Picture Drop [Help needed as well]

[Soul_Berserker]

Critique if you want too. XD





NOW. FOR ALL OF YOU SNAZZY ARTISTS OUT THERE. I NEED SOME HELP PLEASE. Thanks.

My problem is the fact that I cannot color to save my life. My monochrome works are pretty snazzy and I like them, but I want to start working in full CG. The hardest part for me is SKIN.

Now, I know you all are going to tell me to go look up a tutorial on DA. Well, I tried that on pretty much every single tutorial available and I am STILL looking too dead, too pink or too brown. [And yes, I did try the whole color theory thing using the opposite colors and whatever]. You're also probably going to tell me to practice. Well, I do that for three or four hours a day. No, I'm not kidding.

So, I need some REAL help. If anyone has any time or knows someone who has time and KNOWS what they are doing when it comes to coloring skin, can I get a little 1 on 1 time? Advice? [That isn't using a ref photo because I tried that too.] Tips or tricks? Thanks to anyone who gives any feedback on the issue. XD

[Zagachan]

Swatch

This might help you out. It's a good swatch if you don't know how to go about colouring skin. (Colour-wise)

Sakimichan's drawing

Try looking at Sakimichan's drawings for reference on skin. I think she's a very talented person, and her skin is beautiful.

But if you are practicing a lot, and not improving, perhaps you're going about it the wrong way? Can you explain me how you go about colouring skin? We can take this to PM if you want to.

[britt-chan]

Zagachan

Swatch

This might help you out. It's a good swatch if you don't know how to go about colouring skin. (Colour-wise)

Sakimichan's drawing

Try looking at Sakimichan's drawings for reference on skin. I think she's a very talented person, and her skin is beautiful.

But if you are practicing a lot, and not improving, perhaps you're going about it the wrong way? Can you explain me how you go about colouring skin? We can take this to PM if you want to.

Aww man don't take it to PM I was hoping to eavesdrop on it and learn tooo. ; -;


Also, OP your lines are so nice~

[Zagachan]

britt-chan

Aww man don't take it to PM I was hoping to eavesdrop on it and learn tooo. ; -;


Also, OP your lines are so nice~

Haha, alright.

Well, OP. As she said, your lines are very good, could you show us your monochromes as well?
Also, I hope you're not colouring on a pure white background. That's going to ruin your feeling of the colours. Colour in basic background first preferably (or just fill in with a colour), then fill in basic colours.

What you can also do, OP, is take your monochromes and colour over them. (Like, colour overlay.) I've never tried this myself, so I don't know how it works, but it might be good.

[Soul_Berserker]

Zagachan

britt-chan

Thanks for the compliments! As for monochromes: LINK Just keep scrolling until you find them. They aren't that hard to find lol.

I tried coloring in black and white first and then using an overlay and it turned out so horrible that I even hate to talk about it, So I don't think coloring over my monochromes would be any better. Yes, when doing my monochromes, I do color on a white background, but when coloring full CG, I always use a fill color that will NOT be in my drawing somewhere.

as for looking at her art: Yea, I do that a lot. I study, I look at tutorials, hell I even started WATCHING them when I can find good ones. O.o I know I'm doing something wrong. The first is lighting, and the second if I'm not picking the right colors. HOWEVER: I have used the eyedropper tool to pic colors off of a ref photo when I was experimenting and it also turned out horrible. So yea. Lol. I'm trying just with almost futile results.

[Zagachan]

Soul_Berserker

Hmm.. Well, there must be something that isn't right. I saw one of your full colourings on your tumblr, the one with the blue hair. Some things I noticed is that the colouring isn't entirely realistic. You have quite a realistic style, so you'd want to keep everything on the same level. But it's lacking some shadows (F.Ex. the shadow under the hair. The boobs are too defined, the cleavage doesn't look like that. I'm sending you the image where I circled all the parts that look a bit odd. Just take a look at it. )

There seems to be a lack of a proper lightsource, though. Her body shows the light to come from the front, but her face says from the left. (Which again her elbow denies, and says it's from the right) You need to gain a better understanding of shadows, it seems like. That might be your first thing. Oh, and the thighs look rushed. Just so you're aware.

The skincolour is quite good, but it's a tad.. Boring. It's very generic and kind of grey. Dare choose a more saturated base colour, and even more saturated colours. The colour of her lipstick isn't helping either, and not to mention her hair. In comparison to her skin, the colours are too saturated. Try to warm up her skin, and place shadows in the same way as you shaded the hair/lips.

Next time, try a fill colour that is warm. Like.. Orange. Warm orange. Try that. Maybe it helps?

[Soul_Berserker]

Zagachan

Yea...I know all that. ./wasn'tactuallyaskingforacritiqueonthatpicture lol.
You can see everything I said I have a problem with in that picture, yes, but what I asked for was how to improve and or fix. Or what I can do to start, to add more shadows etc. Or how to keep a light source constant. That would probably helptoo.

./sorry if this seems a bit rude, I'm not trying to be.

[GrossSex]

If you find tutorials to be less than helpful, the best thing you can do is real life sudies. Wether it's on the computer or with tradition methods I think it'd be the most help. Focus on how light effect skin, throw on a bright shirt or put in a colored bulb. Good luck!

[Soul_Berserker]

GrossSex

If you find tutorials to be less than helpful, the best thing you can do is real life sudies. Wether it's on the computer or with tradition methods I think it'd be the most help. Focus on how light effect skin, throw on a bright shirt or put in a colored bulb. Good luck!

Thanks. XD

[Zagachan]

Soul_Berserker

Sorry, but it was the only completed colour work I saw. If you want me to critique another one, then by all means give me a link. I was trying to point out what was wrong, so you could see what you needed to fix. But I see now I was too unclear with my intention.

What you can do is look at references when you draw, or draw from a reference from the beginning. You need a greater understanding of how 3D forms work, and how you show that this person isn't 2D, but 3D. I can't tell you how to get a better understanding, what you need is to study that in particular. Draw a circle, find a lightsource, and start shading. Do a million of triangles, cones, squares, and try to make them all 3D looking. When you feel like you have a grasp of how to draw a 3D shape, then move onto bigger and more complicated things, like bodyparts.

After that, you could perhaps try to understand how the skin works when it comes to lighting. There's a very neat video that I found made a lot of sense to me, at least. And it's about all I've mentioned. Here's the video.
A second video, which concentrates more on how lightsources affects an object, is found here.

I don't know what else to tell you, SB.

[Soul_Berserker]

Zagachan

I know this might sound bad, but that made a lot of sense actually. So thank you. I'm going to go check out the links you sent to me. XD

[Zagachan]

Soul_Berserker

Zagachan

I know this might sound bad, but that made a lot of sense actually. So thank you. I'm going to go check out the links you sent to me. XD

That's wonderful! At least we managed to find something that might help you more than the general approach.

Good luck.

[Sir Froogle]

Soul_Berserker

Hello friend, i can feel you for i myself cannot color! I have also tried many methods like the "color is b/w then add a layer above for color" method but nothing seems to work D:

As for skin, i am afraid i cannot help you, but i can offer up what i do know so maybe i can fill in a few of your missing puzzle pieces!

1. Human skin is actually a little bit blue, most people see it as a"orange" or "brown" hue, but those are from melenin and blood vessels in the skin.
So when you color the skin make sure you color it in the dimmer parts of the color spectrum as blue is the "opposite" of the oranges it causes it to become grayer

2, although skin looks opaque, it is semi opaque and kinda transparent. so when it by light it causes diffusion which makes the shadowed areas a little lighter.

Thats all i know about skin, i also know how to color the face but there is a AWESOME BOOK i am saving for, that tells you how to color you def want to get this book
best color book out there

i dont know its the latest version though so go look for a while, but this dude illustrated dinotopia or something called dino something

Best of luck with coloring my friend