Tips For Doing Night Scenes Where There's Not Much Light If Any?

[Aspie_Gamer]

In today's update for my shoujo comic Life of an Aspie as pictured above, it takes place while its still dark out and since Susan and Mizuki's dorm room doesn't have a window to let any natural light in, its pretty dark as you may expect with the lights off. However, I had to re-upload this page twice today. First because the color was too bright for a dark scene and then because it was too dark for a dark scene. In the above image, I think (and I hope) I struck a balance between the two, but since this was my first time to do a "night" scene in my comic, I'm making this thread looking for any relevant tips and tricks on how to better create a night scene where there's not much light if any.

One of my subs suggested do my coloring for everything as per usual then make it all dark, but in my opinion, that would kind of a moot point since in real life, you don't see much color if any in your room at night when you are in your bed trying to get to sleep and its what I went for in today's page color wise. However, feel free to chime in with your two cents.

[joannekwan]

While it's true you don't see that much color when it's night, there is still some distinction between lights and darks albeit very low contrast. Since it's a comic and you still want to be able to distinguish things, I still color everything but the hues and values are much closer in range. I also don't add shadows to the scene when there isn't any moonlight.

[Kayke]

I did an issue where my characters were inside a museum at night and I made everything kind of dark, desaturated blues.
I didn't want to completely lose the colors, so I did a slight rim of color around the characters and certain objects that would reflect light like metals.

Since you don't have any light in the room that probably wouldn't happen in your drawing though...

I would say coloring things slightly different shades of dark purple or blue to give them more depth would help. Or make everything a slightly lighter shade so at least the line work is visible against the coloring because right now it is very hard to see.

[punkarsenic]

i am King of never appropriately lighting my scenes so I Got This

• dealing in limited palettes of blue and purple, with black gutters, keeps the nighttime feel without having to keep everything actually really dark
• open a window or have some kind of nightlight, so you have some light to work with. position this light so its hitting your primary objects (characters and important props)
• heavier lines / darker shadows also helps
• i also use overlay layers with dark edges blended into a lighter middle, which subtly lifts the image. i do similarly w lumi & shade if its absolutely necessary

some examples of my attempts:

this one dont really count because theres a candle, but ig it could be helpful anyway

[kyupol]

Background is key...

Notice background is darker shades of gray (or lighter shades of black depending how you slice it lol)

Night

Afternoon (notice dark shadows with light or somewhat dark background)

Day (light background and light shadows)

Same concept applies with colored comics. Have fun

[J.Z.Castillo]

I hate not being able to upload pics!!! The way I do it is I use the base colors and then use a multiply layer to shade everything with shades of blue and cool grays and that gives it a nice nighttime feel, a lot like @joannekwan did in her example! You can see what I'm saying on this page of my comic

[jurinova]

The thing about visual medias is that sometimes you have to bend the reality and cheat a bit to get your point across. Yes, night scenes should be pretty dark and black but it's more important for viewers to see what's happening than to be completely realistic. One way is to add a small light source that helps shape the forms in the darkness. Maybe there's some light coming from under a door or a bit of moonlight gets in from between the curtains. The key is to create the impression that it's very dark without actually making the panels too dark to understand.

Here's one of my early attemps at a scene in a darkened room. Basically I kept it dark but increased the highlights and lowered the saturation. When planning this scene I also intentionally left the door open, so there would be an actual light source. It's not a perfect example and I've learned a few things since then. But hey, first try doesn't have to be the best.

This "night" scene I intentionally set out in front of windows in order to have an actual light source. I also make space a bit brighter than it is to keep things from getting too dark.

So yeah, planning ahead does help. Also practise and try out different things to find the one that works for you.

[KSlinger]

Here are some night-time scenes from the early pages of West. I know there's a moon and some stones giving off a bunch of light but a large part of the 'night-time' feel comes the colours and contrast. Lack of shadows outside the direct light is a big one. Particular shades of blue, like the sky at night. You could probably make any scene feel dark whatever the colours by limiting shadows and being very sparing with highlights, honestly.

[candaceandco]

I like to draw nighttime scenes for my comic, and I typically take two different approaches: If I'm going for something with all the lights turned out, I tend to go for broke on the dark blues and purples, with a hard brush for applying shades. But if I anticipate the presence of a little bit of light, I try to bring back all my normal colors, only much darker, and I sometimes use a soft brush for shading. Here's a cartoon I did that I'm hoping illustrates both types of coloring techniques I use.

[DMBrigman]

Honestly, this image is still pretty dark and I am having a hard time determining what is happening.

Typically we associated deep purples and blues with nighttime, so that might be where you can start basing your color palette. Even if the colors aren't super dark, by keeping a monochrome low contrast palette as in @joannekwan and @Kaykedrawsthings examples, the reader will interpret it as night time.

As @jurinova mentions your responsibility as a an artist is to tell the story clearly to your audience, and that requires bending rules occasionally. Does she have an alarm clock or cell phone that could be used as a light source? By having a small bit of light somewhere it allows you to add contrast, and will make the darks look darker.