Color Theory Questions Options

[Ross Hughes]

I'm sure some of it is deadline driven as well. Cut&Grad (while complicated and full of it's own challenges) is probably a quicker style to work in than the full-on painterly look. Books at the big two are (a lot of times) given to colorists with a very tight deadline to meet. I know of a few colorists that are working 10+ pages a day, so spending a lot of time on each page and panel is kind of out of the question.

Looking forward to seeing your work Dogstar.

[Tim Tilley]

While we are on the subject of cuts and grads -- If you find it boring, perhaps you need to discover a
way for it to be more fun. Maybe develop your own style. Ross is right though, using painting style over
traditional is a bit time consuming. As for color theory, there are even more books at your public library
that could help as well. Although if you do end up leaning towards paiting style instead, you could look
at some of the better known painters as inspiration.

[dogstar]

Okay! Finally had time to finish this. It was penciled by andie tong and inked and colored by myself. Yea I know it isn't perfect but I do think I learned some things from it.

any how if any one would like to critique it that'd be great. I tried doing a few new things I saw others do but I'm not sure if it's quite got that punch that I'm wanting from it.

Suggestions on how to improve it would be great.

Thanks



here's the url to the original pencils too

http://deemonproductions.deviantart.com ... -113933297

[Ross Hughes]

Alright! Something we can sink our teeth into!

Let's start out with some positives.

- You've done a pretty effective job of popping Gambit out from the background element. That is to say, the colors don't blend in with, or make anything difficult to read on him against, your background.
- You colors are bright and vibrant.
- Your ability to create texture is really working for this pic.

Now lets take a look at some areas where you might be able to tweak some things.

- The first thing I notice is that there is no depth to the scene. Everything reads as being on the same plane. While the background isn't competing for attention with Gambit, it looks like it's right up on him. The same thing goes for the moon. It looks like it's right up on the buildings. You can fix this by using some color holds on the line work to help push it back further. I'd try a dark purple for the buildings and then a dark yellow for the moon. You may also try putting a soft glow of moonlight coming from the moon.

- You've got some inconsistency in your lighting going on here. Your primary lightsource (from the upper left) is done fairly well (although, there should probably be some cast shadow where his arm crosses his chest, and a little bit of it on his left arm.). It appears as though you've used a yellow/brown color to render your highlights, but there is no evidence of the color being used in the red and blue portions of his costume. I would think that there should be at least a hint of that color in those areas, maybe as a rimlight? Also, your secondary light source is a nice bright blue light, but I don't see any of it on his jacket or his thighs. If you decide to put some moonlight into your background, don't forget to put a hint of it on Gambit's back, left forearm, and fingers.

- His costume is a little dark, and the colors for it and his hair are out of gamut, mainly because of their saturation level. For a web only image, this isn't a big concern (although it can be difficult to look at some times), but if you're intending to print an image, it's imperative you get the colors into gamut. I'm not sure how knowledgeable you are (or I am, for that matter) on printing requirements, so forgive me if I'm saying something you already know, but I figure it may help someone else to hear/read it.
Color on a computer monitor is made up of varying shades of light consisting of different values of Red, Green, and Blue. (Hence the term, RGB) A printer however deals with ink, not light. The ink is mixed in varying values of Cyan, Magenta, Blue, and Black. (Which is where we get the term CMYK) (I know, I know. Black doesn't start with K, but B was already taken. ) What is all boils down to is that a computer monitor is capable of displaying more color than a printer can print. So when you're coloring an image for print, you'll have to make sure your color choices are ones that a printer is capable of printing. Otherwise, it will get as close as it can, but you can rest assured that it won't be the color your chose. Photoshop has a gamut warning that appears as an exclamation point inside a triangle next to your color picker to let you know that the color you chose is out of gamut. There will also be a box of color that PS thinks is the closest approximation to your chosen color that is within gamut. Clicking that box will automatically choose the safe color. Personally, I prefer to choose my own colors that I know to be within gamut, because the automatic chooser is usually something that is dull and desaturated.
Photoshop also has a feature you can choose in the VIEW menu to allow you to proof the colors for print. You'll still be coloring in RGB (and have access to all it's wonderful toys), but the colors displayed on the screen will be VERY close to what you'll get if you were to convert the file to CMYK for printing. I usually color in RGB with the proof colors turned on and then covert to CMYK prior to sending off the pages. I've noticed that some things don't appear quite as vibrant in CMYK, but a lot of that can be adjusted after the file is converted.
Let's say you let PS do the color choosing for you when you render. (Like if you were using the multiply, linear dodge, pin light, etc. features on your brushes) The brushes or tools are affecting the color for you rather than you selecting it yourself. So how do you know what's out of gamut and what's not? PS has a gamut warning feature in the VIEW menu. When it's turned on, it will display a pre-selected color (default is a gray color) over the areas of the image that are out of gamut. I personally change that color to something I rarely use in my coloring to help it stand out better than the gray does. A good hot pink works pretty well.

- Last thing for now. The bright spot at the bottom of the jacket is pulling the eye down to the bottom of the image. Adjusting that and maybe brightening up the moon and upper portions of Gambit, will help bring the eye back up to where it should be.


Hope that helps!!!

Ross

[dogstar]

I did forget about web only colors. I'll make sure to fix that next go around.

I'll give the other suggestions some thought and see about editing the image with the ideas, however I did originally plan on putting a shine / halo on the moon but figured it might draw the eye towards it and be too distracting.

I'll see what happens . I'll be going out of town shortly so unfortunately it may be a bit before I have a chance to try it a second time. Of course by then I may have renewed inspiration to take another shot at it.

Thanks a ton Ross