChaosBurnFlame** » Tue May 24, 2005 7:23 pm

and here it is, colored using Illustrator

Bluebug · Post by **Bluebug** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 10:14 am

This thread needs some serious resurrecting.

Thanks for posting your awesome fanart of FMA, Soap Committee. Made for some fun coloring .. though I made Ed look so evil. The quality is much better as a PNG, but it's too big to store in Photobucket, so I had to make due with the JPG version.

Oh, and this is horrendously belated, but in reply to one of the previous posts ... The pic posted by Ida was fanart of one of my characters drawn by Eunice P. It was colored by Ida.

Just giving credit where credit is due.

Sput · Post by **Sput** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 10:58 am

uhm. yay.

drawn by lascauxmaibe on LJ.

Soap Committee · Post by **Soap Committee** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 11:44 am

bluebug wrote:This thread needs some serious resurrecting.

Thanks for posting your awesome fanart of FMA, Soap Committee. Made for some fun coloring .. though I made Ed look so evil. The quality is much better as a PNG, but it's too big to store in Photobucket, so I had to make due with the JPG version.

THAT IS SO AMAZINGLY HOT ASS AWESOME. :D :D :D You did a wonderful job, and the shadows rock my world. *salutes*

Levi-chan · Post by **Levi-chan** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 12:56 pm

Aw yeah! So...amazing...MARRY ME!!

You got ambient lighting nailed pretty good too, dude. How do you do that? I tried to pull it off, but never got the hang of where the lighting should be...

Bluebug · Post by **Bluebug** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 5:35 pm

Aw, thanks guys! Means a lot coming from two excellent artists such as yourselves.

As for ambient lighting, I think of it as emanating from the floor .. and then I wing it from there

I find that the key is to slap some on the chin and underside of the face, which really goes a long way to "flesh out" a character on screen. Then I add lighting to the underside of arms and the backs of legs. I didn't quite follow my own rules in this pic, but you get the idea. And I just noticed that some of the lighting from his legs is missing ... musta disappeared when I was merging all the layers ...

LAGtheNoggin did the best job on ambient lighting/back lighting in this thread so far.

You'll notice the lighting hits the underside of every body surface. I tend to make my backlighting more graduated, so the effect isn't as dramatic. It depends on the effect you're going for.

Oddly, the thing I'm most proud of in this picture is that little cloud in the top left hand corner. It's so perfectly ... cloudlike. And gotta love the fire. You have to do more fanart of Colonel Mustang, Soap (nudge nudge)

I love that guy.

So yeah, sorry Levi-chan, but I'm marrying Mustang. Unless you're a dog-loving pyro ... Mmm. Fire.

Warofwinds · Post by **Warofwinds** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 5:48 pm

Egad. I've had this pic saved on my lap top for months now. Sorry it took so long *is glad for thread resurrection* Shadows are too dark in back, not dark enough on face...hmm *is too lazy to correct*

Phalanx · Post by **Phalanx** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 4:57 am

bluebug: Holy... WOW

warofwinds: That's nifty! I like the smooth style you use where everything seems to blend!

William G · Post by **William G** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 5:51 am

[AlmightyPyro] wrote:How does every one (meaning good artists) Get there linear art to be solid B&W and all smooth? My tab makes it all wavy, and using too much curve lining messes it up.

Suggestion #1: Scan at 600 or higher DPI as a bitmap. That way you wont have any greys scanned. It'll be huge, but as you convert it to greyscale, downsize the resolution, your lines will get smoother.

Suggestion #2; Do it as vector art ala Flash. I dont use that stuff, so I dont know what to tell you about it.

EDIT: Never mind. I just realized this thread is ancient.

If anyone is interested, I have this uncolored test page I did to see if I could get away with making a B&W comic. If anyone is interested in giving a shot to something a bit more complex than a pinup, be my guest. Think of it as a challenge to your skills.

Sorry it's in a crummy web format, but I don't think I can upload a larger, sharper file format like a PSD... Mostly because the file size is too large.

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 11:26 am

Whee. I'm gonna play. *kidnaps humbug's lines for some fun*

And here's some lineart I just finished. Lighting is all coming from the doorway

CW

Warofwinds · Post by **Warofwinds** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 6:31 pm

This pic was just so....dynamic and alive, I HAD to color it. I was compelled. A lovely drawing, humbug.

EDIT: Now I know why you don't update as much as we all would like,

It would take me a friggin' MONTH to draw anything so detailed as this. *steals you for forced comic labor in cold basement*

Humbug · Post by **Humbug** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 5:09 pm

Oh, My Gosh! That looks absolutely gorgeous! Thanks Kez, I love really love it.