Hi, I'm Sarah, and a few weeks ago, I joked about coloring in stormtrooper coloring page,
because stormtroopers are... Already white.
(Shane: I've got your next challenge already picked out.)
Stormtroopers are white Shane. So I guess we're done?
But in reality, white characters and objects have been one
of the most requested tutorials on my channel,
because how do you color a white character on a white page?
So today, we're back to color in our Stormtrooper, because coloring white
objects isn't as confusing as it sounds and the end results can be pretty cool.
At some point in a coloring page,
you've probably come across a white object or character and been a bit unsure about how
to call them in. My six year old is going through a phase of loving 101 Dalmatians
and he has resorted to turning the coloring pages into informational posters
because he's realized there's nothing to color.
Whenever I'm unsure of how to color
something, I always start by finding a reference image.
Looking at other photos or images can help
you to see what colors make up an object, and the same applies to white objects.
So before we start coloring, let's quickly take a look at some white
objects and see what colors and shading they use.
So here I have a white flower with a little bit more lighting
on the left and a little bit more darks on the right.
So I'm just going to eyedrop here in Procreate the lightest and the middle tones and then
the darkest colors on the left and on the right side here, it's a bit more shaded
I'm going to do the same thing,
picking the lightest tones, the middle tones and the darkest tones.
Now, these look like whites and grays,
but interestingly, if we had our base layer
and look with the actual colors, even the lightest color is not actually white,
it's actually a very light gray.
So already you can start to see that this
white flower actually has no white in it at all.
It's made up of a variety of gray tones.
So I'm just going to repeat this same process here on this swan.
So we'll take the lightest colors.
And I'm just going to try and pick a variety of colors going from what looks
like the lightest values through to the darkest values here.
And as you can see, we have a similar thing where it's a lot of grays.
The difference with this image is that there is a lot of contrast here.
So I wouldn't be surprised if this white
is actually a very close to a straight white.
And I think we could probably get some very dark, almost black in this as well.
So now that we've picked our colors let's turn off our layer and see
and yes, as you can see, that white basically disappears.
That is a white,
and we have a range of grays almost to a black, but it's not black
it is a very dark gray.
The key to these examples so far is
that the undertone of the grays is all the same.
So we don't have a mix of a warm and a cool gray.
In each example,
the grays all use the same base color, so they are kind of from the same color family.
Let's have a look at one more example.
So in this last example,
our entire scene is white, the only reason we know what this object is,
is because of the shading and the different values that the light
and the dark in the scene. So let's pull out our colors,
and again, we can see we have just a range of whites to the light grays.
There's only one section here that uses darker grays, and that's where there are
some really deep shadows underneath the pillows.
The rest of it is fairly light.
But again, these guys will come from the same color family.
And that's probably the biggest key
that you need to keep in mind when you're choosing grays to color something white,
They need to come from that same base color.
So I'll pop all these images in my blog post.
If you'd like to take a closer look or use them as a reference for your coloring
pages, you can find that in the video description below.
So now to our stormtrooper.
If stormtroopers were actually just colored white, they would look like this.
But instead, the white we perceive is
actually made up of a range of other colors determined by the environment
and the lighting around our character or our object.
So in a scene like this,
our white stormtrooper actually is made up of a lot of blue grays,
whereas a scene like this where a stormtroopers are inside with artificial
lighting from different colors, there is no white at all.
There's not even gray.
We actually have a mix of different colors. When it comes to coloring white,
there are two main things that determine the approach you will take and the colors you
need, and that is texture and the lighting or the environment that it's in.
But if this all sounds too hard already, don't worry, because if you know how
to shade and blend colors, then you know how to color white objects.
So let's just do this.
I'll pop a link to this coloring page
from Crayola on my blog post, if you'd like to color along,
along with the exact pencils I'm using from my Prismacolors set.
Most pencil sets have a range of grays that you can use as a starting point.
They'll usually include at least a warm
gray set and a cool gray set and often a green gray as well.
I've pulled out some of the grays from my Prismacolors here and I'll list
things in my blog post if you'd like to try them on your own pages.
Any of these will work depending
on the colors you are using in the rest of your image and the mood or lighting you
wanting to create.The cool are generally a good place to start,
if you're unsure.
Then it's as simple as shading like you would any other object using white as
your highlight, using your lightest grays as your midtones and the slightly
darker grays for your shading. Start out light until you get the hang
of it and then bring in those darker grays as you become more confident.
The easiest way to know where
to add shadows is to use a reference photo if you have one.
Otherwise, I have some videos to help you
learn how to add shadows in your coloring pages.
And I'll link to them both in the description below and in my blog post.
I started using this stormtrooper image on my iPad as a reference photo for this
image, but after a little while I found it was just as easy to add the shadows,
intuitively thinking about where they would naturally fall.
So I stopped using my reference.
Keep your layers light and you'll find
that you can do a lot of shading with a single color.
In fact, I choose five colors for this
and I'm only really using three plus my white pencil.
You could do all of this with a single color and just adjust your pressure.
But I do love using the extra colors
available to add a little bit of volume and to make the blending easier.
As I'm moving down towards the bottom
of this image, I'm using more of my darker tones because these areas won't get as
much natural light as my stormtroopers arms and head, although I think I've gone
a little darker than I would have liked in a few of these areas.
Now for the blaster rifle.
Color in black is a bit like coloring and white in that we don't just want
to use a black pencil, we want to use a mix of colors to create some depth.
In this case, if we just use a black
pencil, we'd lose all the detail and end up with a silhouette.
I'm not feeling massively confident about coloring this rifle because I've never
actually colored a shiny black object before.
But the process isn't too different
to coloring other metallic objects like i've shown you in my gold video.
And I've got a reference image here.
So let's just go for it.
I'm using two dark grays and my white pencil
to give me the shading and highlights I think I'll need and I'm going to put
the highlights in first then fill in the areas around it and hope for the best.
So, I guess that worked?
Actually I'm really happy with how
that came out when I look at it from this side camera.
So if you ever don't like your work,
take a big step back, take a photo, look at the photo instead of your art,
because it definitely helps to see it from a fresh perspective.
With my stormtrooper done, you can see the huge difference the basic
shading has made from the original white drawing.
But I also want to take this a step further today and have some fun.
Like I said at the start.
Coloring white is all about texture and lighting.
In this first example,
I've used a very basic lighting technique
and simple texture that you can try on most white objects.
But what if our stormtrooper finds himself in a bit of a
situation?
I'd love to try coloring this page again, but using some lighting from another scene
from one of the Star Wars movies or games where the environment isn't perfectly lit,
and our white character doesn't look so picture perfect and clean.
I love this picture from the Star Wars Battlefront game.
I think we should try to create something like this.
But first, please take a moment to press that like and subscribe button while
YouTube probably serves you and ad right about now.
So let's start by looking at the colors in this image as an example.
As you can see, our white has suddenly a much bigger range of colors.
This picture actually has two different light sources.
We've got a warm golden light coming from an explosion on the left and a cool
light coming from the environment on the right.
This is creating some interesting shadows
right down the middle of the stormtrooper's face.
And there's a lot of texture in our
stormtrooper from the damage done through whatever he is faced up to this point.
When it comes to using a reference image like this that doesn't match my image exactly,
I'm focusing mostly on the colors and values of the shadows.
It does help that my stormtrooper is
the same character, although his pose is different.
So we can't just copy this image,
but we can use it as a guide to create a similar scene in our coloring page.
In this case, I'm looking at the colors
the golden shadow has, and I'm using the knowledge that I already
have about lighting and shadows to adapt this to my own drawing.
It might take some practice if you've never done this before.
So that's where it's always good to work
in light layers so you can make adjustments as you go and darken your colors
if certain areas don't look right later on.
Before I do too much lighting,
let's roughen up at stormtrooper a bit and add some dust and scratches.
By doing this in our base layer, a lot of these scratches will disappear or
become less obvious when I add more color on top so I can go a little overboard now
and not worry too much about him looking too damaged.
To add the scratches, I'm just using a sharp point on my pencil
and just picking different areas to scribble on in small straight lines.
Back to our main coloring,
I'm continuing to work in light layers and just build up the shadows,
by the end of this there will be almost no actual white left on our white character.
And yet, because we know the context of our character and recognize the role
the lighting plays, we can still see that this character is
supposed to be white or at least a light gray metal.
I would never think to put a shadow right
down the middle of the face like this, so this is where I reference photo can be
a really good way to challenge yourself to try something new.
You don't have to follow it exactly,
but it can be a great way to learn a light and shade in particular.
In fact, I have a whole video about advanced shading techniques where I talk
more about this if you want to learn more about my own process.
I'm trying really hard to resist the urge
to burnish anything because I want to make sure I'm completely happy with my colors
and lighting. Once you burnish the colors by using harder pressure with your pencil,
it's much harder to make further adjustments.
So if I want to add more contrast later, it will be much harder to do so.
For the blaster rife,
I'm taking the same approach that I took for the first page because even though I
wasn't confident at the time, I'm really happy with how that turned out.
The only difference here is that it'll add
a touch of yellow to bring in that warm lighting to match this same.
Now, for the background. Last week,
I've just done a video full of ideas on coloring backgrounds,
and I am very tempted to try some distressed oxides again or something
similar for this background today, because I think it would work really well.
The only problem is that I only have a few
very bright colors and that's just not going to work for this scene.
So instead, I'm doing a base layer
of markers and I'll use my pencils to add the texture on top.
I'm not going to recreate the war scene to the same degree as our reference image,
but I do like the colors and so I'd like to bring some blues and even a bit
of a muddy purple into the sky along with that warm ground.
So I'm just creating some quick swatches
here to see which pencils and markers will work together in the colors that I'm
trying to achieve, because sometimes pencils can look quite
different on top of the markers compared to just drawing straight on the paper.
I'll block out my main colors
of the background in markers fist, and I'm not too worried about perfect
blending because we'll add that kind of detail with the pencils.
My main goal with the pencils is to blend my background and add a bit of haze
and texture, but also to create that slight light
source on the left that suggests that there's a war scene
in the distance that's causing that warm light on the stormtrooper.
And with that, we're done. While you might not be ready for a scene
like this, I definitely encourage you to give the basic version of coloring
white a try.
All you really need is a few grays with the same tone and to follow the same
techniques of shading that you would use for any other color.
And if you need help with that,
I've got a video coming up here in a moment to show you the basics.
But first, please enjoy this deleted scene
that I found from the Star Wars trilogy.
Darth Vader, I should have known you were behind this.
You have being caught using the death grip on your colored pencils.
I don't know what you're talking about.
There is no wrong way to create. You are a liar! You must follow the rules of art. Take her away!