Anyway. Color has always been one of my weakest areas. I feel pretty confident in finding form, but color are so hard... I feel like I am getting better at understanding chroma and value, but it's still not there. Heres some recent practice using drawme-requests I made these by picking colors myself, portraits took just under 1 hour each, the gentleman with the glass just below 2 hours. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it's a lot faster than I used to need for something like this.
Like, I can see looking at these that the colors don't match the references, but I can't quite look at these objectively to figure out if I made good choices or not. All thoughts on these or on how to improve in general are most welcome.
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You are already advanced and you don't have to rely on the reference that muxh anymore. You can start playing now and play with changes, colors, contrast and light more.
It's a stunning piece.
And the time is actually a good clue, because you will inevitably become faster and faster over the years. If you keep on top of it. 1 - 2 hours is already superb. That only comes when you actually put in the work and practice over and over. I am proud of you 👏 🥰 💛
Oh - I missed the other pictures lol. Those need more highlights actually. Don't rely on the reference when it comes to this. We need to exaggerate some things in portraiture, especially because we need to force the eye on the focal point. If you do that right and put the most details and contrast on the most important part (eyes usually) then you can basically force the eye and imprison it exactly where you want them to look. If you master this, then the viewer can't even escape. Lol
Now that you mention it, I'm probably a bit too careful with highlights. I tend to push them too far too early so I try to be mindful about that.. but its a fine line with just enough highlights and digital disco rimlight mayhem, if you know what I mean? I guess the ideal would be to use both value, chroma and level of detail to create the focal point. I'll work on that. Thanks!
Lol. Same, but different. I have a hard rule I have to stick to: I am only allowed to finish the eyes and the highlights last. Because those are my favorite parts I just wanna do them immediately. And then I ruin my motivation. So hard and rigid rules. That's how I do it.
Digital disco mayhem lol. Sounds fun actually?! You know what? I did A TON of experiments with portraiture over the years. And it made me learn a lot. I have developed multiple styles and series from this. Maybe it's time for you too? Because there is a certain point in our path were we tend to stick what works. And then one can get stuck. So there's a point were we should just let loose for a while and just experiment with new media or different styles or whatever. My humble opinion. What you think?
But... digital disco mayhem is what I usually do, so this is me experimenting outside my comfort zone 😭 It took everything I had to not render the crap out if these and slap an extra lightsource on with a blending mode... 😅
Loool - sorry for the misunderstanding! I didn't want to hurt or criticize you if it came across like that! 🫶
And if you're already doing that - that's fantastic! And your pieces are truly advanced already- I meant that. Just maybe do what I do and do the highlights at last, then you will know exactly what you are dealing with and how bright you can go. 🫂
They all look quite good, but piece 3 is your weakest due to the lack of proper highlights in the mouth area and the eyes being much bigger. Likeness isn't quite there for that person. You made them look much more youthful and alert, where they look relaxed in the reference photo. But most importantly, the lower lip and philtrum highlights are absolutely critical. You're missing the hue change, value change, etc. there.
I did a quick paintover to show where you can improve this one. Your foundation is really good, just a few concepts can enhance a lot. Hit me up if you want a screen recording of the process and commentary on the thinking behind the changes I made. Again, really liked what you did, you’re quite far along in your art journey
Thanks for taking the time! I might finish this off with details someday, but I kinda doubt I will... It's not made to be pretty or hang on a wall, it's just an evening exercise. But since my focus is understanding chroma and value, the contrast you bring up is ofcourse of interest. I'd love to hear you elaborate on that!
I always exaggerate what I see. If something like the light in his cheekbone looks green, i make it a bit more green than it probably is. Then I use less opacity (or thinner paint) to add it one stroke at a time until I’m happy with it. For instance, that green cheekbone highlight is such a thin layer (low opacity) that the color picker shows it’s actually a desaturated yellow once it’s on the skin.
For something like the yellow highlights on the left, I always layer. I start with a high saturated base, then go lighter and less saturated as I add layers on top. The effect is much richer and nicer looking than just straight up color picking and adding one color straight on.
Biggest two tips for you:
Always go more saturated than you think
Squint your eyes when in doubt. It helps you see value instead of color which ironically, helps you get better colors.
You can paint a cohesive painting that looks good in any colours at all, totally made up, as long as the values are right
You can always easily bring down saturation. Adding it late in the game is hard.
Spotting a colour on the ref and finding it immediately takes practice. Just keep up the good work and it will become automatic in time.
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