[Not tutorial, Its a confession] How i color my art, an introduction to the behind the scenes of my drawings

Nyan_sempai

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WARNING: Its going to be long.
Hi guys! Can call me Nyan!
I have been doing digital art for a few months and it has become an obsession for me now. Every day and every now and then I try to add new things to my art, try new techniques and so on. Either i try them myself or i try some tips given by youtube tutorials. Ever since this art https://forum.scribblehub.com/threads/posting-my-art-o.1491/ my art has changed a lot. Perhaps not my overall style, but oh wells
Not guaranteed I am actually executing them though I try my best to do so.


This is my latest art.
I am going to talk about how I color my drawings. I think it has improved a lot in a span of few months. Well, even though its mostly my style, if you ever want to try coloring like me digitally ofc, then you may try.
So here are some tips! Ofc you can break and as well as make new rules and aesthetics anytime, but this is how i try to do the coloring. These are things i tried out myself and my coloring is definitely improving because of these methods.

- white is never truly white and black is never truly black.
Your character has black hair? screw it. Use a dark grey color instead. Use black only for shading the darkest corners of the drawing. In this drawing the dress looks black right? Wrong. Its not black even if it appears to be. Look at the sky behind her, that's black. similarly, does the white of the eyes appear white? Even if they do, even irl, they are NOT white.
I usually do the base color of white parts as white itself, but for the blacks i use a dark grey as my base.

- keep the texture in mind, if its a metallic object her clothes will have harder shadows and highlights, and if its a softer surface it will be more soft. If its made of silk or silky substance, or velvet, it will have darker shadows and bright rather than light pale highlights.
- choose a neutral base color
I try to pick a neutral base color. There is the color wheel, and then there is a box showing different shades and tones. I try to keep out from the edges for the base color and pick a color from the middle.

- I keep the color for the shadings in the multiply layer constant. BUT never ever black or gray unless its a dull painting in general. However you can change it (so can i) if you want. For example, i saw a painting the other day which depicted a big busted swimsuit girl in a bright af day, BUT the shades killed the look. She looked like she might have been standing in a rainy day. It was ashy. And there were no bright highlights.
- I keep the background simple to put the focus on the subject. I still need to improve my background art tho lol.
- Light travels in a straight path, so keeping that in mind try to do the shading. Its hard to actually figure out tho lol
-color in the direction the object flows. For the love of god, we all should and must do this thing a least. Unless we wanna go ahead and break the rules to be a master.
- again, DO NOT use the most vibrant/saturated or darkest color as base.
- apply the pen pressure appropriately, easy to say, hard to master. This is the whole trick to making good ass drawings I guess, no amout of technology, like the brush shade, density/opacity settings, or the texture of the brush can beat this imo. Though you need those too, of fucking course lol.
- DO not draw or color hair in strands in the base
- Try using colors that are in a different position in the color wheel, for example, for a red object, tr using purple shadows and pink highlights, it just makes the drawing a bit more vibrant.
- MAKE THE EFFORT TO DO THE CLEAR LINEART, its 100% worth it.

The color wheel is the circle and the box is the tone/shade whatever lol. I pick the parts in the middle, but for white i pick white then do the shading.


after multiply WITH different colors, dull blue for reds and whites and pale peach for blue/hair and face. Not yet completed tho.

Not a guide, basically how I do the eye color rn. I made this for someone who colored the eye in a totally solid dark color, even though there were light and shadow falling on rest of the parts. It makes the eye look lifeless (unless you are aiming for that look, but eyes are the loudest part of facial features imo)
 
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BenJepheneT

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look, just allow me to be "that guy" for a second and say this is a writing forum. not that this isn't allowed but this should be in some grandiose, MasterClass/SkillShare type lesson not among us plebeians who'd barely have the skillset to render a cherry on paper.

That said, this is some intensive stuff. Not even your title and stop this from being a tutorial. You're gonna have to start charging this or art teachers are gonna sue you for stealing their jobs.
 

Nyan_sempai

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look, just allow me to be "that guy" for a second and say this is a writing forum. not that this isn't allowed but this should be in some grandiose, MasterClass/SkillShare type lesson not among us plebeians who'd barely have the skillset to render a cherry on paper.

That said, this is some intensive stuff. Not even your title and stop this from being a tutorial. You're gonna have to start charging this or art teachers are gonna sue you for stealing their jobs.
This is an art sub forum!!!!! Lol
ANd i am looking for future customers!!! Jk just ranting.
 
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GDLiZy

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Obligatory 'I can't draw so everything is amazing!'.

Anyway, I'm sure people would find this useful. So it's still a tips and tricks tutorial thread after all! :blob_evil:
 

Moctemma

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Nice drawings and tips. I want to share this series of videos who were the best help for me when I still wanted to be an artist.
 

K5Rakitan

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Obligatory "please please please illustrate one of my chapters for free!"

I understand if you want to, of course. It's just that I used to have an art budget, and then I lost my side job, and then . . . it's been one thing after another financially for me. Things might get better in a year or two, but for now, I can only beg for free art and hope I get lucky.
 

Lulible

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Looks good tho your lighting is a bit off in places like on the knife? (Might be a sword or dagger) cause if the light reflects so concentrated on the legs from above I'd think the knife would also have at least a small concentrated reflection.
 

Nyan_sempai

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Looks good tho your lighting is a bit off in places like on the knife? (Might be a sword or dagger) cause if the light reflects so concentrated on the legs from above I'd think the knife would also have at least a small concentrated reflection.
Yes it's off and thanks for pointing out where!
It's easy to talk and point out flaws in past and other's drawings than when doing by yourself, well I mean in a positive way! So it's always nice to have an external critic.
 

Lulible

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Yes it's off and thanks for pointing out where!
It's easy to talk and point out flaws in past and other's drawings than when doing by yourself, well I mean in a positive way! So it's always nice to have an external critic.
Glad I could help tho I wasn't really trying to criticize just observing 😅
 

Nyan_sempai

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Glad I could help tho I wasn't really trying to criticize just observing 😅
Which I couldn't do ^^
I am not a pro, and as I said these are just suggestions. Not guaranteed I am actually executing them though I try my best to do so.

It's very easy to add a bit of glow so no worries.
 
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