Life Drawing II Lesson 3: “Seeing Color through Grayscale”

Welcome to the third lesson of Life Drawing II. In this lesson we will be focusing on color.

Color is a notable attribute to illustrators that, when used well, can be seen as a recognizable trait

or calling card for an illustrator’s body of work. Having a strong hold on color can lead to a

unified portfolio of signature color schemed work and many art directors tend to choose and

work with illustrators that use color in a profound or unique way. Also, in animation studios,

there are even colorist positions on staff for animated cartoon shows at places like Nickelodeon

and Disney.

LESSON III

To begin this lesson, first we will need to take one step back by remembering to embrace

grayscale. When you are given an assignment as a professional illustrator, the typical protocol

thereafter is to create a series of “roughs” (preliminary sketches) and then one final sketch to be

approved for you to from the art director to begin the final illustration. This process at times can

even have one more step with you as the illustrator having to provide color studies, along with

your roughs, for the art director and client to look over and pick for the final direction of your

finished piece to go.

With the first part of lesson 3, I want us to primarily focus on the purpose and fundamental usage

of grayscale sketches and from there learn how that leads into coloring your final pieces. In

order to be able to use color that considers the entire lighting structure of a piece by the subtle to

drastic light changes we need to remember basics, such as making a grayscale sketch first. This

can help you compose lighting accurately when executing color over top easier.

Below are examples of examined preliminary sketches. Please follow along by paying close

attention to how these illustrators show natural lighting and their stark contrasting of greys,

blacks & whites; also in how their prelims translate from grayscale to full color final

illustrations.

GRAYSCALE SKETCHES:

A few things to remember before looking at these grayscale sketches:

-Focus on the intensity of light from the given light source.

-Consider the darkest darks and the brightest lights in comparison to the shadows, as the shadows

should be diffused tones from your darkest shade. Essentially the shadows should be the middle

gray tones of you lightest light/white and your darkest dark/black.

In Yuko Shimizu’s work below, the illustrations were picked to show excellent examples of processes from start to finish. Starting with rough thumbnails to onwards revised preliminary sketches and then finally to full colored finals. YUKO SHIMIZU:

To begin, above is an example of one of her very rough and super loose concept thumbnails.

To review what the purpose of thumbnails are;

Thumbnails should be used as a brainstorming tool to help your mind come up with multiple ideas to

choose from in being able to provide the most original concept you can to eventually turn into your

realized idea.

The next piece shown above is her more revised, grayscale sketch. In this sketch there is not a lot of

shadow or gray tones but as you can see the negative spaces in the stripes translates as white in the

color piece and in her black & white sketch as it is the brightest light. She also left negative space in

her ink work where the light reflection is hitting within and on her objects. In other words, “she

incorporated influence of reflected light.” –Andrew Loomis.

Shown below are more examples of rough thumbnails by Yuko Shimizu that represent the initial

concepting process before the final grayscale sketches.

.

From the same illustrator once again as shown above (Yuko Shimizu) we can see the beginning

to end of another illustration:

Below is another loose rough before she adds her tonal values by ink.

Above shows her dark ink outlines for her character. As referenced already, one of Yuko’s trademark inking styles is to leave her reflection and brightest lighting as negative space on her characters. You can see more stylistic evidence of this by the image below on the figure’s jeans.

If you look closely at the way she is adding color to her figure, it appears that she is adding some minimal textures on this character’s shirt and jeans at the same time directly in Photoshop. In this case, she is adding all of her color & her slight tonal textures digitally.

MICHAEL BYERS:

Introduction: Michael Byers is a prolific editorial illustrator that primarily works in ink and digital coloring. He is an artist that maintains a consistent sketchbook practice. He updates that frequently linked from his main portfolio site and is definitely worth checking out. Here is a link to his sketchbook portfolio but he keeps an updated blog very frequently: http://www.michaelcbyers.com/sketchbook/

Below is an example of one of Michael’s thumbnails that started out from his sketchbook creative investigative processes. You can see in this preliminary thumbnail sketch he is focusing on perspective, character study, and proportion. He shaded in the flowers with medium to dark gray tones to remind himself when adding color later on to create dramatic light emphasis on the “astronaut horse ranger” character. Basically make them be the main lighted focus.

In the more realized sketch below you can see that he is producing a darker tonal effect with his

lines by placing them close together near the stems of the flowers and very tops of the flower

pedals. You can also see that he added a bit of texture by a stippling effect in the grass, flowers

and sky; basically everywhere but the space cowboy and his horse.

Michael’s fully colored piece above showcases a minimal color palette in which aided him in

highlighting that the cowboy and his horse companion are the main focus. He does a great job

here by keeping to more of a neutral color palette that compliments his sepia toned line work

(instead of using black line work, he used a color that would again mesh well with his color

choices) and this helps his brightest color shine through (his yellow flowers) without taking over

and becoming distracting. In fact the way he colored this creates a good balance with his main

focus (the astronaut cowboy) and with his flowers. He was able to separate the two with

distinction but not overpower one over the other.

Michael’s work is a great leeway into bringing up the concept of working with a minimal color

palettes and what are some of the best ways in doing so.

Minimal Color Palette Overview:

Lets take a look at a few different examples of preselected color palettes:

All of these color palettes I concocted from a reference tool online from Adobe / Color Wheel:

Link here:

http://goo.gl/JduMT0

It’s a color wheel that you can adjust and play around with for different shades and hues and mix

& match your chosen colors.

You can also make specific adjustments to work only in analogous colors, monochromatic

colors, triad, complimentary, compound, shades, or custom colors.

Nuetrals Color Scheme Example:

Brights Color Scheme Example:

Shade Color Scheme Example:

Complimentary Color Scheme Example:

A few things to remember in working with color:

*Create an inspiration folder-

It is always a great asset for an illustrator to keep an inspiration folder; more specifically a color

inspiration folder. If you see an illustration where the colors are particularly lovely to you,

sometimes bringing that image in, in photoshop and selecting the colors with the eye dropper and

putting them directly into your inked piece, you can use those as a starting point and mess with

the hue and saturation levels from there to create A NEW PALETTE. YOU SHOULD NEVER

TAKE/STEAL ANOTHER ARTIST’S COLORS DIRECTLY FROM THEIR

ILLUSTRATION, but using their colors as a starting point, if you do this a few times, it can train

your eye in thinking what colors can work well with others and helping you decipher what colors

you as an artist tend to enjoy using the most & gravitate towards.

Also having an inspiration folder doesn’t mean you need to start stemming your colors directly

from what you are choosing to keep aside in the folder. Even just having this as a resource to

look back to is an interesting archive as you can start evaluating and taking stock in the colors

that you seem to be picking the most. You can also ask yourself:

-What are the colors that I seem to be picking the most?

-Is there a lot of the same color tones?

-Why am I naturally drawn to these colors?

&

-How can I expand from what I’m drawn to and maybe even pick color schemes I’m not as

comfortable with?

*Pick out a designated premade color palette before starting coloring your piece-

The great think about doing this, is that you can focus on challenging the dexterity and breadth of

the colors you have already picked, as you have already picked them, so all your focus from this

point on can go to creating the most dynamic image that you can. It also makes for a unified

illustration and can be a lot easier to create a strong image, as opposed to potentially

overworking the colors if you have a lot to choose from.

Above is another example of one of Michael’s finely tuned sketches before he adds color

digitally. You can see that he uses the negative space in his inks (similar to Yuko Shimizu) to

show the light reflecting off his boots. He also used a similar stippling inking technique as his

illustration we just examined and he has the same type of exaggerated skewed perspective,

almost like a bird’s eye view on his character that he is known for. All of these characteristics

listed are ways that an art director can pick you out from other freelancers and can add to your

signature aesthetic.

In his final colored piece above, you can see he went with bold black line work that seems to

have aided him in illustrating the typical color dress code of the subjects he was drawing.

British Security Uniform: Red & Black.

Double decker British bus: Red & Black.

It appears that he added almost a watercolor textured looking effect digitally and his brightest

white is the exhaust coming from the bus trolley, as well as the sleeves on the man’s uniform.

This is a stylistic choice and I particularly like that he left the highlights in the guard’s boots to

be NOT the lightest color on the page. He allowed for the brightest lights to be what leads your

eye from the middle of the illustration (the man as the central focus) to the atmosphere that

surrounds the man.

He went with a limited color palette on this and used primarily reds and green tones.

I.E. / Complimentary colors at work!!

CAROLINE HADILAKSONO:

Caroline Hadilaksono is an up & coming illustrator that maintains beautiful drawings &

paintings from life in her sketchbooks. She also makes images from her imagination but she is

definitely a great person to watch and follow on her blog, as she updates very frequently,

sometimes even multiple times daily: http://blog.hadilaksono.com/

Above is the perfect stylistic example of what I intended for you to learn and become familiar

with in beginning development for this lesson. Caroline has some of the best prepping gray tone

preliminary sketches around. You can really distinguish, in looking at her images above and

below, how she breaks down her tonal ranges and fully warms-up before she moves on to her

final color pieces. You can see that she is investigating all light sources in her thumbnails and

figuring out how her shadows lay and interact with her characters and her environment as a

whole. She likes to consider the entire lighting atmosphere of a scene and uses shadows and

light play to create moody ambiances and creates further depth for her characters.

For example, the man holding the lantern in the thumbnail above has a very ominous shadow

emerging from his feet. The shadow is far reaching off the page and because of this creates and

adds mystery to the character. Her dramatic lighting that bounces off from his lantern onto his

pants and his face allows the viewer to distinguish details of the character’s facial features and

clothing. Essentially, these light nuances are achieved through experimentation and thus why

grayscale thumbnails act as valuable tools that let you try different lighting angles and

contrasting techniques.

Another important attribute about Caroline’s looser grayscale thumbnails worth mentioning, is

just that! These are loose, rough sketches! She doesn’t let them get too complex or overworked.

They are essentially her way of plotting out her darkest and lightest tones and although they are

roughs, they all have an element of distinction.

Above is an example of just a character study. As you can see, she doesn’t get bogged down

with drawing in every single finger or making sure the anatomy is pristinely accurate BUT what

she is doing is configuring her brightest whites and her darkest darks.

NOW FOR SOME COLOR

Miss Hadilaksono, just also happens to do rough color studies. Above is an example of one of

them. Again you can see that she is merely playing with possible color schemes and plotting out

and composing her color. You can see the beginnings of depth being created in the composition

with the lighter golden orange color permeating from behind the darker purple hue tent in front

but with the pops of brightly lit yellow lights disbursed on top, strung up by a brighter purple hue

string.

Above is a far more sophisticated, final illustration of her color study we just looked at.

As you can see it is much more detailed but she still kept with the same lighting and color hue

composing as the far rougher sketch above this. Even though she added animals and new

objects, she still kept with the same composition and overall environment light set-up.

One nuance that I particularly enjoy from her very rough color study to the final is how she

maintained the stark brilliant white of the hanging blankets in both. That was obviously a

characteristic that she didn’t want to shift from the study to her final. I think in this particular

final piece, it is also fun to see what objects she ending up adding and how it got more complex

and finessed.

Below are a series of color studies of the same vantage point for a tree illustration:

Below is the final illustration and color scheme she decided on. You can see that the closest

roughs to her final is the upper left and bottom left, as she added the hanging latterns from upper

left and a light tonal range in reference to the bottom left. You can see that she decided to scrap

the purple color all together but did include some subtly neutral and a few darker ranges of green

hues.

The bottom two examples are the exact same illustration but the light source in the top one,

closest to this text description, the light is coming from behind the frog to its left (the lighting

almost like a sunrise ambiance) and in the bottom, the light is shining directly on the frog (almost

appearing as a sunset stark lighting). These particular color studies are extremely beneficial to

look at directly next to each other, especially not only in how the colors change from lighter to

much darker from the top one to the bottom but what happens to the body of the frog in how the

light changes and fluxes on each.

Above is an example of one of Caroline’s sketchbook pages where she often draws her

landscapes on site when she is traveling or her landscapes are directly inspired from her travels.

This is a great shot too, as you can get a sense of some of her watercolor processes and how she

uses watercolor pencils to add some defined line weights in her line work. You can see

examples of this in the definition of her leaves and shrubbery in these two spot illustrations.

Above is an example of one of her final illustrations just on its own. Caroline’s work can most

definitely be picked out for the way she lights her foreground, middle ground and background

creating beautiful depth. If you look closely you can see that the sun is shining on the boys

directly to their right and how it is just barely glistening off of the tree bark to the left of them.

This creates such dimension in the tree and in her figures. The stark bright chimney smoke

billowing out of the chimneys to the crisp light blue skies in contrast to the cool, dark blue &

purple foreground juxtaposing quite naturally with the warm orange grass tones the figures are

walking in seem to all be flawlessly unified. This is a feat that is hard to accomplish and if you

think back to all of Caroline’s well executed and thought out approaches, it takes some preparing

and time but the outcomes sure are worth the effort.

SAM BOSMA:

Sam Bosma is a well-known editorial illustrator that has had some credits on cartoon shows with

concept related storyboard work and background color work. I wanted to show his color study

example after Caroline’s as it is a bit more complex and he drew it all digitally with a Wacom

Cintiq drawing directly onto his computer. That part isn’t especially important other than he

transitioned from such a loose, loose thumbnail as the one shown below to then, such a hyper

realized final with tremendous detail and a much cooler color scheme than the one in his rough.

Even so, this is a fantastic documentation process to look at and take a moment to soak in all the

detail that Sam put into the final colored illustration. Be sure to look at how each image varies

from the other and what are the same lighting effects that he ended up maintaining from the

super loose warm color study to the cool hued final illustration.

Exercise 3:

DRAWING ASSIGNMENT:

For this exercise I want you to create a “make believe land” out of everyday objects and pick a

corner of your house or apartment, drape clothing over tables or your refrigerator, add plants, add

clocks and props. Create a unique wonderland of objects in your place. In this still life, I’d like

you to have at least 2-3 figures/friends that would be willing to sit for you.

Remember to keep in mind: you will be incorporating gravity (showing how your draped cloth

falls), color, embracing distortion, mood lighting and motion lines in your work. I want you to

focus on correct proportion in your figures, focus on the folds and tonal gradation of your fabrics

and consider the spatial relations of your figures to your overall still life to create the most

engaging perspective.

I want you to draw the figures from life. I’d prefer that they didn’t sit for longer than a half hour

to 45 minutes. I want you to then have your figures get up and move somewhere in your

“creative apartment jungle” 3 times in your drawing for 3 half hour/45 min sit down intervals.

With each half hour interval I want you to create a black & white grayscale sketch like in the

previous examples I have showed above. Look specifically at Caroline Hadilaksono’s small

rough b & w thumbnails for reference but be sure and find your own original line work. Don’t

just copy from her aesthetic. If need be before you start on your 3 timed grayscale thumbnails

with the models, feel free to practice your grayscale techniques drawing a few of your objects

that you will be choosing for your still life.

Once your 3 grayscale sketches are completed, I want you to choose your favorite out of the

three. After you pick your favorite thumbnail I want you to draw and create a full color

illustration of the thumbnail you choose, working with a preselected color scheme. This should

be a fully realized detailed illustration that should take longer than your half hour grayscale

thumbnails. When putting together your still life think about a narrative concept you’d like to

portray and maybe even have your figures dress up in costumes. Have fun with this and excited

to see what you all come up with!