How to Paint Light by jonhuangart

oozey mess
Today's Document
DEAR READER
h

No title available
occasionally subtle
Jules of Nature

shark vs the universe
i don't do bad sauce passes
wallacepolsom
almost home
YOU ARE THE REASON
todays bird

pixel skylines
Monterey Bay Aquarium
noise dept.

if i look back, i am lost

@theartofmadeline
Sweet Seals For You, Always
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
seen from United States

seen from Germany

seen from Hong Kong SAR China

seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Mexico

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from Germany
seen from Malaysia

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom

seen from Malaysia
seen from Germany
seen from Syria
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
@yeowch
How to Paint Light by jonhuangart
Smooching notes~!
So the people on Twitter seemed to find my notes very useful, So I am sharing them to you guys as well
have fun!
gonna show u guys a little opalescent highlight hack i threw together today
rainbow gradient above your main figure (i usually have all my main figure folders/layers in one big folder, so i can clip gradient maps + adjustments to it!). liquify tool to push the colors around a bit. STAY WITH ME I KNOW IT LOOKS STUPID RN I'M GOING SOMEWHERE WITH THIS
THEN: set it to add/glow (or the equivalent in ur drawing program), lower the opacity a bit, and apply a layer mask. then u can edit the mask with whatever tools you like to create rainbow highlights!!
in this case i'm mostly using the lasso fill tool to chip out little facets, but i've also done some soft airbrushing to bring in larger rainbow swirls in some areas. it's pretty subtle here, but you can see it better when i remove the gradient map that's above everything, since below i'm working in greyscale:
more granular rambling beneath the cut!
Wings anyone?
Free resource for artists and designers!!
I made a website where artists and designers can get color palette inspo from fire hydrants I've 3D scanned all over the US
Some of my favorites:
There are about 100 hydrants so far and I'm continuing to add more all the time
Public infrastructure is sexy, baby!!!!!! Pass it on!!
dayroselane.com/hydrants
“Notes on skirts and pants”
Source: miyuli on twitter
i hate that every time i look for color studies and tips to improve my art and make it more dynamic and interesting all that comes up are rudimentary explanations of the color wheel that explain it to me like im in 1st grade and just now discovering my primary colors
“red and green are opposites 🥰” cool now how do i paint a tree with pinks and blues without it looking like a child’s finger painting or incongruous blobs of rainbow vomit
ok i can’t explain it very well but im looking for tips and techniques for rendering art like
with specifically the highlights and colors being hues that compliment each other, don’t distract from the scene, and make it more interesting/visually appealing
is it too much to ask
gonna drop some sources I have saved on Pinterest! I don't know if these all link back to the original sources so apologies for that
cohesive but still contrasting
This kind of talks about color and composition
This is a bit about landscape specifically
Values & composition
Contrast in composition
Balance in colors & values
This one's more for palette building but I think it's useful and can be applied to the other ones
Cohesion within compositions/lighting
"Chromatic fringe" - I also see people using this with shading, they bring in a transition color that is a different hue than the base color or shadow, it makes it so that less vibrancy is lost and it doesn't get muddy!
This one specifically has a lot of process behind the style of painting you're looking for!
Also one of my favorite artists who makes bright and colorful art like this is Not Sorry Art on TikTok & YouTube, her website is here and it's<3 my fav. She has some videos where you can see her process
With the oranges painting you put as an example, I noticed they painted the lighter values more toward yellow - they also exaggerated the hues of the undertones of the photo, so I'm guessing they either did it in their head or bumped the saturation up to get a closer look! I really love these paintings you shared and I definitely share your desire to paint/draw like that :)
thanks this is super helpful! /gen
If you'd like 2 Print books that I absolutely reccomend to every visual artist regardless of Media, Color and Light and Imaginative Realism by James Gurney are basically religious texts for artists, even the 3-D people because his understanding and explanation of how light and form work is that damn good.
If you're wondering about Mr. Gurney's chops:
James Gurney is the Dinotopia Guy (that link includes his Dinotopia books, prints and online classes too)
Short thread on how to do minimal work on shading and line art that makes your art 1000 times better
sorry if this is confusing, ask and I’ll try to clarify
I forgot I have to be active here so here’s my Twitter tutorial on how to draw folds I made a while back to help a friend!
disclaimer: I am east asian. if anyone who is not white sees anything wrong with my phrasing, inaccuracies, or insensitivity, or something I missed, please feel free to add on. I’m just one person with one perspective; none of what I say should be taken as The Singular way to draw an Asian character. if you havent done so already, please take the effort to expand your view of Asian culture outside this one tutorial.
if a white person reblogs this and adds something stupid I’m going to bite and kick you like a wild animal
I LOVE this post and wanted to add some additional info, cause I see a lot of people who assume that drawing asian hair is the same as drawing white hair. This is not the case! There’s more to it than just the color.
Image description for the original post and my addition are underneath the read more at the end.
Thank you for reading! Once again, image description for my images and OP’s images are under the cut.
Just like OP, I’m only one single person, so if anyone wants to correct me or add something I missed, then go for it. And further disclaimer, there are exceptions to everything I’ve said in this post, and it only applies to East and Southeast asian people who are either not mixed or white-mixed, as those are the hair types I’m most familiar with.
Keep reading
I’d like to add that there are Black people of non-African decent in Asia. We exist. So the whole “I won’t draw Black people in anime because it’s set in ~Asia~” is absolutely bullshit (besides the fact that those of African decent also live there). The so called “negrito” ethnic group is comprised of many different cultures throughout south and southeast Asia and are considered Black (they have dark skin and coiled ‘Afro-texture’ hair) Additionally, the Moluccan and Papuan people of southeast Indonesia are Black.
Also regarding hair, naturally curly hair absolutely is a thing in e/s/se Asia. Our hair runs the gamut from loose wavy curls to tight, kinky coiled hair.
Blonde or red hair and blue eyes are also possible in Maluku and Papua, due to genetic quirk that has nothing to do with having white heritage.
On to types of curly hair Asian people can have:
[A picture of Sandra Oh with a long, curly shag haircut, wearing a pink blouse against a white backdrop] Sandra Oh is a great example of an east Asia person with curly hair. She has wavy/curly hair.
[A picture of Aarti Sequeria, an Indian woman with medium skin tone, shoulder length medium curls, wearing a green blouse against a colorful background]
Curly hair is also common in south Asia. This is Aarti Sequeria, an Indian person with tighter curls.
Then we get to the tightest curls.
[Three pictures of young people from Maluku or Papua Indonesia. The first shows two boys in blue shirts with dark skin and curly hair. The boy on the left has loose, dark curls and the boy on the right has dark red-blonde tightly coiled curls. The second picture shows a child with very dark skin with red undertones. They have tightly curled dark red-orange hair. The last one shows a boy with dark brown skin, dark ash blonde hair, and dark grey eyes. He is not wearing a shirt. End description]
These are all people from Maluku and Papua in southeast Indonesia. This is their natural hair color and texture. Also note how warm their skin tone is. As a note, the reason these are all pictures of children is that more often than not, those with blonde hair as children will have their hair darken as they get older. Additionally, note how the roots are much darker than the ends. This is because most of the blonde hair comes from sun bleaching rather than it coming out of the scalp blonde.
My family is from Maluku and I have cousins with the same bright red hair, and both of their parents have dark brown/black hair. I also have family who have blue eyes, but both of their parents have brown eyes. So while it’s very, very uncommon, it is possible for an Asian person to be blonde. However, unless you are depicting someone from these areas, the blue eyes/blonde hair is still very much a don’t do this, especially if you are a white artist.
There are so many ways to look Asian. So many hair textures, so many skin colors. Asia is a lot more diverse than the west depicts it to be.
teach me?? how to draw?? the action of kissing????
Step 1. yearn
thanks op for letting me add on to this post!
have fun drawing kisses now!!!!!!
more detailed tutorial by another person: x
For drawing references
[@/ALEXbutalsoK on Twitter]
A compilation of stuff I know about drawing Asian faces and Asian culture! I feel like many “How-To-Draw” tutorials often default to European faces and are not really helpful when drawing people of other races. So I thought I’d put this together in case anyone is interested! Feel free to share this guide and shoot me questions if you have any! I’m by no means an expert, I just know a few things from drawing experience and from my own cultural background.
@hux333
Thank you! I struggle with water
A compilation of stuff I know about drawing Asian faces and Asian culture! I feel like many “How-To-Draw” tutorials often default to European faces and are not really helpful when drawing people of other races. So I thought I’d put this together in case anyone is interested! Feel free to share this guide and shoot me questions if you have any! I’m by no means an expert, I just know a few things from drawing experience and from my own cultural background.
I am so serious when I say if you want to learn about light, you NEED to at least look at modeseven’s tutorials. even if you’re not pursuing a painterly style, this is all essential theory that can be easily adapted to different coloring styles. notice how none of these ever say ‘light with these colors and shade with these colors’? notice how this is teaching how light works on a mechanical level, and reminding the audience to adjust the actual colors they choose by context? THAT is good advice.
(if you’re thinking ‘wow I want to study more of this persons art!’ I encourage you to do so, but proceed with the knowledge that modeseven draws pretty much exclusively weird as hell kink art. sometimes wisdom comes from horny places)
WebGL Water is a great water simulator, with a sphere that can interact with the water’s surface. It can be paused which means you can then use it as a reference for lighting, reflections, refractions, etc.
Painting Tutorials:
Water in Motion
Ocean Waves
Water Bubbles
Water Surface
Stormy Sea Waves
Condensation
Water Droplets
More Various Tutorials