Colors and values are often where I get hung up. I know that picking two colors for a character design is usually a good way to start but I struggle to balance everything and get jumbled up when I start adding accent colors. I was initially going for a west coast beach vibe with lots of pastel blues and oranges.
What approaches would you suggest that lead to a clean, readable design?
@Griffin-McPherson this looks really clean and crisp like all your work. Generally when choose color I go a little crazy. I will pick like 5 base colors and then from those, I will still choose a lighter and darker variation and accent colors!…so I end up with like 20 colors lol probably not the best approach but it’s what works for me.
Great illustration by the way love the character and colors.
@Asyas_illos FIVE colors? What a terrifying thought, though maybe I should give it a shot anyways haha. Thanks for the feedback!
@Griffin-McPherson I really love color lol and I break it constantly 
@Griffin-McPherson Maybe my process will help. I try to mimic Will’s process in the 10-step dragon video.
I probably do this wrong, but would love to hear so if I am. Like you, color is what I’m least confident about – and I know I have a lot of areas for growth.
I always start with toning black and white:
Then I’ll find a theme I like on Adobe.color.com, find an image I like and steal the main colors, or find a color I like and explore the compliment options on Adobe.color.com.
Then I add 3-5 colors and get:
My colors never stand out like Asyas’s, though.
@Griffin-McPherson For me I think about what kind of environments the character will be in. If he will be in jungles and among trees, I will pick orange and warm colours to ensure he stands out. If he will be in an environment with lots of browns, I may pick a cool colour to help him stand out.
Update: here’s where I’m at now. Really tried to restrict myself to just orange and blue and I’m liking it better but still have some bits I’m working out. Not sure I like the white on the bag, I also think the strap for the pag might need to be darker. I can’t decide if I like the colors on the gun or not, I think it;s mainly the dark blue parts that feel weird to me and I’m struggling to figure out what the solutions there is.
Is the gold on the gun working? I’ve never really had to make a shiny metal surface so I want to make sure that’s reading well. Additionally, does the shiny gold fit in with the rest of the character at all? I haven’t been able to decide if it looks out of place or not. I want it to stand out but not in a disjointed way.
Let me know watcha think! Thank you all for the feedback!
Update: alright I think I’m about done here unless I get any more feedback. The only things I’m wondering about now are the orbs around the gun and the dash streaks around the character, do you think they’re too much?
@Griffin-McPherson I think the added saturation to the orange here is definitely working better than the image before.
@KevinTreaccar yeah it helped a lot. I tend to gravitate towards low saturation colors but higher saturation always ends up working better.
@Griffin-McPherson this looks really clean and crisp like all your work. Generally when choose color I go a little crazy. I will pick like 5 base colors and then from those, I will still choose a lighter and darker variation and accent colors!…so I end up with like 20 colors lol probably not the best approach but it’s what works for me.
Great illustration by the way love the character and colors.
