Lesson 03
Coloring
Chessmasterriley

Intro: Many novice pixelers dont think very much about color choices. This can be very hindering because the pixel may not look good because the colors don't fit or they are too bright. This lesson should cover the basics of selecting good colors.

Saturation: This is a very key part in selecting colors. The colors that paint starts with all have a very high saturation. This makes the pixel look very bright. For the most part, you want to keep your colors below 170 saturation. The black line on the colors shows about where you want to keep your colors below.

This, though, is not a rule. There are a few exceptions and perhaps a few styles that may need to have a color with a high saturation.

Color Theme: Keeping a general theme of color helps keep the piece a whole. For example, if you have a bunch of really low saturation colors, it will cause a high saturation color to stand out. That however may be what your want if, for example you want a background to be less eye capturing than the subject. Another way to keep a theme may be to keep the amount of colors down and maybe stick to one color...just different shades.

There is an example of a theme of colors. I used a special way to shade him with purple and yellow even though he is grey.

Assignment: Pick a theme of colors and color something. You dont have to use your old lineart, but you may. Choose an interesting color pallete to use.

Youve inspired me to pixel a Sword.

Can i join the Class? Im already pretty advanced at pixeling, I know everything you taught so far. I also know Aliasing and Anti Aliasing, Dithering, Beveled, My lineart isnt that good, I need to work on that alot.

Nice sword IAU! Yes Savaril, you may.

shield ^_^

I think i have misunderstood, but here is my lineart just with colors:

here's is mine:

it's not madness interactive because madness has feet and the head and arms a more attached to the body.

So what exactly is saturation (huh)
You never clearly told us how to do it, any special technique?

?anyone who looks at this can tell its a charecter on madness i dont understand how its not?
ill get something colored right away!

Saturation is the intensity of the colour. A colour with low saturation will be more grey/white/black (dependent on luminocity), A colour with a high saturation will reveal the the hue more pontently. Many people when starting out merely reduce the luminocity of their colours to create shades or increase to create highlights, if you use hue and saturation shifts then a much more desirable effect can be achieved. Play around with your palettes, colour choice is something I need practice with myself but never seem to go out of my way to practice it so I will probably be working on that soon.

Ahhh, but the pen is mighter than the sword! (in this case pencil!)

I've practiced some saturation. I need a little more work on it but It's better than last time.

And Here it is!

(keep in mind I use pencils a lot so it's a little used on the tip hehe...)


Let me know what you think. ^_^

Gaming4JC
Edit: You may have to save it and blow it up to see the true colors.
This forum makes it look brighter than it is!... :|

Looks flat.
Make the left side of the pencil darker and the right side brighter.

If you don't know what i mean, take a look at shading tutorials.

Here's my... earth:



I tried a little dithering... but... what do you guys think?

im working on narutos head. so dont rush me, its big

well i kept the sat between 100 and 155

Guess who it is.

Nice work everybody!

@9_6
Really cool man. You should really think about joining the teachers.

9_6, that's brilliant, but there's something wrong with his right foot (the one on your left). It looks a little odd.

-DM

if there one thing ive seen too many of, ITS CLOUD.

but nice work though :P

how do you do that?

Im guessing you just request CMR to add you to the teacher list, but are you 9_6? I havn't seen any of your pixel art, but do you think you are good enough?

is that a dildo he is reaching for ??? (XD)

NO!!! ITS AN ENERGY BEAM DUMBASSES

It could do with some more definition about the energy sword part...

I'll update when im done with my boobie

1.YES I AM 9_6'S CLONE, JOIN ME OR DIE...no im not 9_6
2.i dont want to post my work because,
3.i dont think im good enough

I'm not sure what exactly it is, but the colours just seem right, if you know what I mean...

I thought I'd put mine up here, maybe I missed it..

(huh) umm thats sk8s

CMR, can I take lesson 4?

keep tihs open for a while, im not done yet

im done now, i spent a hella long time making my naruto

off topic- curious sniper, are you from the bay area?(san fransisco,california)

on topic- nice naruto head, something wrong about the right ear, can put my finger on it, but this is about coloring so i shouldnt care.

im in bc, im canadian

I just colored this pixel art of Espio. I'm sorry, I forget who made the lineart. I think I may need to make the shoes daker. Hope it's not too late.

it looks alright but i think the point of theis lesson was to start to use more shades and dithering and low saturation colors! the face looks like it has maybe 3 shades. i know its supposed to be cartoony in away but try something more realistic!

uhh, they are all low saturation


btw- i forgot to shade the teeth, before i get graded i need to finish that and then post the edit

edit: wow i actually got it done fast,

um so what changed other than the teeth getting slightly darker?

I think he AAed the teeth, not shaded...

Um, how man colours is that, it looks brilliant but you don't have to AA everything!

yea, ur right, i didnt shade the teeth. sry i used wrong words. but i didnt AA everything, just most stuff lol

and i did another edit, i took a layer of AA off of the darker parts of the face where the mouth is


ps- o and i think its 24 colors

Yes.. did you even read my post? Some people don't look these days.

i read your post and it dosnt say why you posted sk8s pixel art unless your like another profile of his?