As a follow up of my "How to: Anatomy" journal that was received so well by the community, I will continue this series with a how to on color.
Color is considered to be one of the hardest subjects when it comes to art. Most beginners (and even some advanced artists) struggle to get the colors of their work right. I myself do as well. This journal is by no means a full coverage on how to color. It will however be a good list of resources to get you started on this hard subject.

A few things to get started

There are a few things to color

There's hue and value. Hue determines what place in the color spectrum the color is in (red, green, blue.. etc). Value determines how dark or light a color is. In order to understand colors, you have to know how to influence and work with both of them.

Your brain is deceiving you

Our brains are really, really clever. Even with limited vision, we're able to perceive the color of objects that we can't really see. It's like our brain learned to fill in the gap. In order to learn how to use colors; become aware of this fact. A red car under a blue sky is rarely really red. Shadows are rarely really black. Colors are rarely fully saturated, most of them are awfully mudded in real life. Observe, watch and colorpick until you develop a better sense for color!

Color and mood / emotion

Colors aren't just colors; they influence your mood. Like how this brilliant scene from the movie Up plays your mood by using color and composition in a way that it only takes you a few minutes to actually feel about those characters. As a matter of fact; color is so important that it fuels many important decisions on design in the marketing world as well. Want to make something with impact? Then you need to take your use of colors into consideration.

Good exercises

Analyze colors

Perhaps the simplest start you can make in daily life is start to look at colors, because most of the time in life we actually don't. We perceive color, but we don't actually see it. Try to look at colors with new eyes. What is the color you see, opposed to what your brain makes you think you see? Why do you like the colors in some pieces of art work? What are the color combinations used? How does color affect your mood? Art, but also movies are great resources for studying color. Especially in movies color is often used to play on your mood.

Start painting with values only

There are two things to color; hues and values. Perhaps doing both of them at the same time is too hard. Just start with the values then. Yep! That's it. Good old black and white might learn you a lot about how shadows work and how to use light and shadow to show certain shapes. If you manage to get this right, you'll have an easier time moving on to full color paintings.

Study from realism

No matter if you do fantasy paintings, realism is important. In order to make your paintings believable, you need a touch of realism. Because even a made up universe won't be believable without the universal rules of light and color. Studying from realism is the best tool in the box you get, because unlike with photo's, you have the possibility to observe the subject from multiple angles (and believe me; this 360 degrees view will help you actually understanding how it works). 
To study realism, just place an object on your desk and draw it, ask your friend to pose for you while you draw him/her, or take your sketchbook into the city to paint some buildings or trees.

Study from photo's

Yeah, we get it. You can't place all objects on your desk and you can't travel everywhere in the world to study everything from realism (unless you have infinite time and money).
That's where photo's come in. Photo's are great to study from, especially since the subject doesn't move and the light doesn't change either. Just keep in mind that photo's are never a 100% realism. A lot of photo's are digitally enhanced these days and even if they aren't, camera's come with limitations. Just compare what you see at night with the average way your camera captures a city at night, and you'll have an idea of how a camera distorts an image. 
Also; if you use somebody else's pictures to study from, don't forget to credit the original artist of the picture when you publish it. You wouldn't like it if somebody just copied your picture and claimed it as their own, and so won't the average photographer. 

Study from other artists

Often also referred to as master study's (as a reference to students in art school that had to study the old art masters).
Skillful artists have often learned the rules of reality, but also found their own unique way of breaking them. This might be worthwhile studying. But also here goes, credit the original maker of the picture. And in the case of the original artists still being alive (most old masters aren't XD) ask for permission. Not every artists might be okay with you publishing a copy of the work they originally made.

Color scheme challenges

DeviantArt has many challenges when it comes to color. They might not learn you as much as the previous exercises, but they're fun to do and allow you some artistic freedom while they still drag you out of your comfort zone. Also; activity's like these are very fun to do with a bunch of friends!

Good books

Here are some books that were especially helpful for me. I know there are many more books about color on the market. The website Parkablogs made a very thorough list about all kinds of art instruction books (and has reviewed all of them). It might be worthwhile to check out if you're interested.

Color and light 

Color and light - James Gurney (ISBN: 0740797719)
There's a lot of theory in the book, but most of it comes from the real life experience of a painter. A huge part of this book talks about traditional paint, but even when you're not a traditional painter (like me) it's interesting to know and it'll help you a lot in understanding how colors work. 

Light for the visual artist

Light for the visual artist - Richard Yot (ISBN: 185669660X)
This book takes a more technical and theoretical approach to how colors work, but it might work very well on for people that are more apt to that kind of mindset. It goes through various types of lighting circumstances and explains all of them with plenty of pictures. 

Good tutorials

purplekecleon's how I see color


sacha's color tutorials


AquaSixio's tutorials on color


Sycra's video on choosing colors that work


Blender Guru video on understanding color


CubeBrush's (Bluefley's) tutorials for value painting and basic coloring


(Ps: don't forget to check out Cubebrush' youtube channel. There's a lot more on colors, but I couldn't link all of them here)

And there are many more...
And there are many more tutorials on color, both on DeviantArt and YouTube... and many other sites.
Don't forget to list your favorites in the comments.

Helpful links

About color palettes
 Working with a limited color palette (by projecteducate)
 Color scheme designer
 Gamut mask tool (More information on this is in Gurney's book, that I listed above)
 Generate a color palette from a photo

About colors and emotion
 The basics of color psychology 
 Color psychology and marketing
 Why color matters

Colors in photoshop
 Adding a colorwheel to photoshop CS4, CS5 & CS6
 Coloorus colorpicker for photoshop (plugin)
 Mixing colors in Photoshop

Important to keep in mind

 There's a whole lot more to color than mentioned in this article, but there's only so much stuff I can post here ^^
 Color is a hard subject. It'll take you quite some time to master it. This goes for every artist. Even those that are masters now once started as beginners.
 Using color correctly comes down to understanding it. So yes, that's science. But don't worry... science is awesome!
 Trust your eyes when it comes to color. Your brain is lying. 
 Using the work of another artist for a personal study is fine, as long as you ask the artists for permission before publishing it, and credit that artist properly.
 Don't rely too much on model pictures in magazines. They're often photoshopped to have more pleasing (and less realistic) colors.
 Studying color can be a harsh and tedious process. Studying it together with friends/fellow artists might help you to keep motivated.
 Don't throw away your paintings. Use them to learn from your mistakes and keep track of your progress.

And most importantly:
 Have fun!  


    Read my other how to's as well    
How to: AnatomyHuman anatomy is, for sure, one of the hardest things to draw. But at the same time it's one of the most interesting things to draw, because... hey... we love making characters, and it's nice if they at least look a bit like a human being. I'm still far from perfect at drawing the human body, yet I've accumulated some very useful tips, tricks and websites.
Good exercises
Drawing from life

Drawing from life is awesome!
Look for life drawing classes in your environment, or if they're not available; ask your friends to pose for you. Go have a drink in the city when the weather is nice, and sketch people passing by. There's nowhere you learn more about human anatomy than by observing and sketching real people. There's only one downside to this; dynamic poses are tricky, as it's hard for any model to hold a difficult pose for a long time. 
And no... drawing (nearly) naked people in a drawing class isn't awkward. I

4 Special Feviphins ready to be adopted!!! (Click the images to enlarge!) I am trying to grow the species so I can get the group events started!
SCROLL DOWN TO LEARN HOW TO WIN!


#4 was made by the fabulous CherryTrabbit :


I will pick the winners on Tuesday!
(And hopefully before then I will also make a a "how to draw wings" type guide)

To enter you must...

1. Join the Feviphin Group: feviphin-island.deviantart.com…
2. Share this Journal 
3. Comment on which one (or ones) you want to enter for! 
You can enter for all of them if you want, but you can only win one!
Also,
if you are entering for more than one, please tell me the order of your least to favorite design. (so if I roll you, I can choose your most favored design)

Ned more info on the species?
You can read more here:
Feviphins Species InfoIntroducing the world of Feviphins!
This is just a little journal for those who want to learn more about the Feviphin species and the island they inhabit!
Chances are that this journal will be edited from time to time and hopefully updated with pictures!
I may even commission a few artist for backdrop pictures as well. I hope to also have a visual feviphin species guide eventually.
If you want a visual basic guide, go here!:

1. What are Feviphins???
Feviphins are actually a type of land dolphin! They have the face, body build, tail, and dorsal fin of a dolphin. Their dolphin bits make them excellent swimmers, however they have short feline-like legs and paws (and retractable claws) that also allow them to hunt and live on the shore. In addition to the legs, feviphins also have beautiful feathered wings! They enjoy flipping and diving around in the sky as well.
2. Appearance of Feviphins
Feviphins have smooth dolphin faces, underbellies, and fins. They have fea 

Feviphins are a closed species created by me and owned by me and CherryTrabbit 

Dat feel when I have to use "that that" or "had had" in a sentence.

Rough and through don't rhyme, but pony and bologna do.

"Colonel".

There, they're, their, you're, your.

Legalese.

This.

<sup>For those waiting on snaps, I'm starting to work on the growing snaps tomorrow, which will be followed by the sleek snaps I owe. Tonight I am working on finishing up the hooded snap trap base.
However I am going to open up some more growing snaps for now since I won't have time to do some premade sales before the month is up and I'm working on pixels again. For these ones I am offering two tiers.

THESE ARE SEMI-CUSTOM - ( you pick three colours + venom colour + preferred marking style + common/uncommon traits )
Payment is upfront. No holds. Please don't order and disappear on me, you'll have a 4 hours to pay from the moment you claim before the slot is forfeit and the next person in line will get the slot.
You'll get the tadpole stages shortly after ordering.

Tier 1 - $35 USD - Standard Snap Trap ( 8/8 available )
Tier 2 - $60 USD - Hooded Snap Trap ( 5/7 available ) ( I'll only be allowing a limited amount of these to kickstart the subspecies, as they are rarer and there will also be a premade sale of them later )

I'll have an official sample of the hooded base later, but I can note you the concept sketch if you're interested in getting a slot.

Slots</sup>
( hooded )
( hooded )