rename coming soon

thank you so much! I've been meaning to do this tutorial since so many people ask about it, so let's jump right in!

I'm not going to talk much about the definition of color/rendering, as I'm sure most of you have probably heard it all before from an art teacher or the internet. I'm also not going to give you a step-by-step tutorial, because it will do much more harm than good. We all draw differently: a decent tutorial should nurture that instead of trying to replace it!

When I talk about color and rendering, it will be through a functional sense. What are they for? How do you use them effectively?

The grass problem

A lot of artists like to view color as a static fact about the environment/character/object they are drawing. The grass is green, the rock is grey, the orange is orange etc... in these examples, color is just one way of describing the subject. Even if you argue some grass is yellow, you're still just telling me what it is! When we think about color like this, we limit ourselves a lot.

The truth about art is that grass does not have to be any color: we’re not ACTUALLY trying to make a 1:1 replica of real life (even when we are.)

(seen above: an illustration where the moon is green, Six-claws is 50 feet tall, and for some reason the sky is bright blue-purple at midnight)

in art, we try to illustrate what the human eye wants to see… and color is part of that. Color is a tool in which you can convey the emotions, tone or atmosphere of a piece. If you think about it like this, you’ll be more inclined to choose what works best with your composition instead of what you think is ‘real.’

How do I use it?

Here's an example of how I use color to tell you about my OC and beloved son Flicker.

I made this piece as the cover of his character doc - my main color scheme includes yellow, orange and red: which work together because they are all analogous.

Flicker's 'highlight' color (the one I use the least in his character design) is red, so all of the important information in this piece should also be red! This way, color is telling the viewer where to look and what is most significant about Flicker.

Color and Value are married

As much as color placement can direct the eye, it will ultimately bow to the power of value. (unless you're using two very high contrast colors, like bright red/blue.) Our eyes are much more accustomed to spotting value differences compared to color differences: this is because color is subjective, but value is not. A colorblind person still sees the same values as a non-colorblind person.

Because of this, it's important to consider value when you pick colors. Flicker's sweater being darker than his facial crest helps his sweater to stick out more. When I color, I like to frequently put my piece in greyscale so I can see if the values have enough contrast! You can easily do this by putting a saturation filter over your piece, which (I think) is a feature on most digital programs.

(To do this on procreate, take any grey you want and drop it on a blank layer above your art. toggle saturation, and boom!)

Next order of business: How you render?

Rendering is often regarded as the polish of any good art piece: a good render can take you from beginner to intermediate! However, a lot of artists see the open-ended nature of rendering as a little bit scary.

When I render, I am essentially trying to add the texture (and sometimes lighting) to the subjects in my piece. This also usually involves a lot of line cleanup for me, but a less-messy artist wouldn't have to worry about that.

You can render under or over your lineart layer: it's up to you! Just make sure you put it above any lighting filters you have.

Tips and Tricks

Ultimately, the way you render will be a natural product of your artistic style - instead of looking at chud tutorials like this one, you'll improve the most from doing real-life studies and experimenting with different brushes, strokes and techniques. Here are some things that helped me learn how I render!

Seriously, use different brushes. Textured brushes are the easiest way to make your piece look more detailed without having to put that much effort into them, which is a lifesaver if you don't want to spend 8 hours on one drawing!

I like to use smooth, firm brushes (like hard airbrush) for metal. For skin, I prefer more 'painterly' brushes - and I use a lot of grainy/weird shaped stuff for environments.

You can always add MORE lighting on top of your render! Sometimes, touching up bright spots with the airbrush is the finishing touch you need.

Zoom out frequently! Don't get lost in the details, especially if they don't matter/aren't even your focal point. You can usually get away with loosely rendering to add texture, and hyper-detailing everything tends to distract viewers from what matters.

If you want a good FREE procreate brushpack, I highly recommend the JJ exclusive brushpack! I have had these brushes since 2022 and they are seriously some of the best on the internet. Super versatile and easy for beginners to use! I still use the Acrylic JJ 1 for skin rendering to this day. Procreate also has some nice stuff built into the app: Ink bleed, salamanca and soft airbrush are a few favorites of mine.

In conclusion

I hope this tutorial was at least a little bit helpful, even if it turned out more like an assortment of different tips. At the very least, I have given you brushes. YAY!

Jeez I knew I needed therapy but it didn’t think it was THAT bad

Line break almost every sentence. The more the book looks like a bad piece of poetry, the better.

Line break inside sentences, eg. ”So. Many. Drama.” 

Your line breaks don't even need to be sentences, eg. ”… … … …” (an actual quote from Stellarlune).

Overuse those ellipses. There's no punctuation symbol sexier than three periods in close succession.

Extend syllables in dialogue as much as you can, eg. riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight, aaaaaaaaaaaaaand. This is very important to the page count plot.

Create nicknames longer than the actual names, eg. Captain Perfectpants, Lord Hunkyhair, Lady Creepypants, Mommy Dearest. The editor gave us a page count and we're going to reach it some way or another.

Actually, you can repeat lines of dialogue in the same chapter and (almost) nobody will notice, eg. ”How long ago did he leave?” (x2), ”Are you okay?” (x3) 

Also, repeat informations, e.g. Keefe spinning a random facet of his crystal, Keefe's crystal being blue, Keefe going to the Forbidden Cities. Readers aren't blessed with a photographic memory, they risk forgetting about the details between chapters...

What's good to do as well is the narration elaborating on lines of dialogue, eg. ”Which is why she had to find Keefe.” (the last sentence of not one, but two pages of monologue, responding to one line of dialogue.) One indicator that you've succeeded is if your readers completely forgot that the characters were having a discussion.

Or even better: when the narration answers to a line of dialogue without the character ever voicing it!

You can never overdose with inner monologue, by the way. You can write entire chapters happening in the head of a character and someone will still eat that shit up, even if this inner monologue has no business being so long.

Use big fonts. Have them Kindle readers press the zoom-out buttons every time they open your books.  

Use vague words and approximations, eg. something, quite, some, few, stuff, thing-y. This is so much more clear and helpful than specific values. And so much more sexy.

Anaphoras are the best literary technique out there, you cannot overuse them, e.g. ”Every clue… Every truth…” ; ”This moment… This rare chance…”

Use the following sentence structure: -ed verb + comma + -ing verb), e.g. She glanced […], watching... ; She turned […], searching... ; She squinted […], checking... This is peak sentence structuring and will never feel redundant. Ever.

Repeat jokes and never ever create a new one once you've had like, five to eight, eg. bacteria, fart, butt, Great Foster Oblivion, wherever you go I go, Sandor's squeeky voice, Keefe Keefe Keefe 

All caps are a-ma-zing and you should use them at least twice per chapter.

Scenes must last longer than they should, because making cuts and timeskips is outdated. We need to see all the deets of how a conversation ended.

Never kill your darling! Keep them scenes who bring nothing to the plot or world or themes or characters, eg. Edaline scene, Silveny scenes, Kenralie melodrama, etc…

Your characters must argue over every little thing. They should never agree, otherwise, where's your conflict??

Tell and Never Show, e.g. ”He looked… sad.”

There must always be too many characters in one scene. Only a select few are allowed to contribute, though.

Never forget to list every character that is present in a scene. This is important for the page count plot.

Most of your sentences must start with and, but, or, maybe. What do you mean I can just make longer sentences??? Sentences can't be long.