/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>6407090
Just learn to color. You'll need to know how colors work anyway to make a good greyscale conversion.

>>6407096
i do know how to color, but i have some works in greyscale cause i like working in greyscale, and id like to be able to color them

>>6407097
Try using a different brush to blend your colors, That often helps.

>>6407116
that piece was already colored, i was using it as an example of a colored piece i did

>>6407090
Im not that good, but for skin, i just use a Color Layer and trying different tones for some parts in it. For things like clothes, i use a Multiply Layer. What did you did to paint it?

>>6407090
GRADIENT MAPS
someone /thread me

>>6407124
wow that looks way better. i should try varying the hues in places more

>>6407125
Just came in to this thread to say this.
OP, color/multiply/etc layers are always going to look like shit for this method. Gradient maps are the answer here because they're the only thing that won't make it look muddy and ugly.
That being said, I've tried working in greyscale many times myself since I've seen a lot of artists work this way and in my experience it's more time consuming, you will get worse results than if you work just painting normally and there'll probably be some degree of painting on top you'll have to do anyway. Just from my experience.

>>6407090
Watch these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJitss58XKc&ab_channel=MarcoBucci
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYhDUd5RrFQ&ab_channel=Swatches

>>6407090
Look for a Ctrl Paint series on this topic you can find it for download on certain sites.
The issue you might be having is what blending modes you're using. If you're just using multiply, it's going to make it look weird because it's an additive mode. Think of watercolors - you can make things darker, but not lighter. Similarly, it might be picking up too much grays and making the color look dull.
Overlay, color dodge and some other modes can be useful to polish it a bit.

>>6407125
/thread

>>6407090
The muddiness tends to stem from your initial value painting, not the coloring method. Rather than thinking there is a best method, you should learn what actually happens with each and use them when appropriate.
-Multiply layer will pull all of your color values down towards desaturated black. This requires the most consideration for the color value you initially pick.
-Overlay layer will pull your color value in two directions, both desaturated white and desaturated black. This gives you the most direct control, but requires the most manual work.
-Color layer is similar to overlay. It pulls the color towards a desaturated white, but a saturated black. This requires more careful consideration of the saturation you use.
-Gradient map assigns a specific color along a gradient to each value. This can be fast and produce interesting results, but involves a lot of careful masking work.
All of these methods require varying levels of overpainting and tweaking, and that's probably what you're not doing.

Look up en grisaille.

AI coloring?

You will have to paintover a lot.

I like using color blending mode + overlay, having a good reference and desaturating the reference as well so I have a notion of both the correct colors and the correct values.

>>6407090
The lightest values should be less saturated (more towards white) than the mid tones. In other words, you're missing the reflective highlights

There is no one way to automatically get something that works, every method has a downside along with the upsides.
Gradient maps result in banding/artifacts if you overdo them, but they give fine tune control.
Best blend modes are Multiply (will always darken so you'll have to go back in and paint over, but it's good as a starting point if your intention is to manually color later), and Overlay/Hardlight (Overlay risks blowing out the contrast, particularly with very dark or very light colors, and Hardlight destroys contrast with overly light and dark colors).
"Color" blend mode was designed for coloring b/w photographs, so it works well only if you paint your greyscale with the local color values in mind (if thatst he case working directly with color might be better).
In the end you'll always have to eyeball the result and adjust accordingly, including playing with the opacity of any blend mode layers you use. It'll never be as simple as laying in flats by color picking from a reference sheet.

>>6407090
Anthony Jones Paint course

bump

This method is mostly used for applying local color to your painting, to differs between shadow, midtones, and highlight. At the end of the day you still need to do manual painting using various brush or layer settings.
Greyscale to color depends on your post processing skill.

bumping

Just a day or two ago I swear someone posted a thread or posted in a thread with the image of a japanese artist showing how they do grayscale to color and another anon commented further clarifying it and now I can't find it. I've scoured the archives for possible keywords and it's driving me crazy. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? The image has japanese text on it, and it's of a woman wearing a green dress.

>>6420983
Don't know but interested if anyone can find this

>>6407090

>>6407090
Do shadows on a 50%> opacity layer, in all black

Select said entire shadow layer

create a 50% opacity color layer, fill in any colour of your choice with 100% saturation

simple as. And then just swap colour profiler to grayscale now and then to check your values when neededvh

>>6407090
i am of the opinion that greyscale to color is just not a good way of doing things, but i almost never color so

>>6407090

>>6424316