Why Color Studies Are So Powerful

In this first video to this channel I discuss the quickest method for mastering an artistic eye for color and light through the creation of color studies. In this first part I talk about my experience of doing these studies for years and how it impacted my career, as well as some tips for where to start.

[Pinkstarpirate]

It's a good reminder to new artists that your one hour study will not look like some of his one hour studies. Quick studies and the ability to get that much information on a page is also a skill that takes time and practice. So understand that it is also something that will build and grow with you and the effort you put into the process and your own learning. Don't let yourself get frustrated! (I know a lot of young and new artists try to follow the advice and get very frustrated when they can't replicate the same results in their studies as professional artists with thousands of hours of studies under their belt).

[aspenisthebest]

In art class in high school, we were learning about light and shadows, so we painted an egg still life. I was so unbelievably proud of my egg, and I was so excited to show my mom because I thought she might finally be proud of me for something since she was an artist. I showed her the egg with a huge smile, and she looked at it with no emotion on her face and blankly said, "It's an egg." That moment will forever haunt me, but I still love egg paintings and I think it's really cool how the different light and shadows are so simple but still make such a difference. It would just be a basic oval without it.

[mrsplosh]

The thing that helped me the most were
1. Sam Neilson’s colour and light course
2. James gurney’s colour and light
3. Light for visual artists- Richard Yot
4. Studies

[DigitalGamersX]

I felt very seen when you said "drawing made sense to me in line but color always confused me", thats my current problem in my art progress rn haha. Time to put pedal to the metal with these studies, and thanks for being so honest!

[angelbiscuits]

the thought of doing studies admittedly scares me, BUT the simple act of giving them little faces makes it so much more fun. ur a genius lmao

[NornChaver]

You're like an art dad that I've never had. This is so cozy inspiring and educational all in one video. Thx man

[rainncorbin]

How helpful. I'm self taught, been painting 3 years. I'm still learning. I set aside 6 hours a day and practice. I don't work, I'm in a wheelchair. Started as a hobby but my paintings are actually selling. I'm going to do that. I feel like I've done art in other lifetimes. I intuitively know how to do things I've never been taught to do. It's weird. Thanks again.

[AlistairBonfronte]

Reminds me of a few years ago, when I was stuck being unable to improve anything with human shapes and I was like hating my art and all that jazz. Then I had to take that one mandatory class in creature design I thought I was going to hate as well because it’s not my cup of tea, and we had this exercise where we could only draw slimes, but like, thematic slimes, so everybody had 10 minutes to draw elemental slimes, emotion-based slimes, historic-figures slimes and a bunch of other crazy stuff as a smile for an hour. At first I just thought that it was relaxing, didn’t think much about it and didn’t realize that it was the first time I relaxed while drawing in months, so it came for me as a surprise when I sat to work on a major piece and it just, I don’t know how to explain but it just worked; it wasn’t flawless, and I wasn’t in the zone or any fancy stuff, but I didn’t feel as constricted as I would. Later I found out that I don’t need to be drawing humans all the time to improve that skill, our brain works in strange ways when it comes to learning, and for me it’s now about drawing some odd slimes a few minutes every day. I guess everybody has their own slimes or eggs to discover.

[uh-ooooh]

This is my first video I've seen of yours and I already love it. There's a lot of art channels that do too much gimmicky shortcuts or counter-to-the-grain methods but feels unnecessarily contrarian for the sake of being contrarian to seem more unique and gives false-hope to aspiring artists. But I love videos like this where it just feels honest. There's no "different angle" or "clever never before seen solution" or "trickity trick" that's going to suddenly make me become an expert. Face it head on - look at things, study things, put in the work, put in the fun. Love the videos, man

[MadDannyWest]

wtf why does this only have 2, 000 views? It deserves at least over 100, 000. This is awesome!

[XEPHOURIA]

Something that fascinates me is that his art looks so realistic even with a stylized style because of how good of an understanding he has of light. That's something I've noticed throughout mediums, even with a unique or cartoony style, something that doesn't reflect actual life, and you give it really good lighting, then it looks realer than if you used a realistic style with mediucre lighting.

[zelciuss]

My problem is whenever I want to paint something from my own imagination without references, my color palettes are awful I want to give up and cry lol

[Hmy]

This is like a mini masterclasss— YouTube needs to get with it so that more people are exposed to it and can see it!!! Thank you so very much for sharing some truly invaluable insight and advice! Its’s rare (if it exists anywhere at all!) that an artist/illustrator who works for Pixar etc allows the public a to have glimpse into their brain’s creative process—and BREAKS IT DOWN in a way that really makes sense for anyone….I honestly feel like I stumbled across gold here, haha I mean this is a gift to all of us who watch! Thank you so so much!

[GummysGamingGallery]

😆 "Just shoot me now!" I've been feeling really down lately about getting back into art. Doing these small studies might just give me the push I need. Every time I see a product, I always wonder who the artist is! Not many people think about the work that goes into making a product and that includes the artwork! It would be such a neat feeling to see your work on something worldwide! Thanks for the vid! I'll definitely be checking out others in the near future.

[MegaAwesomeAnnie]

I recently tried to paint a monochrome scene and the end result showed me how I had been neglecting values in favour of hues. Colours are great but you could paint an object in almost any hue and make it look realistic just by paying close attention to light / dark values and contrasts, whereas even a correctly-coloured object can look vague and undefined without the appropriate shading and highlights. I really liked that you guys spent an hour each week painting an object - that tallies up to many hours and many objects over a period of time so amazing exercise which we could easily incorporate into our weeks too :) Thanks for sharing!

[zuxzuxesquivelzeta]

I think you do an incredible job in the art world. Nowadays, people just focus on one side of the spectrum of art, mostly self expression, and completely forget that art is meant to convey the highest level of perfection, complimented with deepest passion and daring ideas. Thanks for all the work you put in your vids! Cheers!

[melou]

Been drawing since I was a kid but in my personal opinion, I really suck at colors. I've been thinking for the past few months to do studies, and I believe this video pushes me to do so. So, thank you! Also, I feel like you yourself in this video can be a study a study as well - because of the dual lighting xD

[pada]

With all the hype and drama nowadays... It is so refreshing to see somebody showing actual results of actual down to earth work that was repeatedly done in real life. Also it brought tangible progress that led to an actual skill you can use and build on. What a concept!

No fluff, no drama, no glitter. Just light reflecting on surfaces, colors, mastered by actual practicing.

The didactic structure and editing of this video is superbe. You are also a very likeable person. I also trust your guidance instantly. I write this at my personal starting point to binge watching your channel 😊

Avoiding noise and nightmares.
Wonderful. Will try this. Thank you

[jlinus]

Colour has always been hard for me. I've always found line art easy, but when I go in to colour my art in it was so hard

[Lobstrique]

this is such incredible advice! i thought this video would be on colour theory but it turned out to be the most practical advice, beautifully illustrated with examples and personal story