Hi! I saw your profile on artfight and I love your illustrations :D. Especially the colors. Do you have any resources that helped you learn set the tone/pick hues? Or any tips? Keep up the great work on both platforms :))
Oh I looove colors. I hope you're ready for some yapping. I mostly just wing it a lot of the time, but here are the tips I would give based on what I usually critique in others' art:
1: Focus on values before you think about getting the perfect colors.
I've created many pieces that I think have pretty pleasant coloring, but everything falls flat because I didn't focus on digging enough contrast into the values. I like to frequently check by just screenshotting my canvas and turning it black-and-white. You can have pieces with very similar colors and motifs, but still have them play with values in very different ways:
2: When setting a tone, focus on how colors make you feel and how they relate to your subject instead of relying on the top twenty Google Image results for "color psychology for art".
The same colors can mean a lot of different things! I use the fuck out of some bright red, and it doesn't always represent literal anger or love. People often put those associations on red because it's intense and it fights for attention among other colors, so it can work really well for displaying anything that's supposed to be intense (such as the nature of a theocratic empire, in the images above).
When drawing character art specifically, I think it's also really fun to play with how colors could be perceived from different character perspectives. In the piece below, there's a prevailing gradient from a warm orange tone on the left to a cool blue tone on the right, while the characters depicted here (Rosita and Battisto) are shown in a tense moment of their secret romance. From Rosita's point of view, the orange might represent the comfort of her home, while the blue is the harshness of the public eye. From Battisto's point of view, the orange might be literal fire-- something fascinating, but dangerous-- while the blue is the bittersweet tranquility of the outside world.
You can reference colors just like anything else. I have a Pinterest board dedicated to art with colors that I find interesting. I don't really love to use color palettes just because I feel like I kind of limit myself when I use them, but sites like Coolors can be really helpful if you're into that sort of thing.
4: When all else fails, fall back on layer modes.
Often times, I finish a piece of art and I absolutely hate it. But I know my trusty friends Multiple, Screen, and Overlay will always be there to help me.
For example, this is an attack I did for Art Fight last year. I was really torn between these two versions for it. The one on the left has a low-opacity blue overlay, which gives it a daylight lighting with a bit more of a natural tone to the fossil. The one on the right has a stronger orange overlay, which makes the whole piece more saturated and gives it a sunset-like lighting. Either of these would've been good, in my opinion, but in the end, I ended up going with a combination of the two. I toned down the bright orange and mixed in a bit of blue in the brightest areas, lending a more peach-like color to the whole image.
I'm going to cut my rambling off there before I sit here and type for the rest of the day. But colors are sooo fun and I am always open to more questions about how I go about using them in my art. ♥
theartofmadeline
andulkaphoto
origamiaround
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vaporwave
