Color theory and mood

[TrustyShamrock]

hi! so i been wantin to work more on using mood and color theory with the coloring in my comics but i didnt know where to start learning more about that. does anyone have any good links or tips on the best ways to do that? video tutorials would be awesommmee

[YoungAdventurer]

Tutorial 2 You have your head in my cloud

I found this collection of tutorials really useful, there are about 16 of them and they cover a variety of things but most of them are about colour theory and mood. Not a video tutorial sorry, but it is very visual.
Also, this one is about shading:

Why shadows aren't gray

[Vikiro_Hop]

The shading one I sorely needed, I've just been winging it up to this point, looks like I got a lot to work on!

[TrustyShamrock]

@YoungAdventurer thanks a bunch! i'll look into them!

[Raven_C]

I always keep this in mind when I'm coloring and paying attention to mood. Really helpful when drawing characters who have different color palettes together.
http://notraintowns.tumblr.com/post/101404940279/gigidigi-anonymous-said-how-do-you-manage

[Luie]

Aw yaaas, shadows. Our eyes are designed to detect shadows, which creates some cool illusions.

Sometimes our ability to see shadows and the contrast around an object can cause us to misinterpret to color of an object, like this

So for white/black, those aren't colors, but they can be. Black is yellow and white is blue. So when shading or coloring white or black, you can use the corresponding blue or yellow. to create the shadows and even the base color. This is why a blue/black dress can look white/gold depending on the lighting around it. This excludes reflected light and color, which doesn't follow the same rules. If you were to paint a snow clump in the sunshine, the shadows are darker and blue, the base is an unsaturated light blue, and the reflected sunlight is yellow against off-white.

Fun fact, when you do some kewl drugs, your eyes start to see shadows as colors, because they are colors. But your eyes recognize them as different colors, not shadows on an object, which can cause a shadow to sometimes look like an object as your acid brain tries to figure out what you're looking at because you eyes have lost the ability to focus on moving objects. This is also why shadows can appear to 'move' on an object, like a still curtain. If you don't do drugs, some simple sleep deprivation can cause the same effect.

[whydocowsfall]

I hate that stupid dress thing: even the dress on the right still looks white and gold to me and I am very suspicious. >;l

[Riana]

I was going to link the "Why Shadows Aren't Gray" tutorial I did forever ago but you already did it for me! Thanks!

So I can actually contribute to the topic, if you can find it in a library (or are willing to buy it!), James Gurney's book "Color and Light" is an absolute MUST read! I can't emphasize the MUST enough! I took color theory in college and I learned a lot about harmonies n stuff but it was never applied into practice. Gurney's book not only explained those abstract theories but they also applied them to narrative art.

[jacintawibowo]

James Gurney's book is awesomeee <3
Also! I'd recommend looking through Gigi's color tutorials she used to post on her tumblr.
Her comic, Cucumber Quest is worth studying for color alone =D

[YoungAdventurer]

I just remembered about this awesome video on colour by Concept Cookie:

One of the best videos I know of about colour theory.

[Luie]

The middle dress is the dress, and the actual colors are blue and black. You probably see white/gold because blue/black would be the colors of a white and gold dress in shadow and your eyes are stuck between seeing the object's colors as shadows. Blue is also a difficult color for people to see and may add to the confusion.

[shazzbaa]

For some reason using pokemon is a great way to teach colour, because This Tutorial By PurpleKecleon/glitchedpuppet was honestly more helpful than most of my college classes in terms of How To Approach Colour!
More of Gigi's colour thoughts can be found here on twitter where she answers more specific questions about how to use colours, and I'm gonna second the recommendation of studying her work!! Colour is absolutely a huge strength of hers!

---

[P.S. @whydocowsfall @Luie Add me to the list of people who can't see the blue dress even though I know it's there!! I can't even see the blue colour at all -- my brain apparently interprets the blue as shadow, corrects the image for me, and by the time it gets around to showing me, I'm literally just seeing a white dress. The only way I was able to understand what my brain was doing was to stare at the real dress until I could imagine those colours as white & gold in dark shadow -- and I still can't see the original photo as anything but white/gold. MY BRAIN IS A DIRTY LIAR AND I CAN'T TRUST IT FOR ANYTHING]

[Luie]

I forget the sciencexplanation, but blue is a relatively recent color in our history. Some people still see the sky as violet. In fact the first time I saw the dress I thought it was purple and black. White correlates directly with blue because blue is the color of the shadow on a white object (and most lighter things outside). If you can't see blue, it will lean towards purple. This is also why a lot of lighter things (white skin, snow, golden retrievers, oranges, the sky) can be shaded with a violet color to make a shadow, while darker things (idk, a black panther) are mostly shaded with dark yellows (like the upper dress). Of course there are exceptions, but this is how our eyes interpret the color of a shadow with the color of an object. A lot of people still have trouble telling light blues from whites, which is why the unsaturated blue on the dress can look white.

[Kamikaze]

It's hard to get a hold of outside of buying it outright, but there's a Gnomon Tutorial called Practical Light and Color by a Pixar artist and he does an AMAZING job breaking everything down. It's really well worth the money, but it can get a little technical, so bear in mind you'll probably have to rewatch it a few times to fully understand the concepts. Then again...that could just be me, because I'm more literary/history minded than science/math. ^-^;;;;;

[TrustyShamrock]

SOOO many of these are helpful. i been lookin thru them for days but forgot to thank everyone. ALSO i found some other helpful things too
this link ia all about color mood in comics which is pretty helpful

[Shanny8]

I know most of the basic aspects of color/theory, but it all goes to hell in a handbasket when I actually try to put these concepts into an actual piece. Been trying to figure out for the longest on how to learn to apply the colors and get what I envisioned, instead of an oversaturated mess.

Over the past year I've been trying to pick up books/watch video tutorials that will help me better learn color/theory, but I feel like every time the subject comes up, everyone is speaking a foreign language. The closest I've gotten to under standing it a little was reading a bit from DC Comics' Guide to Coloring & Lettering- but that is as far as it goes.

It's frustrating, coz I've come so far in the past 2 years- from barely knowing anything about Photoshop and coloring, to knowing a good bit. I want to learn more, but it seems like color/theory is the obstacle that is keeping me from going to the next level with my color.

[winglesscomic]

i've previously read pretty much everything posted in this thread and NONE of them stuck. the day I watched this tutorial, I threw up the middle finger to all those other tutorials about colour theory. this is the only one that made sense to me.