Help me color this, pleeeease?

[Pelaxus]

I did as far as best pic i my life in greyscale... now everybody is asking me why it's not made in color. The answer is simple: I simply can't do it. Just hours studying tutos over the network and... do you see this piece of crap? like coloring of a five years' old kid...

It should be simply: using a color/multiply/overlay layer in PS or color/colorize in Painter... and what? Am I using the wrong brush set or something? RGB or CMYK or anything else? Or maybe there are some PROsecrets during color phase?

I've read that Mr. Targete is using the greyscale technique then he colorize the finished pic. So why am I doing this so horribly wrong???

Please help on this - I send you my original pic.

[kollatt]

this really doesn't seem so bad. i think the best thing to start off with asking is ,"what am i trying to achieve with my color?" what mood, tone, etc. i usually do a greyscale study like you've done to get the values right unless i'm particularly crunched for time. from there it's good to set up a color palette for yourself. limit yourself to a few colors at first and then once the painting starts to go your way, then you can branch add and start to build up the color variation. with color ( as with anything in art ) there really is no easy solution. you just have to take your time with it, pushing and pulling, until you get the desired result. you could use a strong direct light source to pop the armor with some nice highlights as well. hope this helps some.

[kollatt]

as far as approaching how to paint it in photoshop, is usually keep it pretty simple. constantly flattening layers. typically i start off doing the entire black/white study on one layer above the original drawing ( i typically try to preserve the original drawing just in case i stray too far from the original intention, i can still reference it ). then i'll do a "wash" layer above the black and white set to multiply. this allows me to see the underlying layer while i add color. the wash layer is just a color study to make sure that what i see in my head color-wise is going to look right on the actual painting. i don't get too crazy at this point. just getting it down to see it on the painting. then after that i try to paint most of the rest on one or two layers above these, flattening as i go to keep it simple and not get confused with what's on what layer.

[Pelaxus]

THX for the tip KOLLATT

but I've another set of questions: are you guys using channels or levels to modify the actual colors? And also: what's exactly using the UNDERLAYER method? That mean I have to switch my base drawing into multiply and draw under base drawing or what? That's a chaos theory for me ;-)

[kollatt]

if i'm right, then i guess you're referring to an underpainting? typically this is used to set a proper balance for your painting. since colors are relative, what color you paint on can change your perception of what you're putting down. a lot of artists don't like to paint directly on a white surface, because the stark white in comparison to others can give you a wrong idea of what you're doing ( though this depends on what you're going for ). for example: let's say you want to paint your figure here with a lot of dark earthy colors. well against the white background a great deal of those initial colors you put down can seem REALLY dark and grey. but once you see the painting finished compared to something else that was started off with a tonal underpainting you realize that it's more saturated than what you wanted and just not that dark. this is all relative of course.. even some of the darkest colors can seem really light compared to black, or dark purple. it all depends on what you want from your piece. here's the thread for underpaintings that goes way more in-depth about the subject http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=64674

as far as color adjustments, you can use a lot of the options under "image" in photoshop, or use an adjustment layer. they can be created in the layers palette just like a normal layer ( it's the one that looks like a little circle cut in two with one side dark and one side lighter ). these are really useful for adjusting your image without permanently having to commit to that adjustment if you see later that it wasn't what you wanted.

[kollatt]

sometimes it helps me to copy the initial drawing as a new layer and put it above the paint layer with low opacity. then i can turn it off and on if i ever need to reference the drawing again without too much trouble.