09-21-2013, 10:57 AM
So for B I think I painted the colour on a normal layer but actually used the grayscale painting in a "value" layer above the one I was painting on. Not sure if PS has this blending mode (I use Gimp) I think you would get similar results just using a color layer on top of the grayscale in PS. The real trick though was that I squeezed the value layer to be less contrasty with curves once I put some base colour down. This was to get a better balance because of the way the two interacted.
I think a perfect value painting with a good range doesn't always allow you to get the right amount of chroma into the areas you need it simply with a color layer, and things can end up looking pretty dark. So tweaking the values to be a bit less darker than they would be in value alone can help when moving to colour.
I agree my palette isn't refined or thought out at all but I was more focused on achieving a good colour vibrancy overall quickly in a base layer because this is the thing that I hear most people seem to complain about not getting when using color layers. I think it's achievable. I would agree that you are missing a sense of vibrancy in your current piece so try working in some hue variation within your palette. Besides directly painting that in to your colour layer you can also throw some random blobs of high sat colour on a really low opacity (3%) on an overlay or screen layer to bring some of that random variation into your work.
I like to think of the value painting as a really good base to get the essentials of form, depth design and comp working, so it's not a pointless exercise because you've worked out a lot of the fundamental things without having to worry about colour. Anything after that is game if it aids in the final result, including overall shifts in the value painting itself. Experimentation is key to hone in on something that works for you I guess.
If you are after a more specific workflow thing though here are a few interesting workflow / layering type methods which I think has some real benefits and may be worth trying.
http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-3355.html
http://texahol.blogspot.co.nz/2013/05/so...about.html
and a vid which shows Clint's process, but he also does a great job of explaining how different layer modes interact when moving from grayscale to colour. The bit at the end about cool highlights is really interesting and worth checking out.
I think a perfect value painting with a good range doesn't always allow you to get the right amount of chroma into the areas you need it simply with a color layer, and things can end up looking pretty dark. So tweaking the values to be a bit less darker than they would be in value alone can help when moving to colour.
I agree my palette isn't refined or thought out at all but I was more focused on achieving a good colour vibrancy overall quickly in a base layer because this is the thing that I hear most people seem to complain about not getting when using color layers. I think it's achievable. I would agree that you are missing a sense of vibrancy in your current piece so try working in some hue variation within your palette. Besides directly painting that in to your colour layer you can also throw some random blobs of high sat colour on a really low opacity (3%) on an overlay or screen layer to bring some of that random variation into your work.
I like to think of the value painting as a really good base to get the essentials of form, depth design and comp working, so it's not a pointless exercise because you've worked out a lot of the fundamental things without having to worry about colour. Anything after that is game if it aids in the final result, including overall shifts in the value painting itself. Experimentation is key to hone in on something that works for you I guess.
If you are after a more specific workflow thing though here are a few interesting workflow / layering type methods which I think has some real benefits and may be worth trying.
http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-3355.html
http://texahol.blogspot.co.nz/2013/05/so...about.html
and a vid which shows Clint's process, but he also does a great job of explaining how different layer modes interact when moving from grayscale to colour. The bit at the end about cool highlights is really interesting and worth checking out.