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TheComicStream — How To Pick Out Your Colors For Semi Realism
Published: 2012-04-21 21:26:30 +0000 UTC; Views: 21006; Favourites: 606; Downloads: 253
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Pft, I don't even know if this will be helpful. Let's see what I left out... >_> Use dramatic colors! Soft colors are hard to see and barely even make a difference compared to flat shading. Never, ever use colors close to gray or black! Makes your character look like that threw themselves in a pile of dirt. Look at actual photographs to see where shading goes! (don't use my doodles for a reference for that since I just slapped crappy shading on. >_> If you do, you have been warned... Do that at your own risk.) Using Photoshop helps enhance your colors! : D It's good to use, though in this instance I didn't, of course. This is for PaintTool Sai, but Color-Wheels are in just about every program so you can probably still use it if you don't have Sai.Sorry this tutorial is so crowded. ._. I did it in a rush too. Don't be afraid to comment or message me in a note if you have more questions.
I'm also sorry if this tutorial was completely pointless and useless.
And if it wasn't insightful enough, I'll try to make a more useful one.
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Comments: 35
AWE YAY! thank you so MUCH! 
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I'm happy that you found it of use!
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Your tutorial is very informative! Thank you for sharing!
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I want to favorite this and I'm trying to drag it because I can't find the favorite button and it's nOT DRAGGING CORRECTLY please help
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A friend of mine too a peek, and she said she can see it. Hm... Sounds like DA is just being buggy. Try bookmarking the page instead, or maybe save it to your computer?
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It showed up! 
eh, i'll save this comment to get to it
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Sounds like a plan to me.
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I'm on mine now, and I have it bookmarked.
Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.
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Yay! Cos my colouring is improving slowly, but it should improve a lot with this chart!!
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I find it troubling if it takes over about 2 hours, as I'm like "ahhhh when will this endddd?"
And I hope so 
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Thank you!
My paintings usually take 2 days to a week. Depending on how detailed they are. 
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Your welcome, and wow 2 days o.o
I rarely paint, I'm a photoshop geek 
When I did paint in art (I finished my school course a few months ago) I managed to paint the back of my leg somehow... I have no idea how...
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I meant digital paintings. =] (I don't use Photoshop, though. I like Sai.
But yes, traditional paint gets everywhere! It is faster for me, though. I'm not as good as it, but I do have some acrylic paintings I can't scan right now. I lost my disk. =[
I used to do watercolors... but I find that acrylics are easier in some aspects. I like to paint over mistakes too much. You can't do that with watercolor. But if done right, acrylics can give you a similar look to watercolors. Not exact, but similar.
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Ahh I see O:
And Sai will never work on my computer for some reason Dx Not everything will fit on the screen and I dunno why O:
And ahh I see O:
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That sucks! ={ Maybe it isn't compatible with the model?
I can't live without Sai.
Other computer crashed and I died a little inside because all I wanted to do was digitally paint with it. xD"
I had a trail of PS before, but all I really used it for was changing the colors.
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Ahh I see O: And it told me it was (Mines a window 7) so I'm a little confused by that
And ahh if you ever want to ask any questions on PS, lemme know
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Puzzling.
Well, I don't have access to it right now... but if I ever do I just might.
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Ahh okays O:
And I think my computer just hates it
And thanks
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I disagree! Colour is always decided by light, and something as varied and flexible of skin can't be decided within a single hue range - understanding lighting and how colours blend together is key for good rendering. Something that helps a lot is taking a look at photography lighting guides. It helps you to understand how (and when) things like rim light happen and how reflective and non-reflective surfaces bounce light.
just my 2 cents.
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P: Hm. Good point, but this guide isn't meant to be as in-depth as that. xD I just made this to help people kind of understand the basic points of shading, since it took me forever to understand what color would look good on top of another. This isn't for the dynamic effects of different lighting.
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It's actually a pretty basic concept, if you got the main idea you can go crazy with it. The problem with treating human skin like a shaded sphere is that human skin has a wide range of tones, and if you go for the linear sort of shading you'll end up with the shiny plastic skin, which isn't the goal of realism (at least that's what I think).
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It may seem like a basic concept to those who are used to it, but my colors always came out funky. P: I never actually went to school for it, so I scratched my head and tried to figure it out myself. Eventually I asked friends, it helped a little... but eventually practice pulled through. And I might still be scratching my head if my friend hadn't shown me a screenshot of how she picks colors.
I'm really thinking about what you're saying about plastic skin. I don't treat the skin itself as a sphere to be shaded, but rather the shape it is... but I believe I had been told something like that a long time ago. I don't THINK my normal work comes out too plasticy now... this might be a little off since I didn't actually take the time to blend it... but... -shrug- I'm not the only one who uses a set of five colors to do semi-realism. In fact, I know of some well established artists on DA who do.
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Can you do one on colours depending on the environment (night, morning etc) if you haven't already.
This was very helpful!
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Thanks. P: No, I haven't. I'll see what I can do.
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