Coloring Tips - Part 1 Layering

Note: Click on the thumbnails to view larger image.

Part 1: Layering
Part 2: Underpaint
Part 3: Color Choices
Part 4: Shading and Contrast
Part 5: Steps of Coloring (walk-thru)

When coloring, it's better to separate the colors in different layers to avoid mudding it up.

Example:

The image on the top were painted without using layers (digitally), the coloring appeared muddy between flesh tone and the blue-green lighting and the shadings. The image on the bottom were painted with layers and had a better transition between flesh tone, the blue hues and the shadings.

For traditional oil painting, this can be done by waiting for one layer of color to dry before applying more colors (you can use retouch varnish to avoid the waiting).

Similar methods can be applied to oil pastels. (Note: you may not be able to apply retouch varnish to oil pastels done on paper.)

For mediums that can't be layered, such as watercolor, pastel and markers, you will need to rely on the color choice to avoid mudding things up. This will be explained in part 3.

For digital paintings, even with the help of different layers, there is still a chance to muddy the colors when you are using the eyedrop tool to re-select mid-tone colors.

A good way to avoid digital eyedrop-muddying colors would be to use layer mask.

In layer mask, the darker the mask color is, the more transparent and less visible the layer content will be. By painting on the layer mask instead of the layer, it'll maintain the transparency of the color, and allow user to adjust each layer's color without effecting the middle tones. This allows you to change the under-paint to different color without affecting any other layers, such as the image shown below.

Go to Part 2: Underpaint