lesson 3: “seeing color through grayscale...life drawing ii lesson 3: “seeing color through...
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Life Drawing II Lesson 3: “Seeing Color through Grayscale”
Welcome to the third lesson of Life Drawing II. In this lesson we will be focusing on color.
Color is a notable attribute to illustrators that, when used well, can be seen as a recognizable trait
or calling card for an illustrator’s body of work. Having a strong hold on color can lead to a
unified portfolio of signature color schemed work and many art directors tend to choose and
work with illustrators that use color in a profound or unique way. Also, in animation studios,
there are even colorist positions on staff for animated cartoon shows at places like Nickelodeon
and Disney.
LESSON III
To begin this lesson, first we will need to take one step back by remembering to embrace
grayscale. When you are given an assignment as a professional illustrator, the typical protocol
thereafter is to create a series of “roughs” (preliminary sketches) and then one final sketch to be
approved for you to from the art director to begin the final illustration. This process at times can
even have one more step with you as the illustrator having to provide color studies, along with
your roughs, for the art director and client to look over and pick for the final direction of your
finished piece to go.
With the first part of lesson 3, I want us to primarily focus on the purpose and fundamental usage
of grayscale sketches and from there learn how that leads into coloring your final pieces. In
order to be able to use color that considers the entire lighting structure of a piece by the subtle to
drastic light changes we need to remember basics, such as making a grayscale sketch first. This
can help you compose lighting accurately when executing color over top easier.
Below are examples of examined preliminary sketches. Please follow along by paying close
attention to how these illustrators show natural lighting and their stark contrasting of greys,
blacks & whites; also in how their prelims translate from grayscale to full color final
illustrations.
GRAYSCALE SKETCHES:
A few things to remember before looking at these grayscale sketches:
-Focus on the intensity of light from the given light source.
-Consider the darkest darks and the brightest lights in comparison to the shadows, as the shadows
should be diffused tones from your darkest shade. Essentially the shadows should be the middle
gray tones of you lightest light/white and your darkest dark/black.
In Yuko Shimizu’s work below, the illustrations were picked to show excellent examples of processes from start to finish. Starting with rough thumbnails to onwards revised preliminary sketches and then finally to full colored finals. YUKO SHIMIZU:
To begin, above is an example of one of her very rough and super loose concept thumbnails.
To review what the purpose of thumbnails are;
Thumbnails should be used as a brainstorming tool to help your mind come up with multiple ideas to
choose from in being able to provide the most original concept you can to eventually turn into your
realized idea.
The next piece shown above is her more revised, grayscale sketch. In this sketch there is not a lot of
shadow or gray tones but as you can see the negative spaces in the stripes translates as white in the
color piece and in her black & white sketch as it is the brightest light. She also left negative space in
her ink work where the light reflection is hitting within and on her objects. In other words, “she
incorporated influence of reflected light.” –Andrew Loomis.
Shown below are more examples of rough thumbnails by Yuko Shimizu that represent the initial
concepting process before the final grayscale sketches.
.
From the same illustrator once again as shown above (Yuko Shimizu) we can see the beginning
to end of another illustration:
Below is another loose rough before she adds her tonal values by ink.
Above shows her dark ink outlines for her character. As referenced already, one of Yuko’s trademark inking styles is to leave her reflection and brightest lighting as negative space on her characters. You can see more stylistic evidence of this by the image below on the figure’s jeans.
If you look closely at the way she is adding color to her figure, it appears that she is adding some minimal textures on this character’s shirt and jeans at the same time directly in Photoshop. In this case, she is adding all of her color & her slight tonal textures digitally.
MICHAEL BYERS:
Introduction: Michael Byers is a prolific editorial illustrator that primarily works in ink and digital coloring. He is an artist that maintains a consistent sketchbook practice. He updates that frequently linked from his main portfolio site and is definitely worth checking out. Here is a link to his sketchbook portfolio but he keeps an updated blog very frequently: http://www.michaelcbyers.com/sketchbook/
Below is an example of one of Michael’s thumbnails that started out from his sketchbook creative investigative processes. You can see in this preliminary thumbnail sketch he is focusing on perspective, character study, and proportion. He shaded in the flowers with medium to dark gray tones to remind himself when adding color later on to create dramatic light emphasis on the “astronaut horse ranger” character. Basically make them be the main lighted focus.
In the more realized sketch below you can see that he is producing a darker tonal effect with his
lines by placing them close together near the stems of the flowers and very tops of the flower
pedals. You can also see that he added a bit of texture by a stippling effect in the grass, flowers
and sky; basically everywhere but the space cowboy and his horse.
Michael’s fully colored piece above showcases a minimal color palette in which aided him in
highlighting that the cowboy and his horse companion are the main focus. He does a great job
here by keeping to more of a neutral color palette that compliments his sepia toned line work
(instead of using black line work, he used a color that would again mesh well with his color
choices) and this helps his brightest color shine through (his yellow flowers) without taking over
and becoming distracting. In fact the way he colored this creates a good balance with his main
focus (the astronaut cowboy) and with his flowers. He was able to separate the two with
distinction but not overpower one over the other.
Michael’s work is a great leeway into bringing up the concept of working with a minimal color
palettes and what are some of the best ways in doing so.
Minimal Color Palette Overview:
Lets take a look at a few different examples of preselected color palettes:
All of these color palettes I concocted from a reference tool online from Adobe / Color Wheel:
Link here:
http://goo.gl/JduMT0
It’s a color wheel that you can adjust and play around with for different shades and hues and mix
& match your chosen colors.
You can also make specific adjustments to work only in analogous colors, monochromatic
colors, triad, complimentary, compound, shades, or custom colors.
Nuetrals Color Scheme Example:
Brights Color Scheme Example:
Shade Color Scheme Example:
Complimentary Color Scheme Example:
A few things to remember in working with color:
*Create an inspiration folder-
It is always a great asset for an illustrator to keep an inspiration folder; more specifically a color
inspiration folder. If you see an illustration where the colors are particularly lovely to you,
sometimes bringing that image in, in photoshop and selecting the colors with the eye dropper and
putting them directly into your inked piece, you can use those as a starting point and mess with
the hue and saturation levels from there to create A NEW PALETTE. YOU SHOULD NEVER
TAKE/STEAL ANOTHER ARTIST’S COLORS DIRECTLY FROM THEIR
ILLUSTRATION, but using their colors as a starting point, if you do this a few times, it can train
your eye in thinking what colors can work well with others and helping you decipher what colors
you as an artist tend to enjoy using the most & gravitate towards.
Also having an inspiration folder doesn’t mean you need to start stemming your colors directly
from what you are choosing to keep aside in the folder. Even just having this as a resource to
look back to is an interesting archive as you can start evaluating and taking stock in the colors
that you seem to be picking the most. You can also ask yourself:
-What are the colors that I seem to be picking the most?
-Is there a lot of the same color tones?
-Why am I naturally drawn to these colors?
&
-How can I expand from what I’m drawn to and maybe even pick color schemes I’m not as
comfortable with?
*Pick out a designated premade color palette before starting coloring your piece-
The great think about doing this, is that you can focus on challenging the dexterity and breadth of
the colors you have already picked, as you have already picked them, so all your focus from this
point on can go to creating the most dynamic image that you can. It also makes for a unified
illustration and can be a lot easier to create a strong image, as opposed to potentially
overworking the colors if you have a lot to choose from.
Above is another example of one of Michael’s finely tuned sketches before he adds color
digitally. You can see that he uses the negative space in his inks (similar to Yuko Shimizu) to
show the light reflecting off his boots. He also used a similar stippling inking technique as his
illustration we just examined and he has the same type of exaggerated skewed perspective,
almost like a bird’s eye view on his character that he is known for. All of these characteristics
listed are ways that an art director can pick you out from other freelancers and can add to your
signature aesthetic.
In his final colored piece above, you can see he went with bold black line work that seems to
have aided him in illustrating the typical color dress code of the subjects he was drawing.
British Security Uniform: Red & Black.
Double decker British bus: Red & Black.
It appears that he added almost a watercolor textured looking effect digitally and his brightest
white is the exhaust coming from the bus trolley, as well as the sleeves on the man’s uniform.
This is a stylistic choice and I particularly like that he left the highlights in the guard’s boots to
be NOT the lightest color on the page. He allowed for the brightest lights to be what leads your
eye from the middle of the illustration (the man as the central focus) to the atmosphere that
surrounds the man.
He went with a limited color palette on this and used primarily reds and green tones.
I.E. / Complimentary colors at work!!
CAROLINE HADILAKSONO:
Caroline Hadilaksono is an up & coming illustrator that maintains beautiful drawings &
paintings from life in her sketchbooks. She also makes images from her imagination but she is
definitely a great person to watch and follow on her blog, as she updates very frequently,
sometimes even multiple times daily: http://blog.hadilaksono.com/
Above is the perfect stylistic example of what I intended for you to learn and become familiar
with in beginning development for this lesson. Caroline has some of the best prepping gray tone
preliminary sketches around. You can really distinguish, in looking at her images above and
below, how she breaks down her tonal ranges and fully warms-up before she moves on to her
final color pieces. You can see that she is investigating all light sources in her thumbnails and
figuring out how her shadows lay and interact with her characters and her environment as a
whole. She likes to consider the entire lighting atmosphere of a scene and uses shadows and
light play to create moody ambiances and creates further depth for her characters.
For example, the man holding the lantern in the thumbnail above has a very ominous shadow
emerging from his feet. The shadow is far reaching off the page and because of this creates and
adds mystery to the character. Her dramatic lighting that bounces off from his lantern onto his
pants and his face allows the viewer to distinguish details of the character’s facial features and
clothing. Essentially, these light nuances are achieved through experimentation and thus why
grayscale thumbnails act as valuable tools that let you try different lighting angles and
contrasting techniques.
Another important attribute about Caroline’s looser grayscale thumbnails worth mentioning, is
just that! These are loose, rough sketches! She doesn’t let them get too complex or overworked.
They are essentially her way of plotting out her darkest and lightest tones and although they are
roughs, they all have an element of distinction.
Above is an example of just a character study. As you can see, she doesn’t get bogged down
with drawing in every single finger or making sure the anatomy is pristinely accurate BUT what
she is doing is configuring her brightest whites and her darkest darks.
NOW FOR SOME COLOR
Miss Hadilaksono, just also happens to do rough color studies. Above is an example of one of
them. Again you can see that she is merely playing with possible color schemes and plotting out
and composing her color. You can see the beginnings of depth being created in the composition
with the lighter golden orange color permeating from behind the darker purple hue tent in front
but with the pops of brightly lit yellow lights disbursed on top, strung up by a brighter purple hue
string.
Above is a far more sophisticated, final illustration of her color study we just looked at.
As you can see it is much more detailed but she still kept with the same lighting and color hue
composing as the far rougher sketch above this. Even though she added animals and new
objects, she still kept with the same composition and overall environment light set-up.
One nuance that I particularly enjoy from her very rough color study to the final is how she
maintained the stark brilliant white of the hanging blankets in both. That was obviously a
characteristic that she didn’t want to shift from the study to her final. I think in this particular
final piece, it is also fun to see what objects she ending up adding and how it got more complex
and finessed.
Below are a series of color studies of the same vantage point for a tree illustration:
Below is the final illustration and color scheme she decided on. You can see that the closest
roughs to her final is the upper left and bottom left, as she added the hanging latterns from upper
left and a light tonal range in reference to the bottom left. You can see that she decided to scrap
the purple color all together but did include some subtly neutral and a few darker ranges of green
hues.
The bottom two examples are the exact same illustration but the light source in the top one,
closest to this text description, the light is coming from behind the frog to its left (the lighting
almost like a sunrise ambiance) and in the bottom, the light is shining directly on the frog (almost
appearing as a sunset stark lighting). These particular color studies are extremely beneficial to
look at directly next to each other, especially not only in how the colors change from lighter to
much darker from the top one to the bottom but what happens to the body of the frog in how the
light changes and fluxes on each.
Above is an example of one of Caroline’s sketchbook pages where she often draws her
landscapes on site when she is traveling or her landscapes are directly inspired from her travels.
This is a great shot too, as you can get a sense of some of her watercolor processes and how she
uses watercolor pencils to add some defined line weights in her line work. You can see
examples of this in the definition of her leaves and shrubbery in these two spot illustrations.
Above is an example of one of her final illustrations just on its own. Caroline’s work can most
definitely be picked out for the way she lights her foreground, middle ground and background
creating beautiful depth. If you look closely you can see that the sun is shining on the boys
directly to their right and how it is just barely glistening off of the tree bark to the left of them.
This creates such dimension in the tree and in her figures. The stark bright chimney smoke
billowing out of the chimneys to the crisp light blue skies in contrast to the cool, dark blue &
purple foreground juxtaposing quite naturally with the warm orange grass tones the figures are
walking in seem to all be flawlessly unified. This is a feat that is hard to accomplish and if you
think back to all of Caroline’s well executed and thought out approaches, it takes some preparing
and time but the outcomes sure are worth the effort.
SAM BOSMA:
Sam Bosma is a well-known editorial illustrator that has had some credits on cartoon shows with
concept related storyboard work and background color work. I wanted to show his color study
example after Caroline’s as it is a bit more complex and he drew it all digitally with a Wacom
Cintiq drawing directly onto his computer. That part isn’t especially important other than he
transitioned from such a loose, loose thumbnail as the one shown below to then, such a hyper
realized final with tremendous detail and a much cooler color scheme than the one in his rough.
Even so, this is a fantastic documentation process to look at and take a moment to soak in all the
detail that Sam put into the final colored illustration. Be sure to look at how each image varies
from the other and what are the same lighting effects that he ended up maintaining from the
super loose warm color study to the cool hued final illustration.
Exercise 3:
DRAWING ASSIGNMENT:
For this exercise I want you to create a “make believe land” out of everyday objects and pick a
corner of your house or apartment, drape clothing over tables or your refrigerator, add plants, add
clocks and props. Create a unique wonderland of objects in your place. In this still life, I’d like
you to have at least 2-3 figures/friends that would be willing to sit for you.
Remember to keep in mind: you will be incorporating gravity (showing how your draped cloth
falls), color, embracing distortion, mood lighting and motion lines in your work. I want you to
focus on correct proportion in your figures, focus on the folds and tonal gradation of your fabrics
and consider the spatial relations of your figures to your overall still life to create the most
engaging perspective.
I want you to draw the figures from life. I’d prefer that they didn’t sit for longer than a half hour
to 45 minutes. I want you to then have your figures get up and move somewhere in your
“creative apartment jungle” 3 times in your drawing for 3 half hour/45 min sit down intervals.
With each half hour interval I want you to create a black & white grayscale sketch like in the
previous examples I have showed above. Look specifically at Caroline Hadilaksono’s small
rough b & w thumbnails for reference but be sure and find your own original line work. Don’t
just copy from her aesthetic. If need be before you start on your 3 timed grayscale thumbnails
with the models, feel free to practice your grayscale techniques drawing a few of your objects
that you will be choosing for your still life.
Once your 3 grayscale sketches are completed, I want you to choose your favorite out of the
three. After you pick your favorite thumbnail I want you to draw and create a full color
illustration of the thumbnail you choose, working with a preselected color scheme. This should
be a fully realized detailed illustration that should take longer than your half hour grayscale
thumbnails. When putting together your still life think about a narrative concept you’d like to
portray and maybe even have your figures dress up in costumes. Have fun with this and excited
to see what you all come up with!