I NEED HELP WITH CONCEPT ART (lighting and colour theory)

TehSplatt

So over the years i have practiced a fair bit of 2D colour theory and lighting and i have never ever gotten any better at it. I have no idea where to start for one thing, and every thing i have learnt from sculpting makes sense in my head but when i try to paint all my forms become flat and my lighting flies out the window and if i even dare introduce colours it just looks like a kids finger painting except less interesting, I also dont seem to be able to come up with any interesting shapes beyond humanoid. I would really love some help and I'm going to use this thread as a concept art progress thread to see if i can get some proper guidance.


Here is some of my older stuff which i used reference for they are all quick 20 - 40 minute paintings copying a single reference for each one which i can kind of do but as soon as i take the reference away and try do something original i go back to drawing stick figures and unoriginal crap that makes no sense . please halp meh haha

Allan-p

Hey man, first of you need to get rid of that mindset of you're not good. It's very detrimental when you think of failure as an end result.

You mention you've practiced 2d colour theory and lighting but I only see monochromatic studies here. Kind of hard to assess colour when you only give it in greyscale.

You also mention near the end about design choices, references are a great way to build up a library, the reason why you revert back to stick figures is you haven't built your internal library of shapes to pull from. You build it up through research and interests, find shapes that interests you rather than trying to force yourself to be interested in it.

This may sound weird, but with colour I say enough studying and just play around, try out different combinations and see what you think. You'll find heaps of knowledge by just fiddling about and trying new things out. This way you find your extremes and your boundaries.

Keep at it though! I'll try to chime in.

TehSplatt

Hey thanks heaps for the reply the stuff about building a library of shapes to pull from is really helpful ill definitely start having a play around with colours and not worry to much about whats considered right and wrong at this point thanks

Deathstick

Alot of what Allan-p said; I'm pretty sure artists practice everyday until the day they pass peacefully into the sunset (or in a drunken spree like Jackson Pollock..) You also have to remember that artists usually only show the best of their best in portfolios, with a few brave enough to share insights into their sketchbooks. Most artists build up their visual vocabulary through collections of references, or better yet, getting a camera and taking your own refs/poses/lighting.

It's evident by your figure drawings that you know how to draw and use tone, which is quite a bit of the battle. Try sticking to simple complementary color schemes or spot color prints to ease your way into color if you're too shy about it. It's amazing what that basic color wheel can do for you.

Another thought, since you seem to be worried about not being able to draw anything original as soon as ref is taken away; try sketching out the general gesture and pose you want first. After that, try finding enough references that fit what you are looking for to take the sketch to the next level and understand how the lighting is working.

I usually just draw out some solid black silhouettes and proportions that interest me before I'm ready for the next step. If you want to move on from purely organic work, than just search for a ton of hard-edge mechanical stuff and start breaking down the objects into simple shapes and understand why it makes it interesting to you.

TehSplatt

Thanks for the feed back ive decided to go all the way back to basics and work my way up from there, so i started practicing form and poses again i seem to do a lot of females i dont know why i think i just enjoy drawing curves haha but yea once im able to do nice female poses i would do love to do them in colour so that's going to be my goal at the moment, thanks.

Here's some stuff i did tonight, some of it was using reference and others not because i want to be able to understand where bones and muscles sit in different positions not just copy them. I did it on paper so i wouldnt get distracted at my computer haha not that any ones really going to care but sorry for the bad quality

SmilingMountain

I'll preface this by saying that I'm no expert but I think you're doing well! I think your latest figures are looking nice, do you have any particular method for producing the ones from imagination? eg. constructive anatomy, Loomis etc. I think Allan p is absolutely right about avoiding a detrimental attitude, it's more about the process than the end result. I've also struggled to get my 2d work up to a similar level as my 3d, but I guess it just takes perseverance and practice.

Keep going dude!

Shrike

The drawings look fine, except the sword, perspective is off by a lot
If you dont use color ,you will never learn it. Theres nothing to be afraid of.

Start with simple complemetary contrast, and most artists only use that, triad is rarely used, or just a simple plain analogous (yellow orange red etc) with small color accent

Just remember shadows are not black, and retrain from painting your shadows in the same color tone than the base color, always change hue. Same as lighting, it is never white and nearly never the same tone as your material base color.

Im no anatomy guy, but skin is a mix of yellow, blue , purple red and even green
That needs additional research, but if youre painting with heavily color toned composition its not that important initially

If you dont know complementarys from your head, use colorshemedesigner or adobe kuler as help , or get a color wheel as desktop background

TehSplatt

Thanks heaps for the feedback this is good i need this haha so today i actually tried some colour and it failed haha.

I know that the lighting is really weak and nothing pops and the colour is extremely bland but i honestly dont know where to go from here i know that if the shadows are cold the highlights should generally be warm but i seem to have screwed that up here haha i think that my lighting is just so boring and generic that i cant really do much with it. I will most likely start again but if i could get some feed back on the colours, lighting and female anatomy that would be amazing.

Thanks.

SmilingMountain

Good stuff dude! There are a few things I can suggest that might be of help to you. At the moment it looks like you have very soft frontal lighting on your figure. Frontal lighting can be used to good effect, but may not describe the individual forms as well as say a three quarter light. That could be one reason why your forms aren't "popping" as well as they could. You could also add some highlights in places. A helpful way to think about lighting from imagination is to break the individual forms up into planes. One thing I heard on a Gnomon DVD is that planes turning away from the light will produce soft shadows, conversely cast shadows will be hard, for example the shadow cast by the nose or the neck, though I guess this also depends on the kind of light.

In terms of colour, it may help to remember that the skin on the body and face is made up of many different colours as mentioned by Shrike. You may be aware of the different colour zones of the face, as well as the body. Generally places where blood or muscle are close to the surface of the skin are more red. The hands and feet also tend to be redder, as blood pools in those areas. Greasy areas of the skin like the ears or areas with fatty deposits tend to be more yellow. Areas with lots of veins tend to have some green in them. You can also work some blue into shadowy areas and the lower face. Working some additional color into your skin tone should make your skin look more lifelike.

As for anatomy, I'm not that qualified to comment as I'm more familiar with male anatomy. Though I do feel that the left leg looks a bit awkward and should face more towards the viewer.

All of this should be cross referenced and taken with a pinch of salt as I'm no expert, but I hope at least some of it is helpful. I really like the proportions of the character and the pose, looking forward to seeing more