How did you get comfortable painting?

[nudity]

I'm trying to get the hang of digital painting, but I'm having a lot of trouble when it comes to color. I'm pretty comfortable with most aspects of what should go into the painting, tone, composition, line work. but I guess in the past I only studied monotone mediums like charcoal, ink, and pencil, when it comes to color I'm clueless.

does anyone have any advice about what really helped them understand painting or specifically color theory? What would be a good study path to take, ideally I would like to be able to start a painting by jumping straight into painting without relying on a lineart or value work. Sometimes I come across tutorials or speed paints where people start from line work, then add value then do color pass, which is totally valid, but goes show there are even a lot of professionals who aren't comfortable putting down color. (I would describe it as the difference between painting a picture and adding color to piece.) I can do this fine when I'm working from life or reference, but only in an academic sense of reproducing what I see.

I tend to be comfortable once I figure how what I should be focusing on. For me gesture drawing clicked when I figured out: "your not drawing the exact pose, but the gesture of the pose, that's why gesture drawing don't have exacting details. " Tonal drawing also clicked when someone told me : "you're not copying the exact tone that you see, you are drawing the contrast between the tones." So what would you say the color equivalent to these epiphanies should be?

What do you feel helped you get comfortable putting color down? If you are comfortable painting, what would you say helped you most in studying?

Whats a good regiment to use while learning? Should I be trying to do quick color studies, should I do master studies, should I start with linework to focus only on getting the color right. Any advice would be much appreciated.

[kinjark]

I'm trying to get the hang of digital painting, but I'm having a lot of trouble when it comes to color. I'm pretty comfortable with most aspects of what should go into the painting, tone, composition, line work. but I guess in the past I only studied monotone mediums like charcoal, ink, and pencil, when it comes to color I'm clueless.

does anyone have any advice about what really helped them understand painting or specifically color theory? What would be a good study path to take, ideally I would like to be able to start a painting by jumping straight into painting without relying on a lineart or value work. Sometimes I come across tutorials or speed paints where people start from line work, then add value then do color pass, which is totally valid, but goes show there are even a lot of professionals who aren't comfortable putting down color. (I would describe it as the difference between painting a picture and adding color to piece.) I can do this fine when I'm working from life or reference, but only in an academic sense of reproducing what I see.

I tend to be comfortable once I figure how what I should be focusing on. For me gesture drawing clicked when I figured out: "your not drawing the exact pose, but the gesture of the pose, that's why gesture drawing don't have exacting details. " Tonal drawing also clicked when someone told me : "you're not copying the exact tone that you see, you are drawing the contrast between the tones." So what would you say the color equivalent to these epiphanies should be?

What do you feel helped you get comfortable putting color down? If you are comfortable painting, what would you say helped you most in studying?

Whats a good regiment to use while learning? Should I be trying to do quick color studies, should I do master studies, should I start with linework to focus only on getting the color right. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Color is misunderstood by many, many artists and instructors. Modern color theory is not the same as 19th century color myths. If your goal is to learn the basics of color theory, you should start with a reputable source to avoid confusion later on. Your goal should be to build an accurate framework of color to work in that allows you to make educated, precise color decisions. Do your research to make sure the information you are reading is based on science and not folly. You do not necessarily need to be a scholar in order to work with color accurately but make sure the information is not BS.

[dpaint]

If you want to get good with color you have to learn how to mix it. Paint traditionally with a limited palette and it will force you to learn how to make colors. Once you understand that you can paint digitally.
Work with a limited palette of red, yellow, blue and white, mix everything including your greys from those hues and you will learn color in a year. Work from life and do 100 paintings in a years time. That's what I did.

[nudity]

I think I'm going try working from a limited color pallet. would this make the most sense if it was only hues, or should set it up with tone in mind as well? Also what would a good example be of a 'reputable source' for color theory?

honestly I'm very skeptical of making the comparison between real world mixing paints and picking rgb colors. They seem like such different tools, I find its like like trying to compare something that we don't understand to a simplified/already-mastered analog. Specifically I found that learning to mix paints does nothing to prepare me for directly controlling saturation. On a more abstract level, even traditional painting primary colors differ from their digital equivalents, ( ryb vs rgbk ).

[Lady Medusa]

I wouldn't say I'm the master of colors yet, but what helped for me was to simply observe the world. Look at that pretty flower or that bird. Look at what people are wearing. Look at the beach and the sea. What colors go well together? Play with a color wheel.
I also liked to compare colors with the Pantone Fan. Though they may still be fun, you might be a bit old for it to be socially acceptable, but that shouldn't stop you, and it might make you faster to recognize and compare

[dpaint]

I think I'm going try working from a limited color pallet. would this make the most sense if it was only hues, or should set it up with tone in mind as well? Also what would a good example be of a 'reputable source' for color theory?

honestly I'm very skeptical of making the comparison between real world mixing paints and picking rgb colors. They seem like such different tools, I find its like like trying to compare something that we don't understand to a simplified/already-mastered analog. Specifically I found that learning to mix paints does nothing to prepare me for directly controlling saturation. On a more abstract level, even traditional painting primary colors differ from their digital equivalents, ( ryb vs rgbk ).

Well, then you aren't paying attention enough. If what you said was true then why don't the best digital paintings come close to the best traditional paintings?
Learning to mix paints does show you all aspects of color including chroma and value. Unlike digital where mixing color can ignore those aspects depending on the mode of painting you use, traditional paints are bound by their subtractive properties. Learning to control say a yellow traditionally shows you what happens when you lower that colors value or chroma mixing it with other pigments. Also working from life teaches you what happens prismatically to colors as they change attributes in sunlight and shadow. Without real world understanding of these aspects your digital paintings would be one dimensional ignoring the more subtle effects only observed while working from life. Try Munsell Reilly for color theory.

[Arshes Nei]

Yeah one big difference between using the computer. (and I know dpaint said it, just kinda reiterating)

RGB - adding color or value goes to white

The opposite happens with traditional.

By that I mean if you notice your HSV scale if you go up to 255 it's going more towards white, where when someone is talking about adding value where they're likely talking traditionally, it means going dark.

So RGB is additive mixing, and Traditional means "CMYK" is subtractive

http://www.rgbworld.com/color

[dirksteele]

I bought James Gurney's book 'Color and Light: A Guide for the Realistic Painter' a while back and that's a great resource to learn from if you're looking for a good book on the subject.

[vineris]

honestly I'm very skeptical of making the comparison between real world mixing paints and picking rgb colors. They seem like such different tools, I find its like like trying to compare something that we don't understand to a simplified/already-mastered analog.

Cross-training is more useful than you think. Different media allow you to approach the same thing from different angles so you understand it better. If you've mostly worked with monochromatic media up until now, you need to spend a whole lot of time outside looking at light and light effects. And it's easier to do that if you have a small sketchbook and watercolour set or pencil crayons than it is to drag a laptop and shadowbox around.

I learned to use colour by layering pencil crayons, which isn't like digital painting or traditional painting. But the process of thinking about colour was more-or-less the same, it was only the mechanics that I had to relearn. And digital painting seems to have the most simple mechanics of the three, so saying that mixing colours by hand doesn't prepare you for the task of poking at a slider and seeing what happens is kinda silly. If you can figure out how to put yellow and blue (and red and white and black) together to make the green you want, you can figure out how to move your mouse an inch to get the green you want. The REAL trick is knowing what green that is.

[AnnaGiladi]

Call me ignorant but I got comfortable with my hobby by not caring. Whatever looks good, is good to me. While I think color theory is valid and interesting, I'm enjoying myself and my work just fine without it

What do you feel helped you get comfortable putting color down? If you are comfortable painting, what would you say helped you most in studying?

Picking a color that looked about right, applying it and asking myself if it still looked right. Repeat.

[JeffX99]

Nature will teach you everything you need to know about color. It's up to you to say something with it.

[Vintrict]

I painted. People loved my art. I painted some more.

My motivation comes mainly from entertaining people with visual art.

[Noah Bradley]

By painting.