A question to the artists.
Do you prefer to create the work first with the values (in greyscale) or directly with colour?
Personally, starting from the values, I can see the work better overall.
I can see the elements better when drawing them and also in creating the right shades.
But if you donāt decide on the right values, then when you apply the color.
The colors themselves are a little dull.
On the contrary, by using colors directly, sometimes the works come out well, especially when I create them in a cartoon or comics style.
But if I want to create something more real. the drawing that comes out of me is often too unreal and fake, which I solve by starting with the values.
What do you prefer and why? ![]()
Personally I like starting with the values only because I have a hard time seeing them and getting them right when I paint in color with correct value directly. Although I hate the extra work of getting the colors done in an extra step because it takes a lot of fixing, usually. To get around the colors being a bit dull afterwards, my simple trick is to adjust the grayscale image and change the hue a bit, normally to what the ambient color of light is (like blue when the sky is blue).
For comic style I have outlines to define the shapes and wrong values donāt affect the picture too much so I start with flat colors and then add shading later.
Color, no grayscale.
Main reason is blending. I find it difficult to find the right color that would normally be produced by blending many brush strokes or layers together.
Colors. I have an affinity for them and a hard time with getting them correct if I try to color a grayscale image (like YRH I pick hues from mixes), also struggling to plan good hues in first place if I ignore them at the conception of the painting.
Colors are the painting for me. Shapes are kinda secondary.
Also, nothing prevents me from checking values as I work in color mode.
At this point, I think I have the same problem as you. seen the results obtained using color directly ![]()
However, I have read in various drawing forums that starting with the grayscale method would be the best one. because values are the ones that determine the success or failure of a job. letās say that color is an element that serves to complete the work. but if the values are wrong the work will be destined to fail.
thatās what they say. I believe that how we arrive at the result is irrelevant. The important thing is that the artist finds the best method.
I think this is an important point. You can quickly slap a grayscale filter layer on top of your stack and voila, you can check the values.
But naturally the best advice is to use a workflow that is most comfortable to you
I understand this thread is a sort of a poll to see who prefers what.
You can use many different methods. Personally, I tried painting with only the values first then adding the color, but it always ends up looking not the way I expected. Iām trying to either paint in full color as of late, or combining both methods together (adding color to traditional monochrome drawings, with aforementioned drawings not containing any tone fills - only shadows and highlights). If you struggle with creating proper values in full color paintings, you can always use a āDesaturateā filter layer set to āLuminosity (ITU-R BT.709)ā (second option), and check your full color painting for values by switching it on and off. Of course, thereās yet another method - with multiple layers and gradient maps - but itās way too time consuming (at least for me) and wonāt fit all types of art styles.
I also stumbled upon a brilliant idea on the web recently - the black and white underpainting. The idea is old, and Iāve heard of it before from traditional artists who paint with oils, but never tried, so Iām definitely giving this idea a shot sometime in the future.
interesting. ![]()
I didnāt know about some of these methods.
I will elaborate
Absolutely. I find vital to take into account your strengths and what throws you off when searching for the most comfortable workflow rather than the one thatāll be accepted as the ācorrectā by third-parties. Thereās no shortage of people dramatically declaring that THIS or THAT is the Right Way to do something, which tbh is unhelpful though a bit funny. ![]()
Can you elaborate on it a bit? ![]()
Color⦠actually both?
There is actually a way where you start with colors, no shading, then add the shading with various tools and techniques like dodging and burning or a grayscale layer that contain shadow information laid over the top (usually using multiply).
I do mine very much like how traditional opaque paints are used. I put in colors already containing the proper value and hue. I also usually work in a small amount of layers, usually just two or three.
Do you know that one colorblind challenge, where you take different colors, then turn your colors of the screen, swirl the colors on the canvas, and start coloring in values only. After you are done, you turn on the colors.
It shows the importance of value, but when you only draw in grayscale only and then change black and white to color, those colors can feel wrong because each color has its own value.
So preferably you should draw in color as if you draw in grayscale.
For example, with filtermask where you turn the saturation down.
OR
In my opinion the superior option is to use the subwindows as described here:
10 krita tipps
Can you elaborate on it a bit?
Sure! ^v^ Underpainting is basically a fully-shaded sketch that you create to define where lights and shadows will go, then paint over it in full color. You can read about it on Wikipedia, they have a very good definition for that. Itās just that it never crossed my mind before to use this method for digital art ![]()
I think they meant a grisaille. It is a monochromatic under-painting of grays. Color glazes are then applied on top.
Ah, yes, thanks! Iāve seen that used digitally to get lively hues for skin and shadows, but never with focus on values.
Thatās all very well, but colouring a greyscale image effectively is very challenging - it requires a strong foundation in colour to begin with - you need to understand how light and colour work in nature. You also need a good technical understanding of the software to get the desired results from filters/layers etc.
@celes @alvawings re: the classical technique:
Underpainting is kinda a more general term. Underpaintings can be in color, monochromatic but in color. For example, skin often have an underpainting of green.
You can actually just color the whole canvass a single color before applying actual colors, and that can also be considered an underpainting, specifically an imprimatura.
Grisaille is the more specific term where the painting is executed completely in black and white to be then glazed over.
I configured Kritaās soft proofing to use grayscale so I can switch back and forth with ctrl + y.
Still I have trouble getting values right even when just fixing stuff later on, especially when there are transitions of color on the same shape. I know itās just practice but Iām simply too lazy.
I instead started from a grayscale drawing and then applied a color layer at the end with the color method.
I get better results than when I apply the color directly.
As also specified by Takiro, perhaps because I canāt see the correct value directly in the color.
By using color directly, the works ultimately turn out to be unreal and fake.
Iām trying to understand why.
In my experience, this is often because the colors are too saturated or the colors are just unrelated in general (i.e. too pure).
Instead of using Color blending mode to apply color to grayscale I can recommend using Lambert Lighting (either Gama or Linear, depending on if you use linear color profile or not) for the grayscale painting after youāre done, and then paint the flat colors on a normal layer below. I found this to give very good results that require minimal fixing, depending on how your grayscale painting is. But it assumes your grayscale painting to be basically a light map, it should not already include the values of the local colors it is supposed to have.
Definitely the most lazy solution and I personally like that its easy that way to try out different colors, when I have not settled on a design yet (mostly colors for clothes and stuff).