Krenz suggests keeping keywords on a mind map. Obsidian is perfect for that, and Krenz already provides one, but in Chinese.
Concepts to Consider
Contrast
- We think of value, but it’s usually a shape that “stands out” from the pattern. That can be value, but also cool/warm contrast, saturation, and sharpness. Color/Contrast Balance
- Colors of varying strength seem to abide by a ratio in order to feel “balanced”. Strong contrasting shapes deliberately take less (~5-10%) of the composition so they matter that much more. This applies to values too.
- A decent amount of rendering I’ve seen hesitates to go beyond halfway right of the color wheel, even for the focal points. Incorrect saturation can screw with the contrast, so working with these limits in mind seem sensible for now.
CTRL + BUM (1:15:00)
HueSat and Color Balance is really all you need to color adjust. Curves are more complex.
Value Intuition
In traditional, an art pencil set can be mapped to a numeric grayscale value. Since we deliberately choose what pencil to use for recreating certain shades, there’s a clear mapping and intuitive choice towards that range of value that can be trained. In digital art, values should also be chosen meaningfully, much like picking out a specific pencil hardness.
- There is a “value” associated for each type of pencil. In digital, instead of mapping to a pencil, it’s a numeric value on the far left of the color wheel. (e.g. instead of a 2B pencil, use value 30)
- Or instead of using 4H-2B, use values ranges 10-45.
- Combine this with hues and color relativity, and now you’re playing color wheel geo-guesser. The goal is to reach this level through studies.
Practice using studies
The very act of doing most studies will force you to eyeball and choose values. My hope is to be approximately correct and develop a clear intuition for choosing the right ones. In a 2 value study, you can justify a dark area as pure black. But if trying to emulate the actual reference exactly, you need this developed intuition from sight rather than a generalization from the mind.
focal point design → usually the face in full- body color “strength” (value, saturation) has a consistent ratio to feel balanced in viewer direction