#this was so rushed sjdkjdnebevs maybe one day i can make a super in depth how to on it

[giddlygoat]

how do you render your colors so nicely they're very pleasant to look at

thank you, that means a lot! :’D

honestly, i haven’t done many studies of actual lighting from life, i just try to learn from whatever i see around me. if i like a piece by another artist or a pretty photo, i try to figure out why it appeals to me, and i play around until i can replicate the look in my own art.

as a disclaimer, non of this is scientific or realistic by any means, and it’s not a good reference if you’re trying to create really accurate lighting effects - this is just a stylized suggestion of light that i like to paint.

first i choose my base colors. for characters i draw often, i make fixed color pallets for them that i like to think of as their “absolute” or “true” colors - basically what they would look like without any outside influence from environments and lighting. just the flat colors.

then i take the true color of their skin tone for instance, saturate and darken it slightly, and add a neighboring hue to it. in this case, jack’s skin is a pinkish color, so i add more red into it to make the shadow appear richer and more lifelike [it’s hard to explain, so if you need a more detailed guide on that, i can make a visual one]. i take that darker tone and “sketch” out where the shadows fall on the face. these particular shadows are pretty contrasted and dramatic, but these techniques can apply to softer shading as well.

now here’s the fun part: darken, saturate, and shift the hue of your shadow color again. it looks wild, but outline the edge of your shadow with this darker color, and it creates a sort of burning effect. it looks like warm, harsh light on the skin.

then blend out the outline into the shadow a bit. i really love this effect and while it’s not appropriate for every kind of lighting, sometimes i use it anyway just because it adds a shiny quality to the painting.

now highlights! for lighter colors, i take the true tone of jack’s skin, then lighten and desaturate it. i also shift it’s hue as well, but instead of adding a red tint, i lean more into the orange side of the sliding scale. this sets it apart nicely from the shadows and creates a sense of depth.

finally, i sometimes like to add a bluish, more desaturated tone in the deeper parts of the shadows as if there’s another light behind him. there can be many different light sources in your character’s environment and i like to consider what best sets the mood of the painting and makes it feel more immersive. jack has a soft blue light behind him, and it reflects on the shadowed part of his face.

then i like to add a quick filter over the art to see how it would look in different environments. light can change the true colors of your character to extreme degrees, and depending on how you paint it all to interact and work together, you can create the illusion of something that we know is a pinkish color, even if it appears dark auburn or greyish green due to the lighting, for example. this is just one short [and admittedly rushed] example of lighting, as there’s infinite possibilities and variations in what you can do. but this is my personal favorite technique and the moment and it’s really satisfying to paint.

also, i forgot to do it here rip, but often i will take a blush color and blend around the character’s cheeks, nose, ears, lips etc to add some inherent variation in the skin and keep them from looking like a creepy porcelain doll lol.

i hope this was useful, thanks for asking!

#asks #art reference #this was so rushed sjdkjdnebevs maybe one day i can make a super in depth how to on it