#len replies

Currently screaming crying and kicking my legs over your bug art

im so hard

hello anon, apologies for replying so late. i’ve been busy but i also wanted to take some time to think about your question.

first of all i’m sorry to hear you’re struggling with this kind of a problem. it’s always difficult not to have support in what you’re doing. i suppose people who love comics have a harder time finding understanding among those who aren’t interested in this field of art since comic art still suffers from heavy stereotypes of being adressed only to the youngest readers (which is, obviously, hardly the case). it’s difficult changing people’s mindset and it’s probably impossible not to feel bad about about this. i have went through my share of similar comments when i was younger but it was never really very harsh. i guess i’ve been lucky. my parents have never had any problems with my hobbies (though i remember mom making frequent comments, especially about ‘triangle chins’, back when i was going through my manga stage) and no one ever forbid me from drawing the way i wanted to.

hello anon,

first of all thank you for taking interest in my class, i hope it was satisfactory.

as for your question, i never really adjusted my tablet pressure settings, i just use it on default (i use wacom intuos4). i think the problem with muddy colours might be fixed differently. as every technique, the one i introduced in the class takes some getting used to.

try experimenting with using more than one layer of your chosen blending mode for the same area (this applies especially to soft light which, as the name suggests, gives a very soft effect)

try out different shades (more and less vivid) of the colour you’re applying (shades of grey translate differently to all the colours - vivid purple will be much darker in grayscale than vivid yellow - so maybe you need to adjust the brightness a bit)

you can also use lower opacity on your brush to have more control over the strength of colour (less saturated shadows, more saturated areas with strong light; note that it’s usually the midtones that are the most vibrant).

sometimes cleaner colours take a bit more of a build up with some types of layers. keep playing around with them and trying out various combinations and you will learn to choose them more instinctively. it all comes with practice^^

as an additional moral boost (i hope) let me add that back when i was first learning to colour grayscale with the use of layer blending modes i struggled quite a lot. here are some examples of what my first attempts looked like (warning for the weak of heart: terrible, old stuff ahead): [1], [2], [3] - as you can see my colour control was rather poor. still, after a couple of tries i started ‘feeling’ a bit better what each of the layers does and with time i learned which colours work best in which areas. so just give it some time and don’t worry if the effects aren’t perfect on those first pictures. i’m sure if you like this technique you will master it before you know.