Comment on Escape Through the Insula by RhysGriffiths
Looking through your work you have a real knack for using natural colour palettes, which is refreshing to see as a large majority of the work on DA (including my own) favours absurd colour palettes haha. Do you use references at all for your colours or do you work them up by eye?
Thank you 
I'm glad to hear that because it's actually something I've been working on recently.
For your colours to look natural you have to identify the temperature of the light you want to use. Here I'm using a yellowish light.
That means everything will take on a yellowish tint - all the blue clothing here is painted green, all the greens take on a yellowish lime green sort of colour, the reds should turn orange where hit by light (I could've done this better I think) and the far wall which probably has a natural colour of light white/yellow becomes even more yellow.
This also means I shouldn't have any primary colours other than yellow in my scene, because there is no colour mixed with yellow which = blue or red, therefore if I select any colour with a colour picker it shouldn't be pure red or blue in hue.
Starting with a coloured underpainting is a really good way to get started - in this case I grabbed this image (www.hyoe.co.jp/blog/staff/hyoe…) and stretched it across the page and used it to sample my initial colours (you can still see some parts of it on the right side of the painting if you look closely ^^). It's a great way to get started and gives you something to compare to. If you're unsure how red should look, for example, you could just paint it lightly over the underpainting and let it blend naturally.
I have a big folder of references of different lighting conditions as well- I often study them to see how colours reacts under different lighting scenarios. Although the general premise is much like mixing paint, it's nice to have a reference to see exactly what skin colour or white cloth etc should look under certain lighting conditions.
I didn't do it here but sampling directly from photos is a great way to get a colour palette that looks natural, and you can adjust it from there once you have the colours down. I would highly recommend doing that if you can find a photo or a master painting with the sort of colours that you want. Then you have to apply your colour theory to make sure you don't break the palette when you introduce new colours.
Hope that helps! I should really take my own advice too, because a lot of what I just said I didn't apply very well, the more consistent and mathematical about it you are, the better it will look
I'm glad to hear that because it's actually something I've been working on recently.
For your colours to look natural you have to identify the temperature of the light you want to use. Here I'm using a yellowish light.
That means everything will take on a yellowish tint - all the blue clothing here is painted green, all the greens take on a yellowish lime green sort of colour, the reds should turn orange where hit by light (I could've done this better I think) and the far wall which probably has a natural colour of light white/yellow becomes even more yellow.
This also means I shouldn't have any primary colours other than yellow in my scene, because there is no colour mixed with yellow which = blue or red, therefore if I select any colour with a colour picker it shouldn't be pure red or blue in hue.
Starting with a coloured underpainting is a really good way to get started - in this case I grabbed this image (www.hyoe.co.jp/blog/staff/hyoe…) and stretched it across the page and used it to sample my initial colours (you can still see some parts of it on the right side of the painting if you look closely ^^). It's a great way to get started and gives you something to compare to. If you're unsure how red should look, for example, you could just paint it lightly over the underpainting and let it blend naturally.
I have a big folder of references of different lighting conditions as well- I often study them to see how colours reacts under different lighting scenarios. Although the general premise is much like mixing paint, it's nice to have a reference to see exactly what skin colour or white cloth etc should look under certain lighting conditions.
I didn't do it here but sampling directly from photos is a great way to get a colour palette that looks natural, and you can adjust it from there once you have the colours down. I would highly recommend doing that if you can find a photo or a master painting with the sort of colours that you want. Then you have to apply your colour theory to make sure you don't break the palette when you introduce new colours.
Hope that helps! I should really take my own advice too, because a lot of what I just said I didn't apply very well, the more consistent and mathematical about it you are, the better it will look
Wow thanks for the feedback!
Using existing images as a palette is undoubtedly the best way to get accurate results and allows you to work very quickly with such a wide range of colours to sample, but I am so bad when it comes to planning, too often I go in blind and just see what happens. Based on that I think my pre-painting phase should probably be what I focus on and try to put more time into visualising the image before realising it. With the results that you achieve it's clearly worth it! I'm glad you pointed out the underlying image in your painting, it's quite exciting to see the scaffolding peeping through!
I should spend more time building up my image database, I rely way too heavily on google for image resources which is impractical and means you really have to work to hide some elements to avoid any kind of property infringement.
Thinking about how coloured lights affect different coloured materials is something which I am completely lacking in my process, which I think will be the first thing that I prioritise in learning fully, what a difference it makes in your work! I'm sure I achieve it accidentally in places through just painting colour lightly onto other colour, but consciously trying to achieve it clearly yields fantastic results! A good point and a fine challenge.
Dude, thanks for taking the time to give a full response, it's awesome to get some proper feedback and get a good insight as to how you attack your work.
Using existing images as a palette is undoubtedly the best way to get accurate results and allows you to work very quickly with such a wide range of colours to sample, but I am so bad when it comes to planning, too often I go in blind and just see what happens. Based on that I think my pre-painting phase should probably be what I focus on and try to put more time into visualising the image before realising it. With the results that you achieve it's clearly worth it! I'm glad you pointed out the underlying image in your painting, it's quite exciting to see the scaffolding peeping through!
I should spend more time building up my image database, I rely way too heavily on google for image resources which is impractical and means you really have to work to hide some elements to avoid any kind of property infringement.
Thinking about how coloured lights affect different coloured materials is something which I am completely lacking in my process, which I think will be the first thing that I prioritise in learning fully, what a difference it makes in your work! I'm sure I achieve it accidentally in places through just painting colour lightly onto other colour, but consciously trying to achieve it clearly yields fantastic results! A good point and a fine challenge.
Dude, thanks for taking the time to give a full response, it's awesome to get some proper feedback and get a good insight as to how you attack your work.
You're welcome dude
For smaller simpler images I think it's sometimes quite ok to just jump in blind. But for more complex images, planning is really necessary. I do written brainstorming, search for references and make moodboards for every image, as well as some early exploration sketches. It's the sort of things your teacher tells you to do and you're like 'naaa I don't need to do that' and then as you get better as an artist you realise... 'shit.. I should have been doing that all along!' haha.
And don't worry about getting images from google. I think that's the best place to get images actually. Building your own library of personal photos is hopeless - trust me, I've tried! You can't just take a trip to Egypt if you want a photo of some hieroglyphics
The best way to avoid copyright problems is to always start with a drawing first. That way you are incorporating parts of photos into your drawing, almost as textures, rather than building a composition around cut out photo elements. It's more difficult but ultimately it will also give you wayyy more control over composition, mood, perspective etc.
John Park has some really good videos on Gumroad that cover that kind of process if you're interested.
Good luck
For smaller simpler images I think it's sometimes quite ok to just jump in blind. But for more complex images, planning is really necessary. I do written brainstorming, search for references and make moodboards for every image, as well as some early exploration sketches. It's the sort of things your teacher tells you to do and you're like 'naaa I don't need to do that' and then as you get better as an artist you realise... 'shit.. I should have been doing that all along!' haha.
And don't worry about getting images from google. I think that's the best place to get images actually. Building your own library of personal photos is hopeless - trust me, I've tried! You can't just take a trip to Egypt if you want a photo of some hieroglyphics
The best way to avoid copyright problems is to always start with a drawing first. That way you are incorporating parts of photos into your drawing, almost as textures, rather than building a composition around cut out photo elements. It's more difficult but ultimately it will also give you wayyy more control over composition, mood, perspective etc.
John Park has some really good videos on Gumroad that cover that kind of process if you're interested.
Good luck
Sweet man, thanks for the tip, I'll check some out as it looks like he's got some really awesome work on there, though I'll have to take it easy, I tend to splooge on these things and at £20 a pop that'll add up quickly!
Take it easy mate, thanks for the comments, and thanks for the watch!
Take it easy mate, thanks for the comments, and thanks for the watch!