   Perhaps my coloring is improving
  Recently I joined an MMORPG shop which involves me digitally inking and coloring 'pets', in this case winged unicorns.  I did not do the original sketch for these, but I did everything else.  So, what do you think of the coloring, and what do you think would improve it?  (Currently it consists of a base body color, an accent color, an eye color, 2 layers of translucent white highlights, and the lineart layer.) Girly Purple And Blue Crystal/Pearl Pegacorn Fetishy Black And Red Pegacorn
  That red one is sweet! ...As is your sig...The texturing is nice - not all flat and smooth. The green noise works well, and the hatched (err, croshatched, but in one direction!) shine is cool.The outline is a bit harsh - with all the lines the same width, it doesn't add much to the lighting and feel of the image. Despite the great lighting work you've added, it gets flattened out with each line.What software are you using, by the way?Having said that, I just colored someone else's lineart of a unicorn. In some bizarre sort of coincidence. But mine turned out way, way too cute pretty-pretty pony purple/yellow. It isn't done (nor do I plan to finish it), as it lacks any real detail. Still, neat to play with.Anyways, since I can't scan anything in, I thought I'd at least try the coloring side. Someone posted a link to Neon Dragon Art, which has tutorials at /dp. Some pretty good tips, and seem to have worked pretty well. Never tried anything like this before.I probably could have done it in fewer or more layers (I used 12). I filled the background blue (sky-colored), kept the lineart on top in multiply mode, and a single 'color' layer for all the flat colors. Then, I have a clouds layer, and several additional shadow/highlight layers for the different parts of the scene (this could have been done in a single layer, and there's really no reason for it not to be). It's all about the selecting a color, Select > Color Range, and then elaborating like mad with darker/cooler and warmer/lighter additions.[Edited by - Avatar God on December 7, 2005 1:51:16 AM];  Well. I don't want to ruin your upcast, it is a good start but the coloring is still very blocky at the moment (you said you'll continue, so it is not that big problem). For example the neck is like a plastic surface without any bends and structure under. It hasn't got real value yet. The whole figure should have a weight instead of surfaces only. Keep on working and it will be much-much better![Edited by - Peter Szabo Gabor on December 7, 2005 6:44:35 AM];  Your colouring lacks depth. It lacks volume, weight... whatever you need to call it to recognize it for what it is. You need to start thinking in three dimensions and you need to shift your thinking away from "this is the colour of the unicorn" to "this is how I perceive the unicorn".In order to do this you need to start focusing less on the colour of the object and more on the lighting of the object.Lighting is going to define your colours. Lighting is also going to define your volume. Your job isn't to colour a picture, it is to light it.Establish a light position and direction. Then follow it. Absolutely every stroke is made with the position of the light in mind. Your current highlights are essentially random. From what I can tell, light is coming from above/below/behind/in front/the side/upper side/lower side depending on what part of the body you're looking at. The neck looks inverted. The hair on the tail looks completely flat. The wing is just... who knows, it doesn't seem to follow any rules whatsoever. The rest is not so bad as individual pieces, but ends up creating a completely incoherent mass of god knows what.Here and here are two articles I think you would find extremely helpful (might want to tackle the latter one first).Oh, and a little pet-peeve of mine... eyes are not a light source. They do not glow. Shade them just like everything else. You'd be surprised how much better it looks.   ;  Oh man. Thank you so much for those links. I'm absolutely terrible at lighting when I'm responsible for it. I'm fine with photography, but that's much easier (err, lightwise. When you're not setting up lights. I mean, when you just use natural light).   ;  LockePick - o.O; Well, I intended the light source to be from the upper left and slightly more towards the viewer than straight above the unicorn, but if you can't tell, I guess I didn't implement it very well...  Not sure wht you mean about the eye glowing though.  I didn't put a lens flare or anything there, it's just a flat fill of color and another of white for the shine, and I fuzzed the edges of the white areas slightly with a black airbrush to make them look less stark.Avatar God - Hi! :) The software I used was Inkscape for the digital inking (which is free but lacks some of the features of a good vector graphics program like Adobe Illustrator - I don't think it's able to do variable width lines.)  The coloring was done in Photoshop.  I'm trying to make myself switch to Gimp, but since I'm not familliar with it it's slow and difficult to accomplish anything, so I tend not to use it, which means I don't get any more familiar with it... :/  Glad you like the red one. ^_^  My sig I borrowed from someone on Gaia Online, with their permission.In your pic, I don't think the unicorn came out too pretty or cute - I like its skin and sky best of all the elements in the picture.  Kind of odd color choices for some of the other stuff - making the unicorn's horn the same color as the tree makes it seem like the horn is literally made out of wood, and the mixture of neon green and blue green in the mane is a little disconcerting to look at.  Could use a few strong white highlights on the water and the unicorn's horns and hooves to show that they're shiny - shinier substances have more distinct highlights, that's something I just learned last year. :)Here's a feather - it's the 'egg' stage of the unicorns.  There's also a baby stage and an adolescent stage for each one.feather;Quote:Original post by sunandshadowAvatar God - Hi! :) The software I used was Inkscape for the digital inking (which is free but lacks some of the features of a good vector graphics program like Adobe Illustrator - I don't think it's able to do variable width lines.)  The coloring was done in Photoshop.  I'm trying to make myself switch to Gimp, but since I'm not familliar with it it's slow and difficult to accomplish anything, so I tend not to use it, which means I don't get any more familiar with it... :/  Glad you like the red one. ^_^  My sig I borrowed from someone on Gaia Online, with their permission.Hi [grin]. I've never used the Gimp, so I can't say much about it. Is there any reason you're switching away from Photoshop? And I understand about Inkscape, then. I seriously need to learn Fireworks or something, because Flash just isn't the best for drawing into.Quote:In your pic, I don't think the unicorn came out too pretty or cute - I like its skin and sky best of all the elements in the picture. Kind of odd color choices for some of the other stuff - making the unicorn's horn the same color as the tree makes it seem like the horn is literally made out of wood, and the mixture of neon green and blue green in the mane is a little disconcerting to look at. Could use a few strong white highlights on the water and the unicorn's horns and hooves to show that they're shiny - shinier substances have more distinct highlights, that's something I just learned last year. :)I think I made his hooves wooden too, but I don't know why... Really, I just expected more contrast, but forgot to make it happen. Think the cuteness was just a result of everything in the image being between purple and green, and all super-saturated. And I can't believe I just left the water like that. I couldn't figure out what to do at the time. Highlights it is!Baby unicorns... aww...   ;  Lockepick pretty much nailed it.  Your pegacorns come off looking like embossed stickers as compared to 3 dimensional objects, and I think it's mostly stemming from your application of one shading pattern to the whole image.  You went through with a white fuzzy brush and painted a line (same fixed width) of highlight a little removed from the left-most edge of every contour, and a couple on the tail.  The form of the pegacorn doesn't really interact with itself...light hits an image like water.  It splashes up on other surfaces after hitting original locations, it wraps around round edges to a degree, soaks in to thick fabric and fur, and stands more concentrated on hard, smooth, non-porous surfaces.Two more points:1: the line width really is killing the attempted form you're going for with your lighting. If the program you're using can't do various line-width, that's just always going to be a problem.2: the textures and patterns you're using (like the blue crystal pattern or the starry black) flatten the image all over again...you'd need to deform the pattern to make it fit the perceived form of the pegacorn, otherwise it looks like its on a flat level underneath the rest of the image.I certainly encourage you to keep it up though, you just pick this stuff up over time...and depending on your target look, any or all of this could be negligible.  Right now it's got a flattened, cartoony look to it.   ;Quote:Original post by sunandshadowNot sure wht you mean about the eye glowing though.  I didn't put a lens flare or anything there, it's just a flat fill of color and another of white for the shine, and I fuzzed the edges of the white areas slightly with a black airbrush to make them look less stark.I just meant that eyes get shadowed too. Look in a mirror, your eyes are not going to be solid white. When you shade the head of the unicorn and leave the eyes as solid colours, it appears as if they are glowing (why else would they be unaffected by light?).Quote:Original post by Avatar GodAnd I can't believe I just left the water like that. I couldn't figure out what to do at the time. Highlights it is!Remember that the sky is blues and purples and will be bouncing those colours across the water. In addition, you'll have a reflection of the mountains in the background.   