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Finally got my color values right after a year of muddy paintings
I kept painting everything with the same mid-tone saturation, which made my fantasy landscapes look flat and dull. After watching a tutorial from a concept artist in Seattle, I realized I needed to push the darkest darks and lightest lights way further apart. How do you guys check your value range before adding color?
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christopher675mo ago
I used to just eyeball my values until a teacher in my old life drawing class made us do grayscale thumbnails for a month. Now I always squint at my work or flip it to black and white in my software. That trick shows you right away if your lights and darks are too close together. It feels like a basic step but it makes the biggest difference.
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dylan2655mo ago
But what if your colors are already working well together? In my experience, flipping to grayscale can sometimes trick you into changing a color harmony that's actually fine. I've seen people flatten their work trying to fix a value problem that wasn't really there. Squinting helps, but I rely more on checking the actual color relationships first.
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leo6032mo ago
Totally agree with this. I remember being stubborn about it at first, thinking I could just trust my eyes. But one week of forced grayscale studies changed my whole approach to painting.
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