Salutations fellow artists.
What I've posted is an intermediate demonstration for those who are getting used to applying color to their paintings. One of the most important things to remember are sticking to values and basic black and whites. In this five step speed demonstration I made sure to find the key values in shades of black and white before going anywhere near color.
I for one prefer obtaining where my light, high lights, shadows, rim lights and core shadows will be before even considering adding any form of hue to the piece. In a traditional meets digital sense after finding those values I create a new layer and select its property to be "Soft Light" and find a middle tone for my painting, this technique is is what many of the traditional masters used.
I for one prefer obtaining where my light, high lights, shadows, rim lights and core shadows will be before even considering adding any form of hue to the piece. In a traditional meets digital sense after finding those values I create a new layer and select its property to be "Soft Light" and find a middle tone for my painting, this technique is is what many of the traditional masters used.
Afterwards I start to have a fair idea of where my colors will go and not have a grey scale image to i-drop a either too saturated or too desaturated color from. there on out it's time and patience and constantly checking proportions, color and reference (which is one of the laws I did not follow for this demo unfortunately!)
Panel 1- Obtaining a black and white value for your painting so that you understand where the light is coming from, where your shadows are located and means of making the form "pop" or appear as if it existed outside of a two dimensional surface.
Panel 2- Creating a secondary layer and setting it to "Soft Light" (There are other properties that work for various different situations, I would encourage you to try not just one) to obtain an over all color to your piece so that you're not working or pulling color from a black and white value.
Panel 3- Seeking the correct color for your subject, be it skin, hair, texture or anything between. Starting with a foundation color and after applying a lighter or darker shade.
Panel 4- Detailing such as pores in the skin, freckles, fine hairs and just going over your work while progressively thinking "Is there anything that might enhance my image as far as expression, detail or facets that I might have missed."
Pane 5- Sitting back and studying what you've accomplished so far and pushing it one step further I like to call this the "Having fun" stage. Personally this for me results in flattening the image to one layer, duplicating it twice or thrice over and adjusting separate nob's and "doodad's" in Photoshop, such as Levels, Layer Options, Curves, Hue and Saturation. Over all trying to add or subtract just enough from the image itself until you feel satisfied with what you have done.
I have that you've enjoyed this demonstration and that it's been helpful to you. Should you have any further questions feel free to e-mail me at -
JosephMcFarlaneYoung@Gmail.com
For further tips or interest you can find my blog at---
Strive.
