< SethXHellsing> Big Bang Theory ftw.
< PrincessPrince> Big Bang sounds sexy. I go for big Bang.
...

Serain's Coloring Tips
Well, basically I posted these in the RoninRubbish Chatroom one night, and I thought "Hey, maybe some fool would actually want to see this shit to maybe make their coloring _worsebetter." I have been asked by some people lately how I color, so... on with the show!

Well, I have a disclaimer: I'm not particularly good, so I don't think you should listen to me, and this is only the things I go by when coloring, they generally work most of the time, but there's plenty of other ways to do it and make your coloring look awesome.

1) Well, the largest thing I do is to remember that the color of the surroundings affect the color of a particular shape rather than the base color. So if a guy has a blue shirt on but is in a sunset, the shirt will be significantly more red/orange than blue... sometimes you can omit the blue color altogether, in fact, you could probably put some gray in instead and it will look like blue by implying a cool shade.

You don't have to draw a surrounding to do this though, even if there's no drawn scenery the shadows on an object will still be the similar colors all around, despite different base colors (ex. red shirt, green pants, gray bird in the background. If you're doing shadows in the color blue, all the shadows will be blue.

2) Remember that as colors get darker, they also get less saturated due to absence of light.The colors are brightest when there's light, when they get darker, they get more gray.

That's an important one. However, when it comes to skin, stuff starts changing. Because skin has blood vessels inside it and stuff (and is partially translucent), it does look pinkish all around, even as it gets grayer.

If you notice, many anime artists make the cheeks, nose, elbows and knees pinker, because those are spots where the blood often gathers... sometimes they do this principle unknowingly, just copying a real rule.

3) Uhm, when you use a certain color to highlight, the shadow color will almost always to opposite the color that you used to highlight. (ex. Orange sunset/lighting = blue shadows.) That's why you see purple shadows used so often (some people, not knowing the actual rule, do it cause it "looks right", cause it is) because yellow is the most common highlight color to use.

4) Nuance I suggest to remember, when light hits an object harshly, there will always be saturation between the two colors.

So if I have bright white light on skin, then there will be a very very bright pink/red color in the middle.

You can see this if you hold your hand up to a lamp or lightbulb with your fingers together, there's some really bright reddish color in there.

5) NEVER BE AFRAID OF THE COLOR!

This is the most important tip. Sometimes people (especially me) get to a point in the drawing where they love the drawing to an extent that they don't want to mess it up with some extra color. They put on a color and immediately think "ugly, it doesn't work with the rest of it" and take it off with an undo. Sometimes they only put color on the very edges of a person's face. They get stuck in a rut, unable to continue coloring for fear of messing up what they already have. I've found that this rut really sucks, and makes my art look bad.

It's less important, I've found, to know the rules than to be confident and break them.


There. Five things I always think about when coloring a picture. Of course, there are many variations, I really don't claim I know anything, much less everything. Anyway, I'm sorry if this sounds pretentious if you guys already know this stuff. I have no idea if these things are well-known or not.

I was thinking while doing this - a lot of this would be better explained with pictures depicting the principles, as well as color swatches showing exactly what color I'm using (because lots of things are a trick of the eye, like the same gray looking warm against blues and cold against reds. So I ask you, the journal reader (I know there's not many of you) do you think this was helpful in the least? Should I draw up a full-blown tutorial?

Thanks.


Projects

Kiriban
Yuri for ~eisenevsky
SketchReqests: *conartist18 ~odd-hunter ~lawsae
Kato x Foi "They're practically married!"
~Kaitoshingiwa ~PrincessPrince ~eisenevsky([link]) ~Mul([link]) ~odd-hunter([link]) ~Kitfoxeh *lanhao ~lawsae([link]) *conartist18([link]) ~DRa90NBoi([link]) ~Aleksandros

Samurai Duelers League *RoninsUltramix

Joined =genesischant's team The Mu*Directive. Looks like a team battle might be on the horizon...

Taicho Tip #1: Make sure your duels are clean and neat, art and font-wise, as well as all linked together if it's in multiple parts. Messiness has been the downfall of many a Ronin.

Taicho Tip #2: Even though it may seem redundant to detail your comics, especially the backgrounds, people will notice the extra effort.

Steel Nation *dire-musaera

Lost round 2, against ~The-Russian-Gestapo. He was a worthy opponent. Very worthy. Now I have to go find the time to cheer him on for the rounds after.

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