Does anyone have any advice/tutorialsl that could help me paint like this?

[studtoprof]

Hi,
I recently took an attempt to paint like this artist shown below and had alot of trouble. I tried to paint constructively starting with a base layer and then building up from that with atmospheric depth, light + shadow but it seems I hit a wall. Due to my own abilities or perhaps i'm just having a bad day, I cannot visualise how to build up the colours to get a similar effect. There are alot of anime tutorials out there so I was just wondering if anyone had encountered videos (speedpaintings etc) that depict anime artwork similar to this style. It would really help me a long way to getting the desired result and up-ing my skills as well. It does not even have to be in the anime style as long as the colouring/lighting is the same. I am not sure of the artist's name as I discovered him in a book on "100 bishoujo artists" but the website is linked here. I am sad to say that most of his/her painting on the website are very "ecchi" so NSFW and it is really a shame as it distracts from the fantastic painting quality.

Thank you for taking the time to look at this.

[Kolbenito]

Is it the relative flatness of the colors that you are interested in achieving in your own work?

[studtoprof]

The flatness is definitely something I would like to understand better so if you have any advice along those lines that would be great. Im really just trying to find some hook/angle to work from because at the moment when I look at these images I cant imagine where to begin.

[vineris]

Try approaching this like a watercolour painting.

Since you don't have any art up, it's difficult to tell exactly where you're falling down on this.

[Lelinet]

Just keep on painting, doing studies and learning about color and light because eventually when you grasp the basics and practice you'll start to figure out how to achieve all kinds of styles.

As for this piece there are many many ways in which you can achieve the result. I would start with apply local colors (colors that are not affected by lighting condition and atmosphere) then add other values and color overlays. Opacity can help too, but don't try to play with it too much.

These are some users I found on youtube that does manga coloring:
Asuka 111 (view his art on his channel, deviantart and his blog too, he has this "flatness" quality in his works)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXjsJhyp2DE

Shilin
http://www.youtube.com/user/shilinTV

Linran's Light and Color Tutorial also might help:
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...t-BIG-download!

[Dusty]

I cannot visualise how to build up the colours to get a similar effect

Unfortunately, that is the missing key and why you are hitting the wall.
This is not the advice you want to here, but there isn't really any "technique" you can do to learn that. You can only learn by experimenting and DOING.
As a study, you could always try to color select these and try to understand why the colors were used in the way that they were. But you'll have to do some intensive color study and color theory to properly understand how to utilize them.

After that, and only after that, will you be able to figure out what your style is.
You may even find that your style isn't this style at all someday.

There are plenty of artists that I idolize, but I don't draw or paint like them.
Try to learn the basics first, then form your style from that. Don't try to look at someone else and say "I want to be that style".

[dpaint]

Thats not really painting in the true sense of the word just colored drawings. Nothing special there. Get some paints and practice. Stay away from digital until you have the basics down.

[Shorinji_Knight]

These are drawn in a low value range (Looks like 3 or 4 shades), and low saturation. If you wanted to do this with traditional media... HB pencil for the linework and then color with either soft pastels or watercolor. Digitally... draw your linework and minimal shading in a medium value, then add colors on a "color" layer. Tweak the "levels" and "saturation" until you get the desired effect. These work better if you create seperate adjustment layers, instead of going through the menu, because they can also be further adjusted by their layer properties.

[QueenGwenevere]

There's absolutely no reason you couldn't do this kind of style with flat colors and any semi-soft-edged brush with opacity set to "pressure"... There's no need for layering or anything fancy, other than having the line art on a separate layer from the colors. The only "trick" is knowing which colors to put where. And that comes with practice.