[Tutorial] Color Theory - picking colors

[Yellowhat]

Hello!​

Topic: Color Theory part 1 - picking colors
Level of sprite: medium/intermediate (Basic/medium/intermediate)
Color count:???
size: no-size
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FAQ:
Can you make an in-depth shadow tutorial:
Yes I can. But it will be in my way.
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Start:

Everyone know what color is. Red, blue, green and yellow that are our base colors. But there's also values and mixtures of them all. The human eye can Identify more than 55,000 colors

Lucky for us, Tibia usually doesn't use that many. But there's no limitation to whatever amount we use. And size for that mather is no limit aswell, but this is another chapter.

Let's start of by showing this image.

Here you can see that I've picked out 5 colors from each monster. They go from dark to light. Ofc each color has picks between them but I've picked these out to illustrate. You can easily say that dark = shadows and light = highlights.

Now, how do I pick these colors myself? Well naming from the picture above, I've picked out fire, electric and water elements. You can always take reference from real life. Is water blue? is fire yellow/red/orange? is electricity bright yellow or in this case blue sparks? The common answer is; yes.

Comment:
Now I'll try to imagine earth.. soooo what is the color of earth.. yellow? no. red? no. blue? no?
But seriously. It's brown. So what I usually do is to pick the base color, 2 highlights and 2 dark colors.(THIS IS NO RULE!!!!)

Talking about values: I mean the earth colors above aren't very light. Still they will work as highlights, base and shadows anyway. But they will not shine as much as a bright blade would, having colors from dark gray towards almost white.

So always think about your sprite. What elements is it? How is the light effecting your sprite?
For example, study the
Hellfighter fighter: He is a lightsource himself therefor the colors picked for him are very bright. Close to white at the brightest parts. But also very dark to the source.

The demon for example: You want to create a dark creature.. bcs you know he is a scary guy therfor you chose alot of dark colors. His brightest color isn't very bright, as you can see from the picture above.

Next tutorial: In-depth shadows

Earlier tutorials in this series:
How to make a sword

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I'll answer all questions in this thread, and help you with whatever needs help with(if im capable of it)
//Yours Yellowhat

 

[Thorn]

wowo man this is really helpful! Thanks
i find the colors choosing one of the most difficult part

 

[Anevis]

Glad you make these tutorials. Hope you would write a bit about cool/warm colors (relativity, using in shading) and complementary colors in next part.
I find choosing good colors really difficult too, as wrong pick could destroy overall look of artwork.

 

[Noxz]

Awesome cant wait for more color theory. thanks linus :3

 

[Yellowhat]

Yea np, I'm waiting for maybe some more response or not. Not sure if it's worth spending time on or not thought it's good to study for youself. Just letting other take part of what my conclusions are.

 

[Veicretis]

Nice tutorial. Thanks!