Digital Painting Color harmony using cool and warm

How to paint color in photoshop and get color harmony

Caolan> I was wondering if you could explain how you manage to blend your colours so well. My practices always turn out having that fakish 5yr-old-with-a-crayon look.

Xia> As for Blending, you probably mean establishing soft edge or lost edge . There are three important rules of painting which are shape, values, and edges. It sounds really simple, but values alone can take more than a decade to master. I don't usually blend I use soft brush and hard brush, they are sufficient enough for me. Blending does do good job with certain custom brushes, I don't really like the blending on default brushes (round)
As for why your painting looks like crayon stuff....probably because you are using too many colors and not focusing on values (for more detail of what I meant go read Color vs Values tips and technique. )or there is no color temperature and harmony between cool and warm. If you look at movie screenshots or good photography...there aren't that many colors in the shot or I should say you have to harmonize your colors and figure out how to tight them together using values and balance between cool and warm. But before that, I suggest work in monochrome color scheme for a while then add one color at the time. Reason for that is to introduce you to the one dominant color of the over all image then secondary then so forth. Then you can move on after that.


I would recommend read more tip and technique on the right hand column of the blog then you will understand more and practice, practice, practice. :)


peace,

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Digital Painting Color harmony using cool and warm

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Three important rules for Painting and digital painting.

Three important rules for Painting and digital painting.

These rules apply to beginners and novice alike, they are simple but if you apply them correctly your painting, concept, and illustration will be awesome. Digital and traditional painting contain similar rules, the only different is basically the tools and the application. Digital painting is probably 100 times easier than real oil paint for so many reason (just undo or saving as many versions as you want in digital is enough, in traditional you can go back there is no redo...so it's difficult, very difficult.)

Soulmania> Do you have any good tips for how to go about painting in Photoshop?

Xia> Try to keep everything simple to begin with and focus on these three rules
1) Shapes (Composition, silhouette and/or correct drawing). Just practice a lot of drawing from life and from ref.

2) Values (Let just focus first on get the lighting correctly via monochromatic or achromatic, then you can apply some colors as you advance further in your illustration process. Trust me, this will work. For exercises and more tips on values go see -Values exercises study shade and -Colors VS Values tips and technique

3) Edges (Soft/Hard and lost) In real life most edges look soft because our eyes are constantly moving. An edge will only assume its sharpness if we specifically focus on it. Therefore, it is best to keep the edges soft in general unless you want to draw attention to a certain feature as is the case with the focal area.

The other situation in which to use a sharp edge is when you want to make a certain feature appear to advance. But, in general, avoid excessive use of hard edges because they work against the creation of realism. On the other hand, a painting totally devoid of hard edges tends to look uninteresting. So, the solution is to put in a few hard edges but not too many.

Then there are also lost edges. These edges are usually applied when two neighboring shapes have the same value.

The whole thing starts with a visible edge and when this edge enters an area of equal values it becomes invisible or gets lost. Further down, the edge reappears where the value start to divers again.

The eye has a natural tendency to fill in the lost edge. The use of lost edges is artistically very powerful and should be part of your repertoire of tricks. Allowing the colors of one form to work themselves into the neighboring planes of equal value is a delightful way to loosen up a painting and make it visually dynamic. Note that a painting for some reason, as it progresses, has a tendency to tighten up.

In conclusion, there are three types of edges: the soft edge, the hard edge, and the lost edge. Most of the edges are on the soft side. Hard edges should be used sparingly with the intent of attracting attention or to advance certain features. The lost edge is usually used where values of neighboring forms become equal. They serve as a way to loosen up a painting.

Some recommendation from reader that I should show what they look like. Agreed and thanks for pointing that out. ;)
Here is an example for you guys to visually distinguish the different types of edges.

This painting is from the Great master painter Frank Frazetta who will forever inspires us all.


here is a (complete) bigger version: Frank Frazetta's Catgirl.


If you don't know these terms, I recommended watch all the videos on the site slowly one by one you will pick it up real quick and read some of the blog post labels on the right hand column.
Thanks for posting.


Peace!

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What kind of opacity setting I use in Digital Painting ?

What kind of opacity setting I use in Digital Painting in Photoshop and Gimp? That is one of the most asked questions on this blog.


MS: Believe me, i've watched all of your videos, and i got really inspired.
I bought my graphic tablet about a few weeks ago and i've been experimenting, checking youtube for more tutorials.
I found yours to be most helpful.
1) What kind of opacity setting you use when you paint in Photoshop?


Xia: First, I use low opacity (30-50%) to find values and move shapes/shadow around. It's kind of similar process when you sketch with pencil, you have to get a rough draft or construction lines and rough values (shading, lighting)
After I get what seems to be underpainting (close to corrected values) then I use only (70-100%) and be precise of where you put your paint and strokes using 100% help keep your color clean and not muddy. Then just use logic and intuition where to fix and use opacity according to the local values and decide whether you want soft of hard edge on that area.



MS: 2) But what confused me is, after your sketch you started on the shadows. From what i was taught i should create a new layer and set the sketch as an outline.
From what i can can tell, you used the same layer and changed opacity of the brush to make the shadows.. same for the actual painting. i need heavy tips :D



Xia: What I usually personally do is create another layer on top or under the outlines layer to paint values (shading or lighting) in the beginning. Then as it progress in to form that I want then I will forget lines, think shapes, values, and edge. If you want to add line art, add it after the painting process is done. (Unless you have scanned in inking lines as separate layer, you should put it on top of everything at all time and painting under. In that case, it shouldn't take you long to paint, just get the basic values and colors or you can push it more toward painting if you like because you want to show off the line work. if that make sense.)
then again i'm an amateur when it comes to digital painting =/

Good luck

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How to set up photoshop layer in digital painting

Anonymous: How to set up or use photoshop layer in digital painting. Im so confused on the multiply thing w color,so how do you set up the layers when you go to apply a color multiply or overlay to a greyscale image without taking away from the greyscale values
also do you add the multiply to the greyscale layer your working on or the color layer you add

Thanx alot,


Xia: Wow, your question will take about 2-3 hours to answer. It is complicated but NOT, if you understand lighting and values. I use both multiply and overlay wherever it fits. The trick is KNOWING exactly how to nail values or lighting. So...DO NOT worry about color to begin with...just values first. Then once you nail black and white (gray scales) down then you can begin applying color using Multiply or Overlay ... *Believe it or not a lots of artists (pro) work in Monochromatic color scheme or Analogous color scheme first then apply color later* go read Colors VS Values tips and technique ---> then merge and still you still have to paint over on normal layer to get the best look. that's how I work nowadays.


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peace!

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How to set up photoshop layer in digital painting

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