/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>1979018
>>1979042
>>1979047
Here's another example of grays used well in the skin. Notice how rich her ear seems in color. Now eyedrop that and see how close to gray it actually is. It appears vibrant because the surrounding skin is even further into the grays. The background is rich and warm, and this saturation contrast makes the head pop even without a lot of value contrast.

In fact, the skin overall is largely neutral towards the light side of the value scale - there aren't any real bright brights, but it still works very well because of how strong the control is over subtle color and value changes.

If you eyedrop parts of the skin, you'll find grayed hues that are even green and purple! Not what you'd typically think of as believable skin color. If the rest of the environment is handled correctly to give an illusion of a certain temperature for the primary and ambient light sources, then it will read correctly and believably. Color is all about getting the relationships correct, and not necessary the absolute color used. Using grays to their full advantage helps a lot.

I guess the main point is to not think of gray as one end of a spectrum from dull to rich color. Instead, think of it as an intermediate between two separate color scales. Your rich blue gets progressively desaturated until you reach the grayed blues, those grayed blues transition to grayed oranges (or any other color you want), and from there become increasingly saturated until you reach a rich orange.