Color Theory Doesn't Suck

I bet that's ^^ the title of a book somewhere.

Here is how I use color in my lineart and shading to make my art more POP off the page.

This elf's skin is lined with a deep red-orange instead of black, so soften the look of her skin. I also make the sheer fabric lines of a dark green to enhance the idea that it is transparent and of a different material than her robe.
Adding color to your lineart softens the look of you art on the eyes- people in real-life don't have black outlines! But I rarely do it in the beginning- instead I lock the lineart layer-- doing so makes it so that my tool can ONLY draw on top of what's already drawn in that layer-- and then I quickly brush over the black lines with a new color.

Another example, Top all black lines on the character, Bottom softend with colors on the hair, skin, facial features:

The secret to vibrant art is complementary colors- or even more basically COLOR for your shadows, not just making the same color more black. Complementary contrast your base colors perfectly, making them appear brighter!

 Here are some pages of the color theory pamphlet I made for my younger sister Jenessa!
The colors were done with Tombow markers, which blend differently than alcoholic markers, so I didn't get quite the look I wanted for the cloaks.

Shading: Don't use black.

Shading with black vs shading with complementary colors
Though black shading/ or shading with gray gradient is a staple of American superhero comics, I find complementary colors more natural.

Complementary vs analogous on skin



The orange on the light beige makes for warm lighting while the lilac on top of the beige creates true shadows, a little mysterious with that harsh light portrayed by the sharp lines.

Art of Jan 2020

That's me hugging my favorite tree! At Brigham Young University Idaho. The bright colors and clear shapes inspired me! The digital illustration-cross-painting was done in clip studio, while referencing the photo.

I first took note of the basic shapes with a light blue pen-- resized the jacket, added extra wrinkles to the sleeves. 

I filled the shapes with big blocks of color, selecting colors from the photo and then adjusting them to be even Brighter. I then blended in the colors of the jacket and the highlights from the christmas lights.

A traditional painting I did for my Grandma! After I scanned it in I blurred the girl in the background on the computer.

I was particularly proud of the hands for this lantern girl, but the colors of her kimono jar too much with the purple-black sky.

Hope you're having a great day! I write this post as COVID-19 climbs in cases and deaths. There's a lot of spook about it from talk show hosts and other puppets-- all we need do is be smart, follow good precautions, and look forward with a brightness of hope. 

We should be informed, and take this pandemic seriously. 

Remember that God our Heavenly Father knows who you are, where you are, and what you're going through. It will be okay. :)