[micke]

This might perhaps be obvious really, but i wanna hear your thoughts anyway.

Ok, here it goes:
I have'nt painted much lately, have been doing way too much linework and 3D. So i feel my painting skills has suffered some major drawback. When i normally paint now i've been more aware of me using the Hue/saturation and brightness contrast tools. I do this in order to either sharpen the picture or make it more intense etc..I feel my work often are to washed out and desaturated(or too saturated sometimes), before i do the final changes.
Tools exists to your advantage, but i find myself maybe using them maybe a little too often and at the i feel that i should mix the colors manually. What are your thoughts on this?

I'm not sure if i made myself clear or not..It's late and i see butterflies
drifting through the room(!) Time to get to bed.
-Mikael

[Tomasis]

I have the problem too..

to work fast changing hue and saturation even contrast would be good idea.

I usually mark some areas and use "levels" to change value and heighten or lower contrast..

about sat/hue, I do use HSB slider to pick/change colour more accurately and use brushes with lower opacity or opacity presure.. or use the mode to control only saturation or hue with brushes. but that last metod I'm not used to.

it is only you who can decide hue/saturation.. but as I said before, you can experiment more with different values and colours when you're working FAST

or it depends on that you're not sure which colours do you want to use? start with big brushes and pick colours before defining shapes? It was only my thought.

it would be awesome if anyone can suggest much better method than my..

[Godwin]

im a little conflicted on this myself too, all these tools, layer functions, blending options...color dodge, burn, multiply, screen.... to use or not to use? well i guess it's up to you, it's really about what you want. if your aim is to make a traditional piece of work on the computer, then dont use them, but personally, i feel that since these tools exist, then why the hell should we not use them, anything that makes a piece of work look better is good

but yea, if you find that you need to up the contrast or whatever everytime you finish a piece of work, maybe you need to work on your technique and find out what's wrong
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Derelict Studios|Godwin's Space

[AndyT]

You could post a lot of your new stuff and we tell you if it's a big problem you have.


I don't think it is a problem if the images work after editing.
The only problem I see is that it might lead to a general lack of discipline.

Soon you'll resize the images for the web and change stuff and save over the high res version ...
like I always do. Don't let that happen
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http://www.conceptworld.org

[Alan]

somtimes if i feel i am relying on a tool too much to get a certain effect, i try to make some pictures without using those tools but still get the same effect... in the end i think it can only improve your skills. but if you are working on deadlines, sometimes such things must be overlooked

-Alan

[Anthony]

I haven't been doing as much painting lately either. Coming from an effects background, I generally have no problem using 3d, paint, compositing effects, et cetera, in one image. It can't cover up a problem in your painting, but some things are done better/easier using tools that exist. Just have to know where to draw the line to get the best result.
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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem
http://www.anthonyfransella.com

[watmough]

i have this problem sometime as well.i feel that digital media is just that...a media,with all its inherent strengths and weaknesses-noy the least of which is the ability to manipulate the visual properties of your painting.i have done things like this without using my computer-e.g.-photocopying a drawing with the contrast way up.
but,to me painting is also about your eye,and when you can see what you're doing wrong and adjust it,thats just as much art as getting it right the first time

[ColdKodiak]

If you use photoshop you're bound to use these tools just to see where you could go with your piece.

The problem is that if you rely on these tools to get better results everytime, you'll never be able to move on or work without these tools comfortably.

I try to use these tools sparingly, or at least learn why using these tools give the results they do, and then learn how to replicate the effect without using the tools. When you do that, you can then use the tools all you want afterwards to yield results quick (if you're studying concept drawing, then this is a must), but generally you just grow out of using them once you know how to not use them.
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http://kontinue.com/coldkodiak/

[Prometheus-ANJ]

Yeah, color balance and curves can be dangerous! Tweaks will make your painting look fresh and interesting, but it's only temporary. I often find that my original version was better if I give the painting a bit of rest. Now I mostly do really subtle changes.

Also, if you increast contrast (and thus saturation), or saturation then the whole painting will get more intense. It's often more effective to just add dots of saturation and contrast on the interesting spots, so they pop. If the whole painting is contrasted and saturated it can be hard to make those focuspaint pop cuz there's nothing more you can do to attract attention to them. It's a matter of keeping contrast/saturation and stuff down on most of the painting so you can give the focus points that little extra luxery.

Colorbalance will remove the span of colors you have making the painting more mono. Since I have a preference towards warm colors I often colorbalance in a tiny bit red and bit yellow. I do most balance changes early though (color block-ins), and then I build the painting on that. I'm using the balance tools less and less now as I'm getting more confident with my color and value choices.

Those were my thoughts.
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Yak!

[Duracel]

Totally agree with ColdKodiak!
- So, its imho the same if you ask me about Custombrushes. You can use all tools, if you could paint the same without them ... if you can, you can save time with the tools(if not, you maybe lost your saved time, because you "have to" use those tools everytime - and you tend to overload your picture).
I use the same learning-method as Kodiak ... try to figure out, how a picture looks better i.e. if you paint with "color dodge" for the highlights. Try to paint the same without using this tool ... when you know "what the magic is" you can paint it from start up, or use the tool to save time, or both combined.


And especially agree with Prometheus experience about the temporary "fresh look".
Contrast(no matter what - value, sharp, color, ...) always attracts the eyes ... but it can hurt if it is just "too much" ... so at first glance, more contrast always seem to look better, especially in compare with the less-contrasty image. So, often the less-contrasty one looks "pale". But its often just the stressed eyes which reduce the level ifself and make this effect "for the moment"
((just try it out, take a picuture ... close on eye and set the contrast very high ... look 30seconds or longer with still one eye closed on this contrasty image ... then make "undo" and compare what your different eyes see - the temporary-closed one will still see a contrasty image, while the all-time-open eye will see a very pale one.)))
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Lars G�tze

www.duracel.de Gallery

Detailling a speedpainting is nothing but speedpainting in detail.