Wolf Boy Character! How are the colors?

[akitsukino]

Color theory is my enemy right now. I found a really good website for it though called Paletton . I tried going for a triadic color scheme, but I wonder if it came out to washed out, or if it clashes. Let me know if you have any thoughts.

[Wumbl]

I think it's a good combination of colours... Although I feel like you could experiment a bit more with the saturation - at the moment the reddish tones and green tones look a little too close so it's just a bit "muddy" if you catch what I mean.
Maybe the colour of the shorts and the wolf features could be altered a bit (just to make it "pop" a bit more) but I think the others are just fine! Maybe the colour of the shoes could be brightened up, too... Contrast is important!

Try applying a greyscale layer to see if the values are too close - if the palette has good variety of contrast then you should be able to see varying shades in the greyscales.

Contrast is pretty hard to get right, to be honest. It was the bane of my life for so long and I still get frustrated with it sometimes.

[J.Z.Castillo]

@wumblebumarts has pretty good advice. I also think the colors are a bit muddy and you should definitely check your work in grayscale every time. Eventually this will become second nature and you won't have to use it as much but when in doubt, gray it out!

[joannekwan]

Saturation and contrast are your friends! Like the others have said, the overall tone is pretty samey right now, with the clothes blending into the character.

Look at the cast of Family Matters, you can see how their clothes contrast with their skin tones and pop, making each of them distinct in this family photo where they're all close together.

[nelaukface]

I second this, more contrast is definitely needed!

[qwerty]

Color theory is great and all, but at the end of the day the most important thing is to just look at it with your own eyes and see whether you think it looks good or not, regardless of the theory. Also remember that the colors of the background / environment the character will be in will impact a viewer's perception at least as much as the colors of the character himself (that is, if you are planning on using this character in a comic or something).

That said, I agree with previous comments that he is lacking in contrast, otherwise nothing wrong with the choice of colors. By contrast I mean value contrast - try to break up the form into more distinct areas of light and dark. This will make it more visually interesting and easier to look at.

[akitsukino]

So maybe like...

[kybrehowe]

This is going to sound weird, but what if you add a splash of orange through clothing accessories? That way, you're using the secondary colors, which together can add very interesting contrasts (look at "The Watchmen" comics to see what I mean. They used purples, greens, and oranges that was very pleasing to the eye!).

[KanashiCat]

OOOoooh I like the new design a lot. I'm not a color expert in the slightest but I felt like your original would have been better with some saturation tweaking.

[joannekwan]

Yeah he definitely stands out more now! I feel like you can still keep some green elements in his sweater as maybe some stripes or other simple design, just for more visual interest~