[AKIRA_x]

...argh!!! You know..you have the vision sooooo crystal clear in your head, you know just HOW you want it to look..you even think you know what tools to use to achive the desired expression..you place your hand..and draw with your Wacom....and you take a look at your work..and you say...WTF???? IT SUCKS!!!....like..I want a semirealistic coloring, ala Micke. I tried working the way he made a tutorial to..starting out with solids, making the general color shape..and then thightening up....the image is also loosely inspired from a goblin image Micke made a few months ago....here is the image:



I need help on coloring..tips on what tools to use in Photoshop..and some techniques.

AKIRA

[Jaymo]

Everyone doing art knows this problem, we all have to start somewhere and our first efforts are far from what we imagined to create. But we keep getting better. Don't let this frustrate you, let it motivate you to do better the next time you try.

Look at mickes pic. Compare it to yours, try to find out where the differences are, where you did mistakes, where you didn't get the look you wanted and why.

Tutorials? Browse the websites of the members here, whos art is to your liking. Often you will find valuable information (as you already did on mickes site). Post more work here and ask specific questions. And don't yell out your frustration too much, cause the following silence here will be even more frustrating.

Tutorials won't enable you to do things perfect in a flash, we have to do a lot of work to improve (i guess craig did not just read some neat tuts and go off doing killer art). Tuts help, but also get some good books, some good advice, maybe some art class and most important - lots of practice. I'm not quite in the position to tell you so, since that's what I'll have to do more, too. Yet, it's still true and since nobody else responded...

hope this helps

[Anthony J]

Yo Akira ! Don't let it get you down.
Here's some advice from an OLD member :P
eek, i been here for ages.

I like to compare to artists too, but honestly you can't achieve something one of the top dogs can in just one sitting.

No kidding, youve got an idea at least !
I have most trouble coming up with one idea
to actually do work, that's prolly why you won't see me post alot of work, can't seem to get one idea to stick with...i will soon though, i have all the proper equipment now.
*viewsonic 19" monitor, compared to my 12 year old 21"*

Your using the DODGE and BURN tool, first thing i've learned....BARELY use these two...
reason why ? They are too contrasted.

what you want to to is start out with your swatch palette. Delete all of the colours in it. Start your own palette with the colours you want to use. In this case greens and yellows. You don't want to pick BRIGHT colours and you don't want to pick too DARK either. Just get a nice area, and fill your palette in with a wide array of your select colours...maybe 15 of yellow and 15 of green, in the same shade area...not too distant.

You obviously don't have to do this everytime you do a piece...just do this to help out in your colouring techniques.

Think of your piece as a LESSON...not a masterpiece. Let it look like crap, fill a whole sketchbook with ugly fast pictures to get the concept of motion / anatomy / correct proportions / perspective / shading...

PRACTICE...doesn't matter if the images look half assed or like crap. It's good to get your hand and eye used to moving on the paper.

Ok now back to your goblin work. select one colour for his lips...lets say a dark crimson colour. Add it to your palette, and add lighter and darker versions of that same dark crimson colour you chose. Don't use DODGE and BURN to highlight or add shadows, instead use darker and lighter values to accentuate the lips. Then put a few really light values ...just to get that glissening look on the lips...if you don't know what i mean, take a look at magazines, study lips...it'll actually help if you have a few photos lying near your monitor to help you focus on what different parts look like.

Honestly references kick ass !

I can't do pieces without reference.

maybe thats a problem too, but i like em !

I think the yellow highlights on the goblins face are good, but what you need is a blend between the green and yellow. it looks too flat...i've heard this plenty of times.
I never hear anyone telling me how to make it NOT look flat. So i'll tell ya !

Select values of yellow...shade an area in...but don't have the OPACITY setting too high...you want to paint it in with a suttlety to it..you don't want to blob on colours to thick. Another thing, you want to get a mixy feeling between one colour and another. Perfect example, take a look at VEBJORN's paintings. He does alot of fantasy conan work ...he has that 'oil paint' look to his work. Try studying oil paintings...
you'll see how the colours mix together, and soon notice that dabbles of other colours can be put into a mix of green and yellow ...but if the work is seen from a viewing distance (eg looking at a painting in a gallery from 5 to 10 ft away) you don't notice the dabbles of other colours mixed in... the eye is a tricky thing, take a look at spooge demons work. It's very much like oil painting indeed. Study his lighting and shadows...he doesn't use DODGE and BURN too often at all, instead uses contrasting shades of a colour.

ok, hope this all makes sense...
my first "lesson" in ages...or maybe ever.

[email protected]
is my e-mail if you need any questions answered