I'm gonna show you how to shake up your color a little bit! First, make a new
canvas. It can be any size, doesn't matter. Now, because this is a regular canvas, I
can, of course, paint in any color that I want. Now the thing we're gonna do here:
is we're gonna paint in color ... only, without the ability to see the color! So
head over to the layers window, make a new layer, set that layer to 'color' mode,
grab the paint bucket tool and fill that layer with pure white. Let's go ahead and
call this layer 'black and white filter.' And I recommend locking it so you can't
paint on it. Now, to show you how this works, I'll grab a brush, go to my
original layer, and no matter which color I pick and paint with, my black and white
filter layer is going to display my painting as values-only. And the key is
the color is still there - as you can see in the layers window. All I have to do to
see it is toggle the visibility of my filter layer, and there's the color. And
of course turning visibility back on makes it black and white again. Ok, just
one more thing to do here: select the sample tool and make sure this drop-down
is set to 'current layer.' This ensures we can sample the colors on this layer
rather than the grays that are being displayed. And with that done we can
start painting! My layers window is off-screen now because I'm just painting
on that one background layer. I'm roughing out a quick drawing to get me
going, and now that I'm painting I am just picking colors at random! Random
hues, random saturations! The colors you choose in this exercise are based on
pure chance, so just have fun abusing that color wheel! Now, the real fun will
happen later ... when we toggle off that black and white filter and see what
we've come up with! Now, this exercise is not just pure anarchy ... it's designed
based on a common painting maxim. One that i believe in - and i'm sure you've
heard it before. It goes something like this: 'get your values right and you can
get away with almost any color.' ...That was my professor voice. Anyway this
exercise is designed to show you how that works. With color on the back burner
we're free to think about other things. So ... what other things can we think about?
Well, we still have full control over the drawing. For example, her pose; the tilt of
her head; the appearance of her being captured in a moment in time;
we don't need color for that. Secondly, we still have values and lighting. I'm
choosing to light her with a diffuse light. That is, a very soft light coming
down from above. Because a diffuse light is soft, her forms will have very
delicate value differences. Just subtle transitions of lighter to darker. Those
tones emerging out of a middle range based value. Of course, our black and
white filter ensures that all the colors I'm using - which, again, are random - that
they all conform to the value structure I'm working so hard to maintain here. And
later in this video when I turn the color back on, we'll get a sense for how
color plugs into value. Anyway just making a quick adjustment to this part
of the pose and let's call that one finished. Okay for this next one I'll
block in a bit of a line drawing again. And for my base flesh tone I'm gonna
choose this weird green color. Just something intentionally
off-the-beaten-path, and we'll see how it shakes out. And I
want to give some quick credit here: I'm reading the graphic novel series, 'The
Keepers of the Maser,' written and illustrated by artist Massimiliano
Frezzato. I love his artwork, and this guy is based on one of the characters
from that series. Anyway, the color exercise is exactly the
same as before, however I'm doing something different from a lighting
standpoint. That is, here I'm using a direct light where last time I used a
diffuse light. I'm basically imagining like it's a sunlight coming in this way.
That will give the values a little more contrast between the light and shadow
family and it will give the shadows more of a distinctive shape. You can see that
in, like, the cast shadow under his nose. Also different here: the edges between
light and shadow are gonna be generally harder than they were on the first
character. Partially this is the result of a direct light, but it's also due to
the fact that this is a grizzled old man whose planes are harsher than that of a
younger woman. And edges are the tool that will help you distinguish between
the two. So just as a quick recap - while I may have color off my plate, I'm still
dealing full-on with things like lighting values, edges, composition -
not to mention academic things like facial anatomy structure and expression.
Alright let's do one more, before we see what kind of horrible, colorful mess
we've made! I'll go for a darker skin tone this time to see how that works.
Process wise for this one I didn't even start with a line
drawing, really. I just started with a massive value that I'm kind of sculpting
into with paint. Still randomizing the color of course! Although this time I'm
kind of favoring the blue and purple end of the color wheel ... for no other reason
than I'm interested in seeing how it looks. Those are not colors one would
usually attribute to skin tones, but I'm hoping something interesting will come
of it nonetheless. I guess we'll find out soon enough! And last thing before I
finish up here, you can do this exercise in the style of your choosing: painterly
like this, or airbrush-y smooth - it really doesn't matter. Anyway, picking a
random color here for the background, I'll just fill that in ... and that should
do it. Okay. Now, when I click this layer off, we will see the col-- let's make this
more dramatic! When I push this BIG RED BUTTON, we will finally see the color!
Heeey that is pretty cool actually! I really like how the cooler blues kind
of slide into warmer tones! Like this area here being cooler and sliding
warmer as it goes down this way. I kind of see the same thing happening in the
jaw where it's very cold here, sliding into warm as it goes up.
I didn't plan that; I was just using soft brushes in this area, and in this area,
and because my values were kept under control, the colors just sorted
themselves out! But I also liked some of the more abrupt temperature changes like
here in the cheekbone. I really like how this blue seems to pop out so
aggressively. In fact I'm kind of seeing that in three places: there, there, and
there. Now I think if I were to plan these
colors I probably would not have done that three times ... but I do think it's a
good idea to implement something like that - especially if I were to control it
a bit more. I also really like how the ear is, like, super warm - versus the entire
rest of the head which is colder. And while it's interesting that the warm is
focused on the ear, I'm not sure that's exactly where I put it if I had the
conscious choice! I mean it's so odd ... yet kind of
interesting at the same time. This is the kind of thing that will definitely
inform me in future paintings. OK, ready for the second one?? Let's
push the RED BUTTON. Whoa! It's like a color bomb went off! So I have a couple
thoughts. The color here definitely tests the limit of this painting principle. I'm
not quite sure I can get away with all of these colors ... at least, not at the same
time. However, where that statement does hold up is: I don't think any of these
color combinations are, like, against the law. I mean sure, it's pretty odd that two
near-complementary colors are merging in such closed quarters. But it still reads
as skin, does it not? The color overall is distracting in my opinion because it
kind of demands your attention everywhere and I just don't think that's
ever a good design idea. But, like, remember how I started with that green
color? You can still see evidence of the green, and, you know, these areas here, and
a lot of it down here in the beard, and I really do like how those greens have
subtly modulated into oranges and purples and blues, as I laid those colors
on later in the painting. I think in future paintings I can use that idea. You
know, starting with a weird flesh color and then painting over it. That can be a
way to generate interest in your colors. One thing that I think does work quite
well is how these shadows are all one consistent deep reddish color. I think
that kind of eases the eye from all the colors here going on in the lights. And I
do kind of like this shadow under the nose how it gets bluer as it gets
further away from the nose. I think that's really nice. But I also want to
draw your attention to the fact that, despite these crazy color choices, it
still looks like a grizzled old character with three-dimensional forms
lit by a direct light. In that sense, I *can* get away with any color! It's almost
like the values and edges are responsible for the objective reality of
the piece, and the colors contribute to the emotional reality of the piece.
That's kind of how I think about color when I paint. This is part of a piece I
did for an actual project. And you can see how, when you're intentional with
your color design, you can move color around quite a bit!
I think these blue bits here that are right up against neutral oranges and
more aggressive purples - that's not so far removed from what I'm doing here!
Same with, like, this area of the hair down here. It's just that in this project
I'm exercising more restraint. And I'm doing the same thing on this one. Look at
all the little blue color notes that are popping out in her hair. Those are not
there to actually look like anything. I consider them more emotional touches.
And you notice I'm doing that a lot more in the hair than I am in the skin area?
That's the choice I made in this painting so the colors don't all compete ...
like they're kinda doing here. All right - let's go back to our first
sketch! We push the RED BUTTON and - ooooh!! The first thing I notice are those reds
that really pop out against the grays. Just gonna drag in the color picker here
and sample some of these grays. You can see what I mean. Notice the saturation
for most of this is kept in this overall section of the color picker. That
includes the hair, the flesh, even the background. This is a common habit of
mine. I find that when you base your colors on grays, they tend to slide in
and out of each other pretty easily - opening up possibilities for all kinds
of color harmonies! If you'd like to learn more about the ins and outs of
that, check out episode 5 of my '10 Minutes To Better Painting' series! Over
top of those grays, these saturated reds here, and this little bit of purple there,
the speck of blue right there in her eye - those colors really gain a lot of
identity. Because when a saturated color appears against grays it's like a loud
voice in a quiet room. Anyway, another thing I kind of like about this is how
the brow takes on an overall bluish tinge, the cheeks and overall reddish
tinge, and the jaw is almost some kind of neutral greenish thing. Having three
zones of color in the head like that is something you'll find all throughout art
history. And I guess while I couldn't see the color when I painted this, some of my
influences and instincts were still at play. Moving on, though. When I painted
this, I made the compositional choice of having the values in her head be much
darker than the background. All these colors I'm using here ... though they have
so much variety, it's the value that really reins them in and keeps them in
service of the composition. If you want to test that, just zoom out and you
notice that her head still really stands out. But, going back to color - you can get
a sense for how these saturated bits that I'm circling also stand out! I don't
think they stand out quite as much as value contrast does, but they do still
have a voice. I'm gonna stop here. But if you want to talk color for literally
hours more, check out MarcoBucciArtStore.com. Head on over to the workshop
section, and I recommend 'Digital Painting 1, 2, and 3.'
You'll get hours of real-time painting, a
selection of my favorite digital brushes, as well as a lot more discussion about
color and how it plugs into other painting fundamentals! Well, thanks for
watching, everyone! I hope this exercise will inspire your color use, as well as
give you a glimpse into the endless ways that color can behave in a painting. And
how other fundamentals - drawing, values, edges, composition - how they can be
shepherds for color - corralling it into its appropriate place. Well, happy
painting. I'll see you in another video :)