playing with shading (again)

[jumbopaulo]

i'm playing with shading, my biggest problem.
tell me what you think:

[coffee]

Cute sprite!

Im a bit too tired to reply but im gonna do my best!

complementary colours! That will be a great improvement just understanding. So we'll start with that.

ok, I figured that will take a whole essey to explain... So here's a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementary_color

Basicilly its the opposite colour on the scale from the colour that you use. Instead of just using a darker shade of green for your scared/confused creation. I would suggest you took a look
at the scale and use a different colour for your shades. Perhaps, blue? Might do it! So, im not gonna make an edit this time cos I think it's a lot better to trial and error.
There are a few other things that could use a clean up, but start out with changing your palett!

Good luck bud!

[jams0988]

Basicilly its the opposite colour on the scale from the colour that you use. Instead of just using a darker shade of green for your scared/confused creation. I would suggest you took a look
at the scale and use a different colour for your shades. Perhaps, blue? Might do it! So, im not gonna make an edit this time cos I think it's a lot better to trial and error.
There are a few other things that could use a clean up, but start out with changing your palett!

The complimentary of green is red, though. Blue is right on the side of it! =P
Also, just to dispel a popular myth before one more artist learns it, using contrary colors to shade has nothing to do with realistic lighting, and everything to do with style. Contrary colors "pop" when they're next to each other, but that doesn't mean that all green objects have red shadows, nor does it mean you should always use red to shade green, hahah.
As you've already said, coffee, blue would probably be a nicer looking choice in this case, anyway, and trial and error is the best way to find out what looks the best for what you're trying to do with a given drawing. =D

Of course, having a solid base always helps:
http://www.huevaluechroma.com/

[coffee]

Yeah It might have popped out wrong. Blue was just a suggestion and had nothing to do with complementary colours.

What I ment was; try looking for other ways to do it, not just go down in the palett, but also sideways.
A shadow is deffinatly not just a darker colour of what it hits, that will depend on the surface aswell, so complementary colours can be used for realistic pieces aswell.

However, this is not a realistic piece is it?  

[jams0988]

What I ment was; try looking for other ways to do it, not just go down in the palett, but also sideways.
A shadow is deffinatly not just a darker colour of what it hits, that will depend on the surface aswell, so complementary colours can be used for realistic pieces aswell.

Ah, okay. That's more solid advice. Though, in some cases, a shadow *is* basically just a darker color of what it hits, heheh. Usually not, though.

However, this is not a realistic piece is it?  devious

Nope. That's why your advice to just play around with it until it looked good is great advice. =D

[jumbopaulo]

thanks for the tips, guys!
i tried what you said, but i'm not sure about the final result.

so? =p

[jams0988]

Picture isn't showing up. =(

[jumbopaulo]

try now.

[jams0988]

Yep, looks much better. =)

[pistachio]

Frankly, I believe otherwise. I liked the earlier version much better.

My two cents on the value/hue-shifting discussion: The darkest color doesn't have to be completely shifted, and furthermore, values don't have to be adjusted to correspond to that. In fact, I believe hue-shifting should never be overused unless you're doing some kind of extreme palette stylization thing, which I imagine is hard to pull off without looking unnatural/overdone.

The latest version may have taken certain suggestions into account, but it also may have taken them too far. These changes also make the pillow shading more obvious. By all means, try to avoid this. And banding as well. Avoid both of them.



Mine next to yours for comparison.

Granted, this edit does look a bit less cute and cuddly and more realistic than what was, perhaps, originally intended. As long as the values are good and the direction of the light source/original drawing are clear, feel free to choose any style you want.

Note I'm not using outlines, but the forms the outlines suggest to shade the character. You're off to a good start (sphere for the body and eyes, tubes for legs, etc.), so you know what I mean. The lines around the mouth are ridges, for example; then I imagine how light falls on them when coming from a single direction. And remember, keep the general forms in mind. Don't disregard them when working onto details. Another thing to remember is to keep lights separated from darks (thanks EC!). It's a bit hard to describe, but one example: the tail's lighting, or the way the lightest color grows darker towards the outlines so that it appears pillow-shaded, are examples of what not to do.

Other things I forgot to mention: added a dim secondary light. It could well be light reflected from a sky (game character, jumping over a pit to oblivion?), or just from a bright surface. Either way, once noticed it makes things more interesting IMO.

Made the farthest foot smaller to emulate perspective distortion, and adjusted the size of the monster's right eyeball. And, by the way, watch the saturation on those mouth/pink colors. They seem to pop out too much.