March WIP: Everything’s broken - halp! 😂

[EliaMurrayArt]

Update!

A.

B.

I’m leaning towards A.... but. Thoughts? B? Mystery option C?

[Nathalie Kranich]

Leaning towards A as well, although I think either could work if the values were pushed a bit more and colour played alongside with the contrast

love the idea and composition, and especially the character design! Nice work!

[chrisaakins]

@Nathalie-Kranich I like A but you would really need to figure out the lighting direction/type to make it convincing. I love the guy's expression. You might want a hand or tentacle on the top of the wall reaching in show the reason for the destruction.

[EliaMurrayArt]

@chrisaakins

Thank you! Yes I do agree a tentacle or hand would be good to put in. I'll definitely work on that. A tentacle would be so fun!

I'll work on bumping up the contrast / begin doing color studies today and see where that takes me.

Thank you again

[carriecopadraws]

@EliaMurrayArt I love A, the monster being darker frames the character nicely and makes the big eye standout. I really like the man's frozen expression, nice job! And opening up the building so we can see the sky, more monster, and the bird is a great adjustment.

[Lorna H]

@EliaMurrayArt - I thought this concept was fantastic! It worked perfectly as my eye went to the man drinking his tea in the rubble first, then I spotted the eye and laughed! Great work. I preferred A just for the contrast, I can’t wait to see the finished piece. I particularly liked the chap who looked so smart and dapper in amongst the chaos around him! Fantastic idea!

[EliaMurrayArt]

@carriecopadraws Thank you so much! I agree with what you said and will be working with something more like A. I'm so excited to work on this piece

I am slowly forcing myself to put my characters in environments haha so I feel like having a crumbling room is almost like a baby step because I only have to work on half - before actually filling a room with lots of real perspective at least that's what I'm telling myself.

[EliaMurrayArt]

@Lorna-H oh I'm so so glad you said that - that is the EXACT read I was hoping for. Thank you I can't wait to see this finished either wish me luck!

[j.sienkowski]

@EliaMurrayArt I like A too for the same reasons as @carriecopadraws.

[EliaMurrayArt]

Color study-ish.... Color is super tough for me...

How do you all pick your colors?

I feel so random. Like I’m throwing mud at a wall and ... not even sure when it sticks it’s any good.

Do you have a process for picking colors? Or like... do you choose color schemes? But then how to use them bleh

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@EliaMurrayArt hi I really like what you’re doing. What helps me the most when choosing the colors is that first, I choose the mood of the piece. I then pick colors that will compliment that mood. Then afterwards you have to take into consideration the time of day, weather, season, lighting etc.

[EliaMurrayArt]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz thank you!

That is something to think about. Like an entire subplot to think through.

[carriecopadraws]

@EliaMurrayArt Have you ever tried using a Gradient Map? I think most software will let you create a gradient map layer and set the mode to Color. You can check lots of color moods that way by changing the colors in the gradient.

Gradient maps apply color according to the values in the image, so it's a quick way to add some color to get an idea of what direction to go color-wise. I sometimes have two maps - warm tones and cool ones, and use masking to highlight important parts of the scene. (Like if your illustrations was primarily gold/warm, the man would be blue/cool to stand out.)

[EliaMurrayArt]

@carriecopadraws
Oh I have not tried that! That sounds like a great thing for me to mess around with. Thank you for the suggestion.

[baileyvidler]

@EliaMurrayArt I like the contrast that happens between the green monster and the red chair and yellow/orange walls!

[EliaMurrayArt]

@baileymvidler Thank you! that is what I was leaning towards so I appreciate the feedback

[danielerossi]

Hahahahaha the look on the guy’s face!

[EliaMurrayArt]

Progress shot- I’m fumbling my way through color.

Any thoughts? The details of the books and things are throwing me for a loop. I think I’m getting bogged down in color picking.

How do you guys sort colors of small “insignificant “ items?

[KaraDaniel]

@EliaMurrayArt I saw in one of videos classes here on svs start with coloring things that are supposed to be a certain color (plants green, firetruck red, an orange orange etc) then work out from there. You could also find an image online you like the color palette then just pull colors from that image.

[LauraA]

I love the guy's expression! I think my ideas about color are frequently different from those of other people. I tend towards warm/cool contrasts rather than monochromatic or all warm/cool schemes. So take my advice for what it's worth. But, cools recede and warms come forward. So depending on what you want the viewer to see first--the wall or the monster-- I like either the first or second one. At any rate, I don't think there's any danger of not seeing the monster. Just be careful not to lose the man!

P.S. Oh, sorry, somehow I didn't see the latest post so I was commenting on the color trials. I think you did well to make the man's sweater a contrasting color and have the monster the same tone as the wall. So far your book color choices harmonize well, so just keep it up!