I have received the comment that my colors look "too saturated", in particular, an Iron Man picture I colored which can be found in here http://www.deviantart.com/view/21647786/ I'm wondering what the best way is to fix that? Is it in my choice of colors, or is that something I can control with setting the Opacity on the layer itself? Should I work in CYMK or RGB, and would that make any difference?

Do you know what "too saturated" is supposed to mean? I see nothing wrong with your Iron Man (other than that I hate all non Mark IV ish armor.)

Gotta go with James, here. I don't like the armour design, but the colouring is a-okay with me.

James and Frank - thanks for the kind words and for taking the time to look.

James - I think that "too saturated" means too intense or too dayglow. I can see what they mean, I guess, but I don't know what to compare it to. I guess in the future I will ask them to be more specific when they say that crit.

'Too saturated' generally means there is, quite simply, too much colour in the image - turning something into candy when a paler colour would suffice.

However, this Iron Man pic is not too saturated - in general, he is supposed to have that type of colouring, not being toned down.

Now, if it was supposed to be the red markings on a jet fighter or something else like that (keeping to the example of a flying metal thing), then the colours are too bright, and would work better if they were both a bit less saturated and a bit greyer (a bit of blue or something in the colours), just to give it more of a real-world look.

Think about a red fire engine (not one of those yellow-green ones) - while they are a very rich red, they don't usually get to the same type of red as you might think that Iron Man (or other super heroes) would get to. Of course, there is nothing wrong with colouring IM with a fire-engine red, but you don't have to.

I suspect the person who gave that crit, if they follow IM at all, are basing it on Adi Granov's colour scheme in the current IM run. It is much more grey/brown, a much more muted colour.

As to RGB vs CMYK - I only paint in CMYK, but that is because everything I paint is intended for print, and RGB colours never print true to what you selected (as large printers print in CMYK). That by itself won't make a big difference, although CMYK colours do tend to be a bit more muted. That is totally up to you.

Thanks for the input Ian. I appreciate it. The examples you offered immediately popped in head and have given me a new way to look at how I color stuff. Sort of compare it to real world things, then decide whether they should be exaggerated or toned down.

The only thing I would say is something along the lines of Ian's coment. You could, if you so chose, desaturate the sky a little, as the play between the intense blue and orange-red almost creates a sort of optical 3Dish effect. Maybe that's what they were talking about?

Good point Tina. The sky was a photo I dropped in. And I'm not a big fan of combining lineart and photos, but the whole thing was more of a learning exercise for me. I might try to take the color down a bit with the blue.

One thing I was thinking about last night was making it believable within the "world" they are in. Do the colors make sense with each other within the reality you are trying to build with the story or illustration.

Here's a question for everyone as well. I'm using Pantone® coated colors. Is it better to mix you own colors or use something like the Pantone® palate?

Oh, and thanks for taking the time to look Tina. Appreciate your input.

Well, I use a selection of colours somewhat based off the colour charts that colourists used to use back in the 80's - heavily tweaked, of course.

I also don't use many of the colours on that palette - I'll pick a starting colour, then add to it or otherwise tweak it, depending on the type of colouring I'm doing.

The tricky bit with that is knowing what you want the final results to look like, and if you are doing something just for the 'net or your computer screen, or if it is something that is going to be printed. You are better off just continuing to play with what you've got, getting used to it, and tweaking it as you go along, rather than dropping in a different colour swatch because someone else says so. Unless you start doing this for a living

That makes sense. I'm switching to cymk just because, maybe, one day...

Heh...

Anyway. Ian, is there anything out in print or on the 'net that defines the color charts from the 80's that you are talking about? I wouldn't mind getting a copy of that to have as a starting point.

And thanks for all the input!

Oddly enough, the flexographic colour chart at the bottom of this article Linda posted has much of the same information that you are looking for:



You might even be able to find a swatches file online somewhere with similar information, I'm not sure. Heck, if you PM me your email address, I can email you one of the ones I use.

Very cool page. And you've been PM'd.