I'm finding that when painting something with multiple elements my contrast ranges aren't really matching up but im also not sure how to fix or study to fix this because my darkest dark isn't black and my lightest light isn't white, and not only that but some materials have different ranges.

How have others figured this out?


Thanks!

EDIT

Oops I'm on an iPhone and I may have plopped this in general discussion instead of technical talk

i always add at the top of my layer stack a black layer with a saturation on it. Then i can hide and unhide to check my contrast. This will really help you spot where you need to create a higher contrast.

Also... make sure that your opacity if you use opacity paints the color you pick and not just murk up your colors. This will really fast create a bland murky colors that hold no color value that you selected. I think that setting is in your brush settings.

I would check Feng Zhu, he has some awesome tips on how to check for contrast and how he paints, and it makes more sense.

At least it works for me. Hope it helps.

Originally Posted by glottis8

i always add at the top of my layer stack a black layer with a saturation on it. Then i can hide and unhide to check my contrast. This will really help you spot where you need to create a higher contrast.

Hi man, could you elaborate on this tip as I was wondering the same thing - do you mean you set the layer to multiply over your painting?

Originally Posted by Torch

Hi man, could you elaborate on this tip as I was wondering the same thing - do you mean you set the layer to multiply over your painting?

No. You don't set the top layer to Multiply. You set it to Saturation.

Then when you turn the layer on, everything under will be B/W.

You keep painting in your color layer with the color you are making highlights. That is what i do anyways. It helps me get good contrast while i am working, and you can see right away if your darks are really dark and your lights really lights. If they are all in the middle then you can bump it up.

Oh yea.. here is the link to Feng Zhus tutorials http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xUBV67J9s3A#!

In that one he talks about some of his settings and the use of this layer to check your values. I am looking for the other one where he talks about his settings that make your colors when using opacity be that color, and not a blend of what is behind. This really bumps the colors in your work.

Here is an example.



with the Saturation layer on you can see it like this.

Scroll down to October 14 entry under title "Notes on Composition"

http://dantat.typepad.com/dantat/page/7/

Artist Dan Santat also went to Art Center as Feng, and he does illustrations for children's books. There's a downloadable pdf somewhere in his site where he broke down how did the art for one of his books.

If you mean in terms of painting accurately, this is a major observational skill that's gonna take time to develop. Do value (greyscale) studies of photos or from life!

A lot of the second half of the tips here (exposure, materials, color identity, etc) may help too: http://itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm

http://www.doctormacro.com/

This one's a little more in-depth, but worth a read-
http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color11.html
http://www.handprint.com/LS/CVS/color.html

There's also the 60-30-10 rule. This random blog spot I found sums it up nicely-
http://sari0009.xanga.com/758578546/...e-603010-rule/

Do some value sketches before you paint!