Impaled-Colours

[beauFORTRESS]

Not sure on the posting etiquette regarding posting different stages of a single piece (as I posted the pencils and inks of this piece in another thread)

Just wanted to get some feedback on what needs work, regarding the colours in this piece. Thanks!

[MLaw]

Wish I had seen the pencils thread.. Yeah you're good.. once you feel like it's time to call it done, throw it up here like you've done.

It's hard to call someone for anatomy on anthro characters but the humanoid that's falling has a ton of issues with those proportions. Most importantly is that it feels very flat.

The colors are also pretty flat. For marker, I can't crit too harshly though because I don't know that medium well enough to know what options you had. The effect on the goggles is cool but you need to remember that the light from the fire should be rim lighting both characters and the environment. An easy thing to remember is the furthest point away from a light source will be the dimmest surface lit by it. All surfaces up until that point will pick up more depending on the facing. So everything facing that light source shoulda been lit by it. That includes your background. Remember to use rim lighting to break up the heavy shaded areas too so parts don't get lost in a big blob of black (unless that's intentional for mood).

[beauFORTRESS]

Wish I had seen the pencils thread.. Yeah you're good.. once you feel like it's time to call it done, throw it up here like you've done.

It's hard to call someone for anatomy on anthro characters but the humanoid that's falling has a ton of issues with those proportions. Most importantly is that it feels very flat.

The colors are also pretty flat. For marker, I can't crit too harshly though because I don't know that medium well enough to know what options you had. The effect on the goggles is cool but you need to remember that the light from the fire should be rim lighting both characters and the environment. An easy thing to remember is the furthest point away from a light source will be the dimmest surface lit by it. All surfaces up until that point will pick up more depending on the facing. So everything facing that light source shoulda been lit by it. That includes your background. Remember to use rim lighting to break up the heavy shaded areas too so parts don't get lost in a big blob of black (unless that's intentional for mood).

Hey thanks for the feedback. I agree that the colours are pretty flat, I suppose my main concern with them was in making the piece seem to busy (which is why I hadn't added much in the way of lighting on the background)

Also the colours were added via tablet and Photoshop, (the penciling and inking were done non-digitally), so I can always take the colours further.

I've just watched a couple of tutorials on rim lighting, but with regards to this piece, I am uncertain where, and how much I should add. By the way, my intent with the tongue of flame was for it to begin beside the figures, then terminating behind. So theoretically the light source is coming from both behind and beside.

[MLaw]

If.. you are taking it to photoshop, why didn't you fix your spot blacks? The streaks from the marker are what made me think the colors were markers. Now that I know you've got some digital in your pipe, check out some searches on youtube for cut and grad. Maybe pickup the HiFi coloring book that was just recently released as well.

As to how to apply the color.. look at reference from movies or photos.Apply what you see.. I can't really tell you how to see. When you did the initial art on this, the linework wasn't based on actual lighting or anything..so your colors are going to rely on holds or just straight edits to the lines..
Anyway.. I dug up a picture for you. It's normal for artists to look at reference before starting a piece to help with our understanding of complex things. Doing still life drawings helps immensely as well.



Notice the light source. Now, in photoshop or with your finger draw lines away from the light source. The light radiates from the center. The intensity of the light will determine how far. Now.. that light source is pretty much the only light source in the image so any surfaces that are not facing it will be heavily cast in shadow. Observe that here and how this defines the form.
I studied chiaroscuro a bit to help with this (not nearly enough) and it would be a good idea for you to look into this since you seem to like to play with light sources.

As to the specific areas of rim lighting. I was suggesting that to help define your dog person and background elements a bit more.
You have already indicated rim lighting in your inks but you did not apply the color of the light source.. unless there's meant to be another light source in the image.

I mentioned flat twice.. once was in reference to colors, the other was the lack of perspective on the background. It helps establish depth and intensifies the illusion that your character is existing in a scene rather than in a 2d image.

Hope that added clarity.

[Joseph Dredd]

wow! I love this!