Friday, June 20, 2014

A Lesson in Tone and Color

This is from yesterday's Visual Development 1 class here at The Animation Academy in Burbank. I utilized an unusual rendering method to convey the relationship between color and gray tones as students are transitioning into that aspect of the course.

I used gray markers and color pencils together with interesting results. Consider the image of the cat below. The composition was first rendered in gray...


Now take a look at what happens when colored pencils are applied...


That was followed by some time in Photoshop adding highlights and shadows digitally...


Next up is this little pup. I sketched the character in black line and then resorted to gray markers to essentially cover the white of the paper within the area of the image. I then added a pass with color pencils. Next to the composition are swatches of the principle colors I used as they would appear against the white of the paper...


As with the demo before I digitized the image and proceeded to Photoshop for some additional tweaking...


Combining three and even four simple mediums such as gray markers, an optional black line, color pencils and Photoshop, artists can create uniquely rendered VisDev concepts that are sure to appeal to your fans and clients. Give it a try some time and see what  you come up with.