ART – Learning Color: Theory vs. Practice

This is a work in progress coloring job:

Problems

I have no idea what I’m doing.

Well…I kinda do.  But all I know is theory. As this coloring job is showing me, there’s a difference between theory and practice.

Let me quickly explain what I’m talking about.

If you notice, some of the colors in the above drawing look finished while the others are all weird and dark.

This is because those dark areas are meant to be the shadow colors I’m going to be using.  Then I’m going to put in brighter colors on top of them.

Betty and Veronica, for example are mostly done.  But if you notice, some of their shadow sides are a tad odd.  Veronica’s pants are a bit red in the shadow.  Betty’s shadow is purple, her shirt is green, and her pants are yellowish.

The reason for all these odd colors is because I was using the complimentary colors for the shadows.  The opposite of the main color for each thing.

The problem is, I don’t know if I actually go the true complimentary color.  It both looks right and wrong to me.

On the one hand, I don’t want the shadow side to be too dark. And  I think that’s exactly what’s going on with Veronica.  Her shadows are too dark.  I wanted this to be more of a day light scene.

Betty looks better but I’m not sure if the shadow side is working.  I tried darkening the shadows on her but it looked too dark:

I just don’t like it. It’s not what I want.

What I’m Learning

Turns out, that knowing color theory is one thing, but there’s more too it.  Color does stuff…weird stuff.

If you read anything about color theory, you’ll know that colors look different depending on the colors that surround them.

Thing is, you have to actually color and see what happens through trial and error.  Someone could show you what color does in certain circumstances but still, you have to do it yourself for it to sink in.

This means you have to experiment a lot.  You have to color, paint, use colors and mess with them.  You have to study.  Copy master paintings and simply paint.

All these things have to be done before you begin to start figuring some stuff out.  And even then, you will probably be surprised by what color does.

I don’t know any of this stuff at all so, I have no idea what I’m doing and if it’s going to work.

Moving Forward

I’m midway through coloring this drawing.  I have no idea what it’s going to look like once it’s done.  I don’t know if it’s going to look good or not.

Right now the drawing is a mess of colors.  Colors that I’m not even sure are really harmonizing. Perhaps I should have done a quick thumbnail color study to get everything working before I actually started coloring.

Still, it’s a work in progress, and I’m learning new things as I go.

Hopefully, I’ll be done next week and you’ll see how it turned out.

To See The Finished Version See:

Drawing: Getting Over the Hump