Hopefully I am posting this in the right forum...So my digital arts skills are not the best, but I found I can do decent lineart work - or, at the very least, my linearts don't hurt my eyes at the moment. Coloring, however, seems impossible. I have looked at dozens of tutorials and played with tool settings, but no matter what I do, I can't get it right.
That said, I would like to know what I might be doing wrong or get suggestions if possible. Tutorial recommendations are welcome as well. And here's a lineart/coloring example:
@MaiMai Thank you, I had not seen that tutorial yet. One of my problems is exactly in finding a coloring style to match my lineart... Plus, I have always felt that textures were too advanced for me, but maybe it's time to give them a go.
Nah, textures are not advanced at all. It's literally copy+pasting a texture and messing around with layer settings to see how it looks on your lineart/coloring layer or both. Overlay usually works the best, but experiment with it.
Spent a couple of minutes just looking at your icon before I managed to type out a reply. Always happens to me when I see one of your posts.
Anyway, there's hardly a "right" or "wrong" way to color, but since the hair and shirt are included in your solid black lineart, the pale colors and soft shading style look kind of out of place. If you haven't already, you should definitely try cel shading with vibrant, contrasting colors. I immediately thought of something like the coloring in The World Ends With You -- your art style is definitely different, but this type of shading might work well.
So after a failed attempt at textures, I tried the coloring style of "The World Ends With You". I actually quite like it, even if the colors are a bit grungy, and that is just a matter of making shades brighter anyway.
What do you think?
Awesome! The color choice in TWEWY is rather unique indeed, so it should really just be a matter of experimenting some more and finding colors you feel comfortable with. Now that I actually see it done, I still think cel shading is a perfect choice -- it may be simpler than your initial example, but it looks more "intentional"; more like you're confident in what you're doing.
If you want to experiment some more, don't be afraid to make the shading areas larger to give the cel shading more impact. Although people often think of this as some kind of "limited" style, you can combine it with pretty much anything you like. For example, the sprites in Persona 3/4 look nothing like plain and simple cel shading at first just because they also use gradients and a few highlights.
lan wrote:Awesome! The color choice in TWEWY is rather unique indeed, so it should really just be a matter of experimenting some more and finding colors you feel comfortable with. Now that I actually see it done, I still think cel shading is a perfect choice -- it may be simpler than your initial example, but it looks more "intentional"; more like you're confident in what you're doing.
As a general rule, I am never confident on what I'm doing. X) However, since I feel the cell-shading is too simplistic for my tastes (and it was called "cartoony", which is really not what I am aiming for), I tried combining it with airbrush shading. It does look better now. It should be a matter of practice now.
Thank you a lot. Seems like I won't be completely horrified at the looks of my sprites for a while. I'll leave the final result here for you to see if you are curious.
And here's a lineart/coloring example:
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One of my problems is exactly in finding a coloring style to match my lineart... Plus, I have always felt that textures were too advanced for me, but maybe it's time to give them a go.
