fantasy ship crew: Please see last page for update.

[Frida Bergholtz]

Thank you Symson. In some of the pictures I used a bit of texture that might be it.

Right now, the ships in the background and the sacks full of stuff feel like they'd benefit from closer observation of your reference.

I'm sure that it can all be improved but I have to be honest and say that I think that the sacks look fine. But that might be a shortcoming on my part. I left the sails and ships with less details because I was planning for them to be out of focus and partly backlit. I thought that all the details of the rigging would clutter up the picture and draw attention away from the main subject. There are ropes going everywhere.

I did how ever make a few changes and fixed the barrel.
Thank you very much.

[Frida Bergholtz]

I started painting how I usually go about it, but soon found that it was to much for me to keep the direction of the light in mind while focusing on the colours at the same time. I had decided to make the painting partly backlit but constantly deviated to a more familiar way of lighting. So I skipped the colours and made a lighting sketch instead for now.

Let me tell you that I feel way over my head with this. I have far to little experience with lighting a whole scene, cast shadows, perspective and colours. I know that making studies and figuring out things for myself is the only answer but right now I have to finish this picture so any specific advice to help me out would be terrific.

[Frida Bergholtz]

I'm working hard on figuring out the colour, values and hues and boy do I feel like I have bitten over more than I can chew. I have to make lots of studies to get better at this stuff.
I will continue working on this tomorrow and if anyone has any advice until then I would be very happy. See the previous post for how I'm planning to do the values.

Thank you for looking.

[Frida Bergholtz]

I'm taking a break so I thought that I would post a picture of my progress.

[Velocity Kendall]

your drawings are beautiful!

[Frida Bergholtz]

Thank you very much Velocity. It is sweet of you to say so. I'm such a noob with colours though.
You are a very good painter and I would value your input. Do you think that I am on the right track and should just continue fixing and pushing this or am I waisting my time and should try a different approach?

[cfhd]

I know you asked for VK's input on colour but I just felt like relaying something someone said in a recent critique thread I had going.

Basically what they said to me was that in my picture I was using different shades of the same colour as the shadows and highlights on my character and scene. It seems like you are doing something similar on yours where the shadows are just a darker version of the mid tone colour and the highlight colour. They said that in reality shadows aren't just darker colours they are shades of blue or purple and same with the highlights, they aren't just brighter versions of the midtone.

In your scene you may want to try using different colours for the shadows and highlights to make the subject pop more and look more realistic.

Its a great picture you have going. You can take my advice with a grain of salt as I'm obviously no teacher or pro but just though I would toss it out there.

[Frida Bergholtz]

I am happy for any thoughts cfhd. Thank you for taking the time.

I have been keeping the temperature of the shadows and highlights in mind throughout my painting. I have been trying to make the colour facing up towards the sky colder and the shadows towards the ground warmer. I have also made an effort to dillute the colours touched by direct sunlight and keep the colours in the shade more saturated.

Obviously I havn't been very succesfull since it doesn't show.
I will see if I can make it more obvious.

Thank you very much.

[Griffonnage]

There is something starting on the skirt that is nice, but I think you are maybe using too much color from "mind". I mean : you take a brown for all wood assets because it's the common colors for wood, but there are red and white wood as well !

I think if you start with colors, you are doing things well so far, but you can look at pictures or so to get inspiration and create a selection of colors that interest you.
I don't say you have to pick them on the pictures, but try to find "what" are the colors that make you interested in this picture, what colors create the mood and try to make a selection.
If you do that on a few pictures, you maybe surprise to see how different are the colors you see and the colors you "think" you are seeing...

Also, there are some very very very usefull thread about the colors composition (shadows are in the opposite colors, complementary and so...) I think you can find a lot of advice just by looking at these thread It was very usefull to me, I'm sure with your skill you can definitly do something awesome just after understanding some "rules" !


Here currently, I would say the sky is too "grey". If it's a sunny day, it should be more brighter, blue can be close to white in someway ! Do not hesitate to pick very saturate and bright colors for lighted part and a complementary for shadows. I found (but that's very personnal) easier to work first with bright and saturate colors and then go down... when you start with "grey" colors, it's like you are stuck in a way because you try to adjust and things don't get right...

I will try to find the thread about colors, I will edit later ^^

[Frida Bergholtz]

Thank you so much Griffonage. I was so wrapped up in all thoughs about realistic lighting and everything that I had forgotten about setting up a selection of colours that actually looks nice to my eyes and evoked a mood.

I lightened the sky as you suggested and then it all sort of fell in to place. I mean it still looks crummy but I think that I'm finally going somewhere with the picture.

[Griffonnage]

I think this new set of colors is very nice !

If it can help you, I will tell you what the concept artist from my previous work told me about painting when I asked him about some tips :

Try working colors at a very very small size of the picture (lets say 30% of this size) when you start. It will force you to "forget" about the details and concentrate on "aera".
Do not be worried about painting on top of your lines, just put them on a another layer they will help you to "sculpt" the volume after.
Take a large brush to cover the space, always ! The thumbmail will help you to see and understand lighting and shadows and adjust in a blink of an eye the colors that do not please you.

When you are happy with this result, save it on another layer, duplicate it and work on the copy to start refining. The "save color layer" will serve as a reminder if you get lost in detail or think you changed too much things.

That's a few advices he gave me but that helped me a lot. I hope it can help you too

Oh and sorry :'( I failed in my research of the colors tutorial here, there were a few all really interesting but I can't found the one I was thinking about. I hope someone can post a link...

[Frida Bergholtz]

That is some very good advice Griffonage. And don't worry about the link I should do my own research anyhow.