Tips on color

[oiver55]

A fairly quick concept I did in photoshop about 90 min. I want to get better with my choice of color and to avoid going to black/white for shadows and lights. I want to paint pictures that are very clear and visually striking not so much by the complexity of the drawing but by the colors. I try not to spend so much time on just one painting, the more paintings you do the more you learn right? So what do you think?

[Trace007]

Hmm. I'd say if you want your colors to be visually striking, mix it up with warms and cools, and saturation too. For example, try making your lights warm and saturated, and your darks cool and desaturated.

[arenhaus]

If you want realistic color, work primarily with lighting.

If you want "striking" color, work with contrasts. Warm/cool, dark/light, etc.

You've got neither here. You don't have realistic lighting, but your colors are washed out too. Punch up the contrasts.

[Wynniemaru]

I would suggest you increase the contrast next time. There is colour contrast between the purples and greens, but it just doesn't pop like it should because there is little variance between lights and darks. It could be fixed pretty easily by upping the contrast, but with future pieces I think you should focus more on value.
It doesn't matter how good your colours are - if the image doesn't pop in greyscale it's not going to work. I find it useful to have a layer on top of the image set to colour which is filled with pure grey. It's like a filter, you can deactivate it while painting but then make it visible when you want to check the values of the image quickly.

It's a charming style and a nice image, easily fixed. Good luck

[oiver55]

Thx much for all the critiques, truly helpful