How do you choose colors?

[eobet]

Hello!

First of all, I'm sorry for this 10 second posting. I will read the forum more carefully and make a better one when my head doesn't feel like it's going to implode...

I have been using pencils all my life, always drawing in black and white, but now I want to learn colors, and painting (digitally, though).

I brough home a Wacom Intuos2 and Photoshop from work, and also downloaded OpenCanvas.

I found a very interesting OpenCanvas event file in these forums, but it did not shed alot of light on color selection.

The thing is, I suck at it. I see the RGB/HSV palette and I am at a total loss on how to choose great colors like those seen in, for example, Davi/Odd/others' paintings.

How do they do it? Pick from the palette with feeling? Sample from other paintings/photos? Doodle up their own palette and sample from that?

This would lead me now into a question on brush blending/transparency, but I'll save that.

Thanks for your time, I'll try to check in on IRC later.

/Robert

[JoshuaTheJames]

If you really want to be the goof at painting... Buy some gauche or oil paint ...If you can make gauche your b!tch then digital paint will be nothing. Its definitely not the only way but it works... A great way to learn color is to paint still lives and do what Andrew does and paint mad self portraits... I've learned there is only so much that can be told the rest of what you learn must come from experience...

I sincerely believe one has an easier time with digital when having a good foundation in traditional media...

I am also trying to get better with color ;)

-Joshua

[eobet]

I did try it in school many years ago... didn't like it.

I often used colored pencils at home... didn't like those either.

When I first saw Photoshop, I loved it!

Today, I try to use OpenCanvas (1.x or 2.x) and I really like that too. It's just that, pencil sketches flow out of me, fast and easy... but the coloring/painting... yeesh.

Anyway, this is off-topic, actually.

What I asked was NOT how to paint, but how to choose colors.

The art of selecting a good palette.

If people would just post a sentence on how they do it, I'd be happy with that.

Painting techniques will come later. :)

/Robert