I hate coloring I hate coloring I hate coloring (advice/tips/suggestions lol?)

[delladz]

i also hate art block but here we are LOL #letsgetoutofartblock

As someone who primarily works with black and white for their comic, whenever I want to do a color illustration I get super frustrated and end up with a work I only kinda sorta like

So as the title says, any general advice about coloring y'all have? or even tips on the specific illustration I'm working on (see below)?

[vapidink]

Okay, but same! I hate coloring because I do not trust the process. So I kinda just go for it now and worry about fixing it later. Some things that have helped is practicing rendering in grayscale, it just makes it easier to figure out what to shade and what to highlight. Also, studying other art to see how different color choices change the look of things. Another thing I tend to use are gradients. I add one in a dark tone and one in a light tone(usually on an add glow layer) and it helps the colors look a little less flat and makes me hate things a little less. Just enough to keep going, lol.

I'm still working on my rendering because I'm bad at color picking, so I like to do palette challenges sometimes. It makes me think of colors differently, so it's good practice. But yeah, a lot of it is just finding things that work for your process and your style. Also, it's digital art, so at least it's easy to fix if we mess up.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Well, it really depends on what you hate about coloring: for instance, if you hate having to pick new colors and figure out what looks good where, you should acquire pre-made palettes and reference other artists' color work.
On the contrary, if you hate having to follow a pre-established palette and get bored just putting colors in places, you should give yourself more room to experiment; maybe even just pick random colors to play with in each new scene/piece.

...So already, two completely opposite pieces of advice that could either fix the problem or make it even worse, depending on who it's given to. And when: I've been both of those artists before. ^^;

And tbh, there's also the possibility that you're just not a 'full color' person, and your art will look better if you work with that quality instead of fighting it. ¯(ツ)/¯ Personally I can't relate (I like variety~), but each of these artworks still unlocked whole portions of my artist brain on sight (@kirin-no-obake, @ZalsNG, @pretty_purin164):

There are so many ways to work with monochrome/limited color palettes; even B&W alone has several different rendering styles to choose from. I'm not saying to give up on 'full color' immediately, but it never hurts to experiment, and finding a limited-color style you can execute well may help you build confidence with more complex color work, or help you build your own coloring style from the ground up.

or even tips on the specific illustration I'm working on (see below)?

So the issue that stands out to me the most in this illustration is the lack of direction...it's hard to tell what you want out of the colors.

Like, Goggles Guy's skin has a very high Value; it's super bright compared to the rest of the colors...even brighter than the whites of his eyes, making it feel unrealistic. Was this an intentional choice?? Because none of his other colors are anywhere near that bright...and Beanie Guy's skin has the complete opposite problem, feeling unrealistically ashen and gray...
But was ^that an intentional choice?? It feels like it could be; pointed ears aren't realistic either...but his skin isn't completely gray; there is a believable light brown in there that matches his similarly dull hair and eyes, and outfit...until you get to the bright cyan nails and bright orange pants and deep saturated reds on his shoes, and you start questioning your perception again...

So I'm gonna try an interpretation of what I think I'm seeing here:

So Goggles Guy looked like the more 'normal' one of the two, a design element I tried to accentuate by creating a classic 'primary color' scheme-- I'm not gonna explain that right now, let's just say orange=red, navy=blue, gold=yellow.
The next thing I tried to accentuate was that pale skin, which I didn't change at all; I just altered the surrounding colors to make it look more intentional. For example, making his hair pale as well, and brightening his eyes, and darkening his hoodie: all of this serves to create a space of cohesion on his body to contrast with his clothes, making both elements bring attention to each other.

Now Beanie Guy, on the other hand, looked to me like the more fantastical one-- I got the feeling that you were trying to make the neon accessories pop against his darker features. So similarly to Goggles Guy, I played up that contrast, making his skin, hair and shirt almost monochrome, and pulling the saturation and brightness way up on those more colorful details.
I also gave everything a cool hue, to create a sort of 'overall' cohesion for the color scheme-- gold becomes lime yellow, orange became neon green, red becomes hot pink, etc. Everything has a little blue value in it, making the colors all feel like they belong together, and making the design feel a little fantastical.

This is just one idea (and of course, I didn't even do the whole image) but I hope you get what I'm saying here. Effective coloring, whether you use a whole range of colors or just one, works to direct your eye to certain places, to help make the design readable and to accentuate the interesting parts. Whatever you do, do it with purpose, and you'll get a better end result.

[wolflu66]

I like coloring, but I really hate the work of filling colors into closed line art areas, so I rarely do that now. I usually paint directly with brushes like oil painting, using a concept that's closer to traditional art.

[delladz]

yeah definitely lacking direction lol but I like your suggestion and may push the colors more saturated than what I was originally doing! TBH I just wanted to draw my OCs in skater boi-esque outfits which tend to be kinda dark and muted (i don't think making the background purple helped whatsoever sigh...)

Admittedly, I usually do "base" colors and then do a loooot of adjusting in the end but I'm trying not to rely on the "I'll fix it in post" mindset AKA I want to actually choose colors thoughtfully.

Anyways, thank you for this great feedback!!! Super appreciate it and I've got a lot to get from it, hopefully another person will be able to take something away from this too !

[BoomerZ]

just add transparence shadows and it's fine.

[delladz]

ok i know i stepped away from art for too long because i completely forgot about using greyscale facepalm
don't forget your basics!!

There's so much good art out there, sometimes I wanna do something bright and poppy and sometimes I wanna do something muted and dark and other times I want photorealistic rendering that will take me hours!!

manifesting that we feel confident in our colors in the near future, comrade

[delladz]

lasso tool is my bestieee but i def understand your struggle

I've done direct painting before but I am impatient and find that filling base colors makes the process faster for me, but maybe i need to learn patience lol

[DokiDokiTsuna]

TBH I just wanted to draw my OCs in skater boi-esque outfits which tend to be kinda dark and muted

Ohhhh...yeah, I don't think I picked up on that at all. Oop. ^^;

Well, a lot of what I said still works in that case, but I feel like I could add a few more general tips:

So it helps to get reference pics for fashion subcultures if you want to use them; so you can understand their general look. The construction of those outfits works for a 'skater boi', but the colors are a little too loud to give off the correct impression. Tbh, the neon details in particular feel more like a 'punk' element-- not that you can't mix styles, but I'm focusing on one thing at a time here. ^^;

So Google Images is giving me this:

Which is about what I expected. Casual boys' clothes (hoodies, T-shirts, denim jackets, jeans, sneakers, etc. etc.) in muted colors, yes...but muted in a specific way. This is getting into fashion/character design more than color theory alone, but hear me out:

So contemporary casual clothes usually have a color scheme with a focus on neutrals-- the biggest portions of color (i.e. most of the pants and/or most of the shirts...like, at least half the body) will be browns, blacks, greys, whites, and navies (jeans), with brighter colors used as accents/accessories.
You kinda need those proportions in order for an outfit to read as 'casual', especially in the gritty/urban way evoked by the 'skater boy'.

So really the biggest issue with the outfits you designed isn't the colors themselves; it's the proportions. ^^; Swap them around in a more casual direction, and you could easily kill two birds with one stone.
However, the colors themselves could still use some work-- they are muted, but they could be a lot more muted, especially in a 'boyish' direction that puts extra emphasis on strong-yet-desaturated hues.
The original color scheme is in the center, with two potential 'casual corrections' on the top and bottom.

[vapidink]

There's way too much good art for my hamster brain so now I wanna do it all even though I can't, so I totally get you there.

We'll get there!

[Krysteena]

Realistically I use bucket feel and lasso tool a lot. On my Autodesk sketchpad it called magic selector but the same thing lol.

[Lensing]

Why don´t you shade in black and white then and use gradient
maps when the shading is done?

For the people who hate flat coloring:
use the lasso tool, customise the lasso tool when you work
in clip studio

[suyeong512]

Ahhh, I totalllyyy relate. It is so time consuming and a pain. I love your art btw. I honestly feel like color sometimes just ruins my work and it's pain, but I'm still trying to do it to improve. I just fill in with paint bucket tool basic colors sometimes when I miss a spot, has to manually fill it in. than for shades and shadows, I use multiply layer and use grayish blue color, and then add in some lighter color

[Lensing]

Sometimes it helps to collect references and copy the coloring or to
find out how they colored their work

[delladz]

I also usually use the multiply layer and do a cell style of shading but I'm also trying to expand my horizons and try different shading/rendering styles!

Maybe the question posed would have been better if it was about rendering lol but I still feel like the color question is still totally valid

It's probably a mix of my art style and process (and lack of technique/knowledge lol(, but my art has been feeling incredibly flat lately so I'm trying to pick apart different aspects that have been bugging me and I feel like coloring/rendering is at the top of the list

[delladz]

See the problem shows up when I am in "look at art" mode and "I am making art" mode cause there's usually lots of gaps between those modes and when it comes time to sit down and Do Art, I look for references that inspire me but can't ever find the right example (lesson learned: save art you like)

Also, I still haven't really wrapped my head around gradient maps? I use Krita so I'm sure they have gradient maps but I haven't really had the opportunity (or quite frankly the desire lol) to learn them, but maybe I'm just completely missing an essential tool for the art process

[Oriflamme]

If you work in krita, The colorize mask is a tool that helps to quickly create an un-aliased flat color layer. I used it, and it reduced my workload by like 2/3?

[Lensing]

It´s a very long process and you are getting better at it gradually.
Don´t be too hard on yourself.

There are some steps to better shading / coloring.

Learning basic perspective, shapes, shapes in perspective, planes
of objects etc.

You can start with cell shading. It´s easy to find cell shading references
and copy them.

Gradient maps are super simple, it´s like a filter.
You shade black and white with cell shading, put a gradient map
on it. You can also shade in black and white and then put a multiple
layer on top.

IMO it´s better to understand planes and how light interacts with objects
before you start to color as a first step.

[suyeong512]

Ooh, that's cool that you're experimenting with different coloring style . I am new to the coloring so I can't give you any advice but I honestly liked your art and coloring style(simple but gorgeous) so I'm gonna try something similar. Please update us on your color journey later on!

[ArtGremlin]

I’d like to think I’m pretty good at coloring, but the only decent advice I have that hasn’t been said already is that you could try putting a mostly transparent layer of color on top of the others to mesh them together and make them look more united. Try experimenting with different opacities and blend modes.