Hey! Just wanted to ask, got any tips for highlights in pixelart? Ive got shadows down decently enough that i can at least stand looking at them a week later, but i have struggled with highlights and brighter lights in general. Also, awesome stuff, your space elevator piece got me into trying pixelart and it has been a fascinating journey so far
honestly when i first started i worked a LOT in black/white/values. i also tend to work dark to light, so ill build a piece up from its darkest areas, then finish with the highlights.
here is some of my art edited so you can see the values:
contrasting highlights against shadows will always make them stand out more and be more striking. i usually add a lot of rim lighting to pieces bc it’s like easy mode for focal points so i def recommend looking that up and learning about that!! truly though working in EXTREME values will help you get to more nuanced values so def try to work with a small color palette for a few times and seeing how that changes your understanding. when i first started out a LOT of my art was monochromatic just because i was focusing on values instead of color and i think that helped a lot!! examples of that:
Do you have any recommended tutorials on lighting? You have such a way of making your skies glow with sunlight and i admire it a lot.
honestly doing studies helped me a lot more than anything else!! i rly recommend that everyone does studies and continues to do studies bc it helps u improve !
You might have already been asked something like this before, and if so if you could point me in the direction of that post I would !!! very much enjoy that but !!
How do you get your color palettes/pick out all the colors you're gonna use for a piece? At first glance it looks so 'simplistic'/like you can pick out each individual color but the longer I look at your art the more I see a billion tiny details and i'm just curious as to how you keep all of that looking so tidy!!! :0
YOUR ART IS GORGEOUS BY THE WAY AS SOON AS I CAN I'M DEFINITELY GETTING PRINTS
this is a v sloppy how to i just did (it looks like a froog loool) but basically i just make gradients then blend the colors, based on the mood i want. starting out i used a looooot of references for inspiration/colors and did a ton of studies and that helped me learn! then usually i add 'striking' complimentary colors for oomph! i also usually saturate/color correct at the end as well. hope this helps and thank you so much~~
Hello! Nice to meet you. Been following this blog for a while and I've become a big fan of your work~♡
So, about this question here, could you elaborate a bit more about using references and "editing" the colour palettes? Also, what is colour dropping?
As a (not digital) painter I also often struggle a lot with finding the right colour scheme to make what I want. I think that's partly why I have trouble finding inspiration too.
color dropping is using the eyedropping tool on an image and taking the colors from it directly!
so basically i find a picture i like the vibes of/think it could be pretty and just edit the color. I draw with photoshop so I edit the colors with it as well! i use the curves tool usually and just mess with it until im happy! above is an axample.
first image is the original then i color edited it, then i used the color dropping tool on photoshop (pictured in the top right corner) to create the palette then i usually edit the colors a bit more!
generally when i color pick i start w the lightest then go darker! this isnt what i do every time, this has gotten me to the point of being intuitive enough with colors that I can pick my own now, but I think its a great way to learn abt colors digitally!
This is a method I started using when NFTs were on the rise - thieves would have to put actual work into getting rid of the mark - and one that I am now grateful for with the arrival of AI. Why? Because anyone who tries to train an AI on my work will end up with random, disruptive color blobs.
I can't say for sure it'll stop theft entirely, but it WILL make your images annoying for databases to incorporate, and add an extra layer of inconvenience for thieves. So as far as I'm concerned, that's a win/win.
I'll be showing the steps in CSP, but it should all be pretty easy to replicate in Photoshop.
Now: let's use the above image as our new signature file. I set mine to be 2500 x 1000 pixels when I'm just starting out.
Note that your text should not have a lot of anti-aliasing, so using a paint brush to start isn't going to work well with this method. Just use the standard G-Pen if you're doing this by hand, or, just use the text tool and whichever font you prefer.
Once that's done, take your magic wand tool, and select all the black. Here are the magic wand settings I'm using to make the selections:
All selected?
Good.
Now, find a brush with a scattering/tone scraping effect. I use one like this.
You can theoretically use any colors you want for this next part, but I'd recommend pastels as they tend to blend better.
Either way, let's add some color to the text.
Once that's finished,
You're going to want to go to Layer Property, and Border Effect
You'll be given an option of choosing color and thickness. Choose black, and go for at least a 5 in thickness. Adjust per your own preferences.
Now create a layer beneath your sig layer, and merge the sig down onto the blank layer.
This effectively 'locks in' the border effect, which is exactly what we want.
Hooray, you've finished your watermark!
Now let's place that bad boy into your finished piece.
You'll get the best mileage out of a mark if you can place it over a spot that isn't black of white, since you'll get better blending options that way. My preference is for Overlay.
From here, I'll adjust the opacity to around 20-25, depending on the image.
If you don't have a spot to use overlay, however, there's a couple other options. For white, there's Linear Burn, which imho doesn't look as good, but it still works in a pinch.
And for lots of black, you have Linear Light
Either way, you're in business!
EDIT since this has escaped my usual circles, and folks aren't as familiar with my personal usage:
An example of one of my own finished pieces, with watermark, so you can see what I mean about 'relatively unobtrusive'-- I try to at least use them as framing devices, or let them work with the image somehow (or, at the very least, not actively against it).
I know it's a bummer for some people to "ruin" their work with watermarks, which is part of the reason I developed this mark in particular. Its disruption is about as minimal as I can make it while still letting it serve its intended purpose.
There's other methods, too, of course! But this is the one I use, and the one I can speak on. Hope it helps some of you!
