So we should have something catchy for the 12 Days of Proko. You know, like uh... ♪On the first day
of Christmas Proko gave to me a video from Marco Buchi...♪ yeah, except I can't sing that song,
someone else has to come in and sing it for - [clears throat]. Is that camera on?
Hey everyone. So, in my last lesson here on Proko, we talked all about how the planes of the head
interact with a light source and we painted a complete black and white version of a character.
Let's pick up the lesson right where we left off and talk about ideas for adding color to this.
We'll be tackling three overall topics; what to look for when painting flesh colors, how
light interacts with flesh colors and how color is influenced by its surrounding environment.
Fleshtones and Color.
I have some good news, there really is no such thing as a "correct fleshtone color".
In fact - hang on a second, I could scroll my own skin through
all the hues we have available to our vision and it still looks like skin.
One thing that can really help with believable skin tones though, is the idea that skin isn't
just one color. In fact, there are three pretty common zones of color we can think about.
It's quite common to look for a more oakery colored brow,
warmer reddish cheeks and nose and an ever so slightly cooler jaw.
You can apply this idea, starting from any base color, to establish an overall color key. I’ll
show you what I mean, but for the moment, let's replace the complex form of a head
with a simple egg. Now, let's give these eggs some fleshtones. To establish this,
start first with an overall average bass tone. This can essentially be anything.
So, here I’m using the palettes we just sampled as reference. Then from that point,
make a shift toward ochre for the upper area. You don't have to go to a saturated yellow
ochre or anything like that, just a little move toward ochre is enough. The resulting
colors in our two studies here will be different because they began from different base colors.
However, the general relationship I’m going for is the same. I’ll apply the same idea
for the reddish zone now. Moving toward red to various degrees on each of these.
It doesn't have to be the same red either. So long as it's redder than what's there,
it'll read just fine. I’m letting the colors mix on the canvas. Sometimes I’ll sample the
result and paint with that color just to get whatever blending style you're looking for.
And now the same thing for the cooler lower area.
Chances are, the paintings you choose to study from will give you quite different looks.
But these are all totally valid starting points for believable flesh tones.
Okay, but stop everything... I’ve used the words "cooler" and "warmer" a few times already in
this lesson. Now, those words don't describe actual objective colors, rather, they indicate
the relationship between colors. Any color on the color wheel could potentially be warmer or cooler
given the right context and we need to dive into these concepts before moving on with our painting.
The most basic idea of warm versus cool is that they occupy two opposite sides of the color
wheel. Generally, we think of this area; reds, oranges, yellows as the warm side of the wheel,
which kinda makes sense since these are the colors of literal hot fire [Ya-ouch] and then this area,
blues, violets, we generally think of as the cool side. I guess that makes sense too,
right? Because these are the stereotypical colors of, you know, ice, water, snow and cold stuff.
Then the colors in the middle, you can think of as transitions between the two overall categories.
Anyway, those are the basics that a lot of us learned in elementary school. And while
this categorization is accurate, I guess, red is often thought of as objectively warmer than blue.
It lacks subtlety and isn't enough to carry us through any real art scenario.
As artists, the colors we have to deal with are often much closer together than these
two swatches. For example, how about these two colors? Which would you say is the warmer one?
The answer is a little less crystal clear, isn't it? But I’ll posit that this one is still warmer.
But here, that red that was cooler before is now warmer compared to this new swatch.
These are the comparisons we have to get used to making over and over again. You'll make thousands
of them in a painting. And the way I like to determine warm versus cool is by basing it
on a model of how color actually moves in real life. So, what moves color? Well, light does.
Light and Color.
The problem with local colors or base colors is that's not all we see.
Whether it's an egg or a human head or anything else, what we see is always a
combination of the local color plus the light, but it's not an equal balance of the two.
Light weighs more than local color or base color, those two terms mean the same thing.
And light nearly always accounts for most of the color that ends up hitting our eyes.
So, let's take a look at how that works back here on the color wheel;
the first thing we need is a local color or base color to work with,
let's say this red again. Also, let's put a ball over here which will live update with our color
wheel demonstration. That way you get to see kind of the theory and application in the same screen.
So, currently there is no light hitting the ball, it's just the flat local color
similar to where we left our egg studies a minute ago. Let's now bring
in a light source. We'll make it your average incandescent light bulb, which is this color.
Okay, the first thing we have to do right away is update our ball to give it a simple light and
shadow side. I’m not changing any colors just yet, only changing the value of that base color. Actual
color changes will happen next. Because we're talking about light, we'll start by adjusting
the color of the light side first. Our base color is what's on the color wheel now, that red swatch.
So, remembering that light is generally the stronger factor in the color equation,
that orangy yellow light is going to pull the red local color toward it.
I’ll maintain about the same level of saturation here.
These are both fairly saturated colors rooted firmly in the warm section of the color wheel,
so there isn't much of an actual temperature change here, more like a small hue shift.
Anyway, how far that base color goes toward the light depends on the light's
strength relative to the scene. You have to evaluate that on a case-by-case basis.
But, if the light source is strong enough, it can dominate the local color
and fully pull the color to match that of the light. That's a pretty special
case though and doesn't happen too often. So, be selective when you make that choice.
Okay, let's bring the color back to its original base color starting position.
The closer a local color or base color is to the light source, the easier the light is able to pull
it. If we started with a cooler red as our base color, I’m calling this color cooler by the way,
simply because it's closer to the cooler section of the color wheel, the light would
move it warmer. But generally, again, depending on the strength of the light, it would not reach
the same level of saturated warmth as our original swatch which went all the way here.
So, when thinking about how the colors of your subject are affected by the light,
this is the visual you should have in mind. And another little wrinkle to add in all this,
currently we're looking at a pretty saturated light source color, but let's take, say an
early afternoon sun color which is much less saturated, it's about here on the color wheel
and we'll go back to our original red base color, you might think the less saturated
sunlight color will likewise desaturate this red. But no, that's not what happens.
So long as that light source is on the warm side of the wheel,
we won't lose saturation of any color reasonably within the warm range. The result of the lesser
saturated sunlight is that it simply won't pull the red as strongly into the yellow hues.
It'll still have a color influence, just not as much as if it were very saturated.
Alright, now, what happens when we have a local color on the warm side of the color
wheel but a light source on the cool side of the color wheel? This is where things get
interesting. The color has to traverse through this gray zone in the middle of the color wheel.
The gray zone is a versatile section of the color wheel because in theory,
every color has it in common. That means that colors join at this point. So,
when a color has to cross from one overall category of the color wheel to another,
the gray zone becomes kind of a border crossing. When a color is here,
it could potentially go anywhere. Think of it like having a travel visa or something. So where
does our color go? Well, naturally, the light motivates it to travel this way toward its color.
And once again, how far it will get depends on the relative strength of the light source.
The more saturated the local color is, the more fight it has against the light color and it may
stop before it even gets to gray. So, in this example, the light source is able to cool off
a warm color by dragging it closer to gray and hence closer to the cool side of the color wheel
even though it stopped before it actually got into the bluish range.
Whereas if a color is starting from here, chances are much higher that a
blue light will be able to pull the color through gray making it cross into its hue.
And this same logic of course applies in reverse to a warm light source and a cooler base color.
So, now, revisiting those two words, "warmer" and "cooler",
it's a constant evaluation of where the color starts and where it's moving to.
It's crucial that you have those two pieces of information before assigning a temperature. So,
is this color warm or cool? Well, I’m not sure yet, I need another swatch to compare.
Ah, there we go. Now I have a way of categorizing it.
Egg Study: Adding Light.
So, let's add some lighting to our egg study. Now, even though we just talked all about color,
the number one consideration is value. So, without even thinking about color just yet,
I’ll select out the shadow side and simply adjust it to be darker.
I’ll now apply the exact color theory we just went over to the light side of this egg.
I’ll use that same warm tungsten light for this,
and with that in mind, I’m sampling areas to get my local base colors,
then I make an adjustment on the color picker to bring that color closer to the lights color
and simply paint it in until you think it looks good. And remember how our fleshy colors have
variety? Well, I’m using the exact same thought process for all of these various base colors.
Because of the light's pull, your resulting colors
in the light can become a little more uniform than they started,
and that's okay. In fact, it's totally natural. I am trying however, to keep that separation intact
while also letting the light do its thing. It's just a balance you have to keep your eye on.
Okay, it's time now to move to the shadow side of the egg. We haven't discussed shadow colors
yet. Colors move around a lot more in shadow. It's largely based on the surrounding environment. To
show this, I’m adding this bluish background. The idea here is, because light rays bounce around,
a lot of the shadow colors are influenced by that bounced light.
Think of the colors in your background as being like little light sources that all
have their own distinct pull. Now, bounced light in shadow is weaker than an actual light source.
So, the pull exists but it's not as strong. In this study,
that blue background is going to pull our base colors in the opposite direction as the light.
And I’ll allow the parts of the egg that point upward to receive the most of that blue light.
Kind of like it's a blue skylight coming down.
Remember, I don't have to literally make those colors blue. As long as they're going that way
on their journey through the color wheel, I can pick a wide variety of cooler colors here.
The parts of the egg that don't point upward are going to receive less of that blue light. So,
these shadow colors will still be cooler than the colors in the light but not as cool as the
colors fully influenced by the blue. Also, feel free to be creative with your color choices.
Again, so long as the shadow colors share the general direction of movement on the
color wheel, it'll all look like it goes together.
There's a common painting cliché that says "warm light gives you cooler shadows". And while that
speaks to a pattern that does often occur in nature, the statement itself is misleading.
It's not that warm light somehow creates cool shadows, it's simply that warm light will
pull the colors it hits toward that warm, but it will not pull the shadow colors toward that warm
because the warm light is not hitting the shadows. Therefore,
it's by default that the shadow side will appear cooler in context.
Alright, here's the finished egg study. And by the way, if you want a deeper look
at how colors move around in shadow, I have a dedicated presentation about that
on my own YouTube channel. Feel free to check that out for more shadow information goodness.
Painting the Head: Application.
When it comes to applying color to the head, it's really no more complex than the egg was.
The complexity is in the drawing. Which is to say,
getting all the planes and their corresponding values correct.
My first Proko lesson was all about that part of the process.
So, please make sure you watch that if you haven't already. Without that stuff well established,
you won't get a good painting no matter how good your color is. So, what I’m establishing first
here are the base colors and then splitting the head into big light and shadow families.
This is where my blocking stage ends and I start refining the painting from here.
Just a quick technical note; I had my line drawing on a separate layer and my color on a
layer underneath but that's it, just two layers, and now I’ve turned off the line layer and I’m
simply working on one paint layer. I’m now working into the light side, just like I did with the egg.
You'll notice that the base colors I started with were already pretty close to the final
light colors. This is something I do quite often. Instead of starting with a base color and then
adding light, my base colors are kind of already in the direction that I think the lights will go.
Now, you don't have to work that way of course, but I find that it helps momentum a little bit.
Remember the three color zones of the head we discussed right at the beginning;
ochre up top, reddish in the middle and cooler at the bottom. Even though I’m adding half tones and
shapes and planes, you can see how I’m still trying to adhere to that basic structure.
It's okay if like some of the red goes on the top or the bottom or some of the ochre shows
up on the jaw, that's fine. In fact, that can help the expressiveness of your color.
In this way, painting is less like a coloring book and more like weaving things together.
You've probably noticed that I’m spending most of my time in the light side.
This is partially because the light is dominating this particular setup but in
general, the light is where we expect to see the most modeling. Our eyes,
after all, are receptors for light, so they look to the light for the most information.
In fact, you could just keep your shadows one flat color and value and it'll still work. In this
painting though, it is time I get in there and add some of that bounce light. I’ve got a pretty muted
blue background, but it is a very much cooler background than the light source is. So, just
like I did with the egg, watch for me trying to sneak those cooler temperatures into the shadow.
It's also important to note here that because I do have some cool colors in the light,
I probably want to push some of the cooler colors in my shadow even cooler. This
will help maintain the overall relationship between the warm light and the cooler shadow.
Alright, so, I’m pretty much reaching the end of this demo. Now, if you're doing quick studies,
you could stop before this, or if you're doing something more refined, feel free to
push on from here. That part is all up to you and the purpose of the art that you're doing.
I hope this demonstration served the purpose of tying this lesson together.
I’d like to thank Proko and his team for having me on. Also,
if you like this video, feel free to check out my YouTube channel. I also have premium
content including an upcoming color survival guide, which will be much like the format of
this video except it'll cover a far broader range of topics and I’m selecting a lot of
the most important things I know and use as a professional illustrator. You can find that
and more at MarcoBucciArtStore.com. So, thanks for watching and happy holidays!