UNLOCKING VIBRANT ART: Why your colors fall flat

thank you for this video Tyler. I'm very poor but your free content makes it possible for me to keep studying and learning even though I couldn't afford formal education

1. Digital won't mix themselves 1:16 2. Color should be layered 4:05 3. Basic color mechanics 10:02 4. Tinting and shading 13:25 5. Colors lack appeal 15:49

This is honestly one of the most valuable videos on the subject on youtube. The problem of flat color in digital illustration is a huge hurdle for artists to get over. And it's something alluded to all the time. But nobody has ever broken it down in quite this way. Seriously man, you're going to save lives here.

Ruan Jia's work is a great example of using colour notes within a piece. Provided the colour notes of any given area are in alignment with the values of that area, they'll fit nicely. I've found that this is also subject to the mood/narrative of a piece which informs colour temperatures. Great video.

Im currently doing quite a few studies too and what really helped me is to just use the roundbrush and lasso tool. By having only flat colors youre more likely to focus on things like sillouette/ shape design and your values. It makes things simpler and more focused in the practice

sometimes what I find that helps me get started for a color palette is to block in some basic colors on one layer-- as in, what the characters/objects would look like in a studio white light, then blocking in a second layer of "shade" colors in basic darker colors.  Then I lock the pixels of both layers, and repeatedly duplicate those layers, covering either the base layer or the shade layer with different overlay/multiply/lighten/color or whatever else layer types according to what color light/shadows I'm looking to hit. if the shadows get too dark, I can duplicate the "shade" layer and bring in some color with a lighten layer, etc, or an overlay. if the shade and base layer don't feel as if they're gelling together as one image, I can put a layer over the top of the entire image to "unify" the colors. once I have it all together I smash all those reference layers into one composite layer and use it as a starting off point to actually color the image in.  I think it's a good middle ground way of getting to know colors, especially if the prospect of just picking colors from scratch seems overwhelming.

Love the energy that you have in this video and thank you for your wisdom!

Yeaa.. I do remember my moment when my mind just flick and i realized that my colors are mud. Careful with the color pick guys!

Thank you for the video. It really helps to get more explanations on how and why certain things look the way they do (good or bad). It just helps improve the overall understanding and how to improve. 😁

Digital paint won’t mix itself - so true! Traditional painting almost guides you through, and with digital tools you have to manually do a lot of things that traditional paint does itself.

EXTREMELY HELPFUL, thank you! As I've been experimenting more with color lately, I have run into this exact problem. I will apply your lesson here, and practice practice practice. Thank you Mr. Edlin!

multiply layers can be really helpful with stuff like this! not quite the same or as good, but decent in a pinch

Appreciate all the examples. This was great!

this video is really helpful I found myself suffering the same problems with my art, this does help a lot with what I can do with it

Valuable lesson as always!

Thank you very much for the video. I often forget or am too lazy for many of these steps. So your video just gave me a reminder to do and to take time with my art. I use MS Paint and I've been layering colors for a long while now. Therefore, it's doesn't matter which art program you use as long as you can use it, have fun with it and create art with it in my opinion.

I am a painter (barely..) and don’t know how to do digital art yet but this is really helpful for me too. Thank you YouTube algorithm!

Thanks, man! Really appreciate the tutorials!

Slap ✍️ on ✍️ random ✍️ colors ✍️. got it!

whoa this is something I've noticed I've been struggling wirh recently, thank you so much for the free advice :)