1. Trying a new colouring style. Sadly the result is remarkably similar to the old style so I’ll have to reach further afield. If anyone knows of a good tutorial for digital painting techniques I’d be glad to hear of it.
2. I used a gamut mask to be more selective of the colours I use, but the result was an extremely flat picture without any character or variation in value. Simply adding white or black to give highlights and shade results in a muddy look, and using other colours from outside of the gamut is forbidden (that’s the point of a gamut mask afterall).
3. Using an even more restrictive gamut actually yielded better results. Having to mix colours more strenuously forced me to be more creative, with such a focus on reds and oranges, I found that desaturated orange appears blue by contrast, so the shaded areas on her brow and foreleg are actually a grey-orange that looks blue. Educational to say the least, but still not quite the result I was looking for.
4. Whilst this may seem unrelated, taking the time to colour a ball with only the colours blue and orange forced me to focus on basic concepts such as light colour and direction, hard and soft light sources (hard in this case), reflected light (the white surface is reflected on the shaded side of the ball, and the ball’s colour is projected onto the surface), different parts of shade (the darkest part of the ball is not opposite the light source due to reflected light, but just past the halfway point, if it were not for the occlusion shadow at the point of contact with the surface), the texture of the ball (shiny in this case since we can see the window reflected) and, of course, blending the colours to create a believable gradient from light to shadow.
So there you have it, that was my art experimentation for today. Sadly I have no idea how the ball exercise applies to painting ponies, perhaps I should think up some matte finish shapes in future hmm.
Anyways, let me know what you think, and if any of you are arty, feel free to send tips or pointers, I’m eager to learn so I can give you the best product possible!
I LOVE SBAJ’s mod’s style!
