#color tutorials

[kittydoodle]

Bro your color choices are to die for!! How do you pick such pleasing color palettes? —🦄

hi anon! im not sure how to describe my color choosing process since for a lot of it i just kinda.... go with whatever i think looks best, but! i have some tips for improving your coloring skills!

1.) try starting by watching some videos on color theory! understanding how colors interact is the most important part of knowing how to use them. there are tons of videos about it but here are a few i personally liked: x x x

2.) pay attention to the mood and emotions you want to convey in your art. saturation levels, lightness/darkness, and contrast will play a huge part in conveying different moods. this video here can provide some simple insight to what moods different colors can convey.

note how the first image has an overall cool tone, while the other one has a warm tone! the cool tones in the first one create a calm and almost sleepy mood, while the warm tones in the second one make it feel more romantic and summery

3.) try coloring using a limited palette! this tip in particular was the biggest help in developing the way i color. you can find plenty of user made palettes here on tumblr, but i often use colors from images ive found that i think look nice together! here are a few images ive used for color palettes in my art before:

using palettes in art can be challenging at first but it gets easier the more you practice! a tip i have for figuring out how to use them is to pay attention to if the colors all seem balanced. heres an example of balanced colors and unbalanced colors using a palette:

well balanced colors will have good contrast! a good way to check that is to turn the saturation all the way down to 0 and see if everything looks well balanced and has nice contrast. note: the first one isnt necessarily bad, but the second one looks better than the first

4.) a good way to pick your own palettes is to pick 3 main colors and 1 or 2 pop/accent colors! the 3 main colors will be the ones you use the most in the drawing, while the 1 or 2 pop/accent colors will be used for adding interest and contrast to your art! of course, you can choose as many colors as you want, but keeping it to that ratio is what i usually stick to for my coloring

in this one, the main colors are pinks and reds, which set the tone for the image, and the purples/dark grays add interest and contrast to keep the colors from becoming muddy and flat

this is all i can think of atm but i hope this helps some!!! if you want more info or video suggestions on a specific topic i listed feel free to ask and ill explain it in more depth ^^ 💜✨

[octomoosey]

Hey G! Do you know of any tutorials that show how to change the clothing color of people in edits? I only know of one way but I would like to research if there are easier ways. Thank you for your time and effort and the wonderful edits and themes you make!

hi there anon,  here are a couple which may help! 

[ x ] [ x ] 

there are a chunk of tutorials out there for ‘changing hair color’ on graphics and/or gifs… and this is basically the same technique you can use to change the colour of any particular part of your image!

[ x ] [ x ] [ x ] [ x ] 

[coyote-spark]

Color Theory Essentials

I decided to focus on learning more about color (because it’s a complicated beast), and in my hunting I cam across this video by Blender Guru. Great examples and explanation!

[zaheela]

How to Choose Colours that Work!

[nisiedrawsstuff]

So in tutorial 2-A we went over the theory behind organizing color, and in this post, we'll go through an example of applying the theory.

So first things first, we have to ask ourselves, what are we trying to show our viewers? what is the subject of this drawing/painting, and what do we want them to pay attention to? Are there multiple areas we need/want people to look at? The answers to these questions are critical to determining our color hierarchy. Strongest colors, strongest contrast on the most important areas, the next strongest on the next most critical, and so on and so on, and any area that is not important is pushed back using subtle/passive/neutral colors.

In the kinky exr piece that we're using as an example, i wanted people to notice: first and foremost, enjolras dominating the scene; second, grantaire's wine bottle standing in as a visual metaphor for his raging erection; and thirdly, grantaire taking far too much pleasure with his pain

So a chart of how i want the viewer's eye to move would look like this:

[sidenote: while i think conceptually this drawing would be stronger if i made E's boot/R's face the 2nd focal point instead of 3rd, the fact that I can't draw foreshortened limbs to save my life meant that I did not feel comfortable making it that important to the image, so I opted to make it subtler, so my mistakes wouldn't be quite so obvious]

Anyways, now that we have a plan, let's start throwing down some colors. it's okay if they aren't that good at first, it takes time to find the right the combination, and for the wheels in your head to start spinning out ideas. Think of your first layers of color as "note-taking" or "color studies."

Once you start putting colors on the page, relationships will start to suggest themselves, some colors will look good together, others not so much. Some will look too dull, some not bright enough. Just keep playing around.

Sometimes using color fills and gradients with photoshop's blending options can suggest beautiful relationships. This works especially well if you use one fill for shadows and another for highlights.

Example on the left is my initial color sketch. I’m just playing around with color, and getting some ideas about where I want to go with this. At this point, all I’ve established is red/green complementary e/r, a strong warm light source off camera (candlelight), and a neutral background. I’ve also decided to avoid using any actual blacks because any objects that should be black (E’s cravat, pants, boots, R’s hair) are not essential to the overall composition. Instead of using black I’ve opted for neutral shades of blue and brown. Example on the right is my base color scheme. A set of neutral colors that play well together. From here I can work my way towards more drama. Now, the traditional way to proceed would be to “work my way out” towards more highlights and shadows, by slowly adding dark and lights, and using your brightest brights and darkest darks last.

Now I’m a lazy fuck, and I'm using photoshop, not oil paint, and we're going for high contrast, so I'm going to cheat. I threw down a saturation adjustment layer to give me some bright ass colors to work with, and then neutralize things as I go. 

Finding the best layer blending option and the best opacity level can be a bit tedious, just play around and experiment (Photoshop's "snapshot" tool under the history menu is a lifesaver; use it to compare your work at various stages; also not a bad idea to adjust your history options to save a history state every time you save)   Anyways, you'll notice that once we've reach this point, we're nearly there. It's all just fine tuning now. We just need to add in various details, adjust the value and saturation of specific areas to create the movement/hierarchy that we discussed earlier, and then add any textures we may wish to add. For expediency, I complied a gif animating the detailing process.

Add here's an annotated slide explaining why I did what I did:

ok, i hope this helps explain how to use your colors to organize your composition, and maximize the effectiveness of your colors.  I feel like I learned tons of stuff making this for you.

Final Notes:

whatever decisions you make about color, please enjoy what you're doing and be happy with the colors you pick. You're making art for yourself first and foremost, so do what pleases you. 

Also don't panic if this seems like too much stuff to remember or too many things to think about. The truth of the matter is even I don't think about all this when I'm working. I'm too busy *working* to think consciously about the decisions I'm making. But with practice all this color stuff will become natural to you.

[koolaid-girl23]

Koolaid-Girl Drawing Tips

#1:  When colouring, Remember to use complimentary colours. Greens go well with Red colours(Pink, redish purples) Blues go well with Oranges, and Yellows go well with Purples. 

Example

#2: Don't be afraid to play with colours. Do a color test and put colours together and see which combinations you find most appealing. But You can over do it with really bright or neons. Try a softer tone with a neon.

#3: Black will always be a go to colour. Black can be used for shading when you want bold.

Example of Black Shading:

That's All the Tips for now, More to come!! :) Thank you!! Have fun drawing!