My Coloring Process

As I mentioned last week, I thought it would be fitting to end on a blog post that revolves around my coloring process. I recommend reading this post beforehand, which is about color harmony, since some of those terms will be sprinkled throughout. 

Here is the sketch that was drawn for this week's purpose.

Initial sketch 

I thought it would be an interesting challenge to draw a booth vendor hub with a staircase that leads to who-knows-where. This could be taken place in some alternative universe where slime-balls co-exist with humans or something of the like. My initial vision for the colors would be for this scene to take place during sunset, and for the vendor area to be darkened to create a slightly foreboding scene. With that in mind, here is my initial coloring:

Initial Colors

I enjoyed the stark green contrast (of the living slime-ball being) with the purple surrounding since they were complementary colors (colors opposite to each other on the color wheel); however, in general, I thought blues may help darken the environment more. Though I like the purple, the salmon, peachy, and magenta sunset colors were analogous to the purples (colors same side as the key color), making the drawing a bit too monochromatic for my taste. 

In order to adjust the colors, I used a nifty hue shifter that's available in my drawing program. It basically allows you to shift your colors entirely into a different part of the color spectrum. For instance, if you use the color blue, using the shifter will let you change it to a green that has the same saturation and light values. 

Hue shifted colors

As seen above, I shifted the hues and made the right side of the drawing more blue. For the final color, decided to make the right side purple with more blue undertones (seen in image directly below). As a consequence to a more blue undertone, I decided to keep the slime-being more yellow to keep it complementary to its surroundings. With my colors relatively laid out (as seen in the image directly below), I realized that my focal point of the piece was divided between the brighter sunset and the glowing slime-ball, which — as someone pointed out to me— looks like a ghost. With that in mind, I had two options to consider: 1) Make the slime-ball/ghost the focal point or 2) make the sunset side the focal point. Though I say that I have two options I could technically try to make the two focal points harmonize more as a third option; however, in order to portray a straightforward message in the small-spaced canvas, I decided against this choice.

Adjusted coloring on the right side

Route 1: Making the slime-being the focal point

In order to make the slime-being the focal point of the piece, I decided to trash the beautiful sunset, despite loving how the sky colors turned out. A fundamental rule of drawing/painting any piece: Sacrifices must be made for the greater good of composition. Because the sky is now dark (as seen below), there is no secondary light source that is competing for the audience's attention — all eyes are on the slime-being.

Slime ball as focal point

As touch ups, I expanded the light source from the slime-being to lighten up the central area. I added highlights, reflections, and darkened shadows. In the end, I enjoyed how this painting came out, as the dark night sky and blue-purple scenery really makes the glowing light pop out while providing the slightly ominous vibe that I desired.

Refining the painting

Route 2: The sunset side is the focal point

In this version, I decided to expand on the peachy sky color into the building while completely taking out the glow in the slime-being. This made it so there was no obvious focal point — the details are extended out beyond the central light source. With this version, I attempted the triad approach with the blues/purples/peach and highlighted yellows/olive greens. Because of the new light source beaming down from the top left, shadows were adjusted accordingly.  

Expanding the sunset light source

 For touch ups, I added more color depth and dimension to details (such as the slime ball, stairway, and girl). This version definitely does not make the compostion omninous or anything; however, I enjoyed how the colors turned out nonetheless. Though this doesn't portray the story I desired, it was  fun to play with alternative coloring/lighting choices. 

Refining the painting 

Final Thoughts

In the end, my favorite out of the two was definitely the darker painting with the glowing slime-being (version 1). For me, this version had a clearly defined focal point — all eyes immediately go to the illuminated center. The complementary yellow provided a stark contrast in terms of brightness and added a "pop" to the artwork. Lighter blues were used near the yellows in order to lighten up areas that did not receive direct light, which adds more dimension to the coloring. As for the second version, a more broadened version of complementary colors was used (peachy pinks versus purply blues from opposite sides of the painting). The light source is definitely broadened, meaning the focal point is less obvious; however, a less obvious focal point doesn't mean the work is worse! It really depends on what message you want to convey in the painting. For me, the first version conveys my desired message better. What do you guys think? Which version do you prefer, and why so? Of course, both pieces are by no means completed; however, creating both of these rougher paintings proved to be an interesting exercise. Hopefully this post provides interesting insight when it comes to my process of choosing colors.

Final Version

Final Version