Hi all,
There are 2 very common issues for Low-res artists (and artists in general) :
1/ The scenes lack contrast.
2/ The colors nerver seem to be right. They're aeither too dull or too "shiny". It's either all gray or it looks like it's Disneyland.
Here is a little tutorial I wrote for a fellow artist, and Dualname asked me to release a tutorial by coincidence just the same day. So here it is.
The "you" in the tutorial could be YOU! It's the first FPT (First-Person-Tutorial :-D)
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TUTORIAL
Hey!
You already draw great scenes. They have a good composition, good color schemes. They just lack a bit of polish, and they lack contrast.
This kind-of-tutorial is specially meant for you, to adapt to your drawing process and style.
1/ Draw you scene black on white, defining the big volumes.
No antialiasing. Make sure your perspective is all good. Don't bother with details like buttons and stuff.
(http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/6427/16553169.png)
2/ Define the shading.
You can use colors, but it doesn't really matters at this stage. What you want to do is really have a good vision of cast shadows. Take every single light of source into consideration, even lamps, etc.
What you're missing here: Get rid of the black outlines. It'll still be possible to draw them over again later if needed.
(http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/3126/14139759.png)
(At first just fill the shapes AND add the shadows in the same step!)
(http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/6061/65483255.png)
(then -- or at the same time) get rid of the black outlines)
If you've done that part well, your scene should look realistic seen from afar, but hard to read from close (because of the lack of details and clear contrast despite the cartoony style)
3/ Choose your tones
You're good at choosing the general color of an object (this should be blue, this should be green, etc.)
You're also good at using not-too-staurated colors (so that it doesn't look like Disneyland)
What you could improve: Even though it's good to use unsaturated colors, keep in mind that a gray is never really just gray, or a black is never really just black. Never use gray or black or white. Always tint them, to make them look warmer. In the image below, the wall is slightly brown. It's gray but it's brown! :-D
(http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/715/80926749.png)
(the box is green-ish, and the wall is brown-ish)
What you're missing here: To draw the darker part of an object, or its lighter parts, using the "luminosity slide" is not enough!!! A dark brown will not "just" be a dark brown. You'll see that in the next step.
4/ Use much more saturated colors for your light parts and dark parts.
Leave the mid-tones unsaturated. That you did in the previous step. It's all good.
But you look closely in the image below you'll see I increased the saturation of the darker green, and of the darker brown (without touching the rest).
(http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/5953/14212458.png)
What you're missing here : Tell the superiority of (http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/3359/a00.png) over (http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/5258/b00.png)
- The middle color has not changed.
- The darker and lighter colors are more saturated, but the luminosity is the same (the dark doesn't look darker, the light doesn't look lighter))
When you're experienced you can do steps 2, 3 and 4 at once.
5/ Add highlights/outlines (apply your very own, manual pixel shading)
Outlines should not be all black or all white. They should follow the guidelines of step 4.
That will help :
- making the scene easier to read (slightly cartoony)
- Defining the material of objects (shiny? Matte? etc.)
That's also when you start using alialiasing like a crazy man, to make it all look sexier :-) But keep it at a mininum, to keep the sharp effect and not to make the scene look blurry.
(http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2092/72180395.png)
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For short, the goal of the tutorial is to reach that kind of enhancements :
(http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/031/c/8/technobabylon_2_cell_room_by_monsieurouxx-d38gebq.png)
(http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o33/Nedraed/cellsmall.png)
(the 2 images below did NOT follow this tutorial and were not made by me, but I think they illustrate pretty well the "outlines" and "warm black" parts)
(http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/1245/iceyl.png)(http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q53/JustLedZep/iceysbgedit1.png)