Colors are luv

Properties

Hue

Yes, it is that rainbow side bar.

Value: Is the mix beteween black and the hue.

Saturation: Is the mix beteween white and the hue

A few notes

...There are many many maaaaaaaaaaaaaany colors to try and match. These example below will show you. They are the same hue but desaturated. The picture on the left of all three green really stands out. On the right one green still stands out but color are less shocking to the viewer. (this color pallete sucks, i know ... i will do a better one)

So, when coloring try not to choose white/saturated red/black for your coloring!. Instead try those so MANY color that exist!

The example below THEY ARE the same hue, on the left saturated, on the right desaturated and different value (and they match sooo much better this way)

Ok, now on to a more practical example. Skin coloring! I use a huge palette since i dont do cell shading, but i really REALLY stay away from black as shadows, instead i search everytime for the most suitable color. If i dont like it i just CRTL Z   ^-^.

Other thing to keep in mind. Avoid using plain grays .... instead search for a very desaturated color in the same hue as the surrounding ones. For example on the left are bad examples of color choose, on the right are better ones. What it looks like gray it actually is a very very desaturated blue (saturation around 10%). In my opinion looks better. If you pay attention you will see the difference.

Complementary Colors

complementary colors are those opposive in the color wheel

When you mix them you get a dirty looking pallete. I use this somethimes for shadows.

analogs colors

analogs colors are those close to each other in the color scheme ... the contrast beteween them is low so on the finished picture they match each other easily

yellow, orange and red are analogs

warm/cool

Color will give different feeling, They are call warm and cool colors:

From green-yellow to red are warms. Cheerful, summer like, cute, sweet, etc...

From red-purple to green are cool. Depressing, winter, sad, calm, peaceful, etc...

This is very personal But generally speaking if you use much orange it will give a warm feeling to your pictures, if you use much blue it will feel cold ^-^.

Warm pallete on the left. Cool palette on the right

Color Layer Trick

Remember that i told you a tip about making your color match each other .. well, this warm/cool thingy is part of it. Create a new layer above all the others even on top the outline, set its mode to COLOR, then set its visibility from %5 to a %30. Now if you fill that layer with a WARM COLOR you will get a warm picture. If you fill it in with a COOL COLOR you get a colder picture .... ok ok, an example

This image has no color layer yet ^-^

This one has color layer filled in with orange ... yeah, warm ^-^

This one has a color layer filled in with blue ... Yeah, cold ^-^