2 Questions for digital artists

**Mick2006** · March 4th, 2009, 05:06 PM

How do you guys know what colors to use in your digital paintings? I just cant figure out what ones to use. Looking at most of the impressive paintings on this site I just dont know where to start. And I have noticed that most of the photoshop magazines in shops have texture images on their content CDs what are they used for?

**MattGamer** · March 4th, 2009, 05:30 PM

are you a troll?

**Mick2006** · March 4th, 2009, 05:37 PM

No definitely not I just want advice to become a better artist and isnt that what conceptart.org is all about artists helping other artists with advice? Was there anything in my post that sounded offensive? Im just looking for advice I do regularly post on these forums for advice and whats wrong with that?

**MattGamer** · March 4th, 2009, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by demonicdude

How do you guys know what colors to use in your digital paintings? I just cant figure out what ones to use. Looking at most of the impressive paintings on this site I just dont know where to start. And I have noticed that most of the photoshop magazines in shops have texture images on their content CDs what are they used for?

Firstly, check out my Tutorial links on the first page of my sketchbook.
Learn everything in there.

Second, most of this stuff has been answered in the vast tutorials section
of Conceptart.org/forums. You are repeating questions that have been
answered literally 100's of times.

And third, practice, practice, practice. You don't know how much studying
by sketching can vastly improve your painting skills. The more you observe
reality, the more you can remember it for future use.

Never give up art, always sketch, even if it's 10 minutes a day. Keep going
and never give up!

**Mick2006** · March 4th, 2009, 06:12 PM

Ok I will checkout your tutorials and stop the repetitive questions. Thanks mate

**TomSawyer** · March 5th, 2009, 03:08 AM

I'm basically in the same boat you are Demon, I'm starting off with some drawing books, and just reading everything you can possible on this site.

**Collywobbles** · March 5th, 2009, 04:35 AM

I don't think he's a troll, he didn't ask "why is digital art?", color theory is difficult because there is no tangible goal like anatomy. MattGamer is right, there are many tutorials here, these are really good.....
http://itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm -Prom
http://www.poynterextra.org/cp/colorproject/color.html -color and design
http://forums.sijun.com/viewtopic.php?t=15476 -theory at sijun
http://forums.sijun.com/viewtopic.php?t=41891 -shadows

Even if one reads and understands all of these, there is no magic formula just like there is no anatomy formula, and you have to choose your own colors. It's theory and it's yours as much as anyone's. Limit yourself to a small palette, try one on Gurney's blog or something to start. Then throw in some complements and see what happens, change the saturation, try it in grayscale and note the differences.

In digital you can experiment with filters/adjustments and even change the hue/saturation of a layer after the fact. So, a lot of it is experimentation and trial and error, but without the fundamentals, just like in anatomy, you can't stylize what you don't know. The basics are in these tutorials but just reading them is pointless, you will have to do color studies just like hands and elbows. Here is a good beginning if none of this makes sense.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=53517

**Black Spot** · March 5th, 2009, 03:21 PM

I work with vectors and just adjust the transparency as I overlay multiple times like washes. Really don't see the difference from actual painting except you can undo/delete errors.