Skyship

[Dain]

Hi guys,
Just wanted to share a current project, a Skyship and landscape.
I'd like to add colour but I am quite nervous because I've no idea where to begin, what to use, what technique ... completely a rookie with that :/
I'll use PS but every single time I've worked on something in colour, it ended up with a nice and smelly piece of rubbish

Any advice will be more than welcome

[torstan]

Very nice!

For the colour I'd suggest one of two ways forward. One is to get yourself a nice textured background - like a parchment and use that to get rid of the white. Then set a layer to overlay (again, under the lines) and use a very light yellow to lay in the highlights and a very dark blue to lay in the shadows. Then use a low opacity brush on a colour layer to set the colours over the top.

The second approach would be to find a nice grungy brush, turn on wet edges and set it to low opacity (around 10-20%). Then start laying in the colour. Start with light shades, and then move on to darker shades. That should give you a nice watercolour look. The grungy brush will stop you being too precious about edges and will lend a texturing to the piece which will avoid it looking too photoshopped.

Experiment, and see what you like. Post what you've got here and I'm sure people will chip in with ideas of what they feel works and what doesn't.

[Dain]

Thanks for the tips,
I'll try both techniques and see how I go. The first one rings a bell to me but hope I'll be able to get something, at least just nice.

You're right on the spot, I'm not looking for something too Photoshop'ed, not too glossy or clinking.

We'll see anyway.
Thanks again

[Steel General]

Nicely done... I'm usually a "color guy", but I think this is fine as a simple black and white drawing.

[Clercon]

This is a great piece of art just as it is. Looking forward to see how you progress :-)

[Ramah]

Very nice Dain. I think personally I would add some billowing to the sails as right now they look completely flat. Still, that may just be a stylistic choice. Anyhoo, looking forward to seeing where you take this with colour.

[Dain]

Thanks guys for your support.

Very nice Dain. I think personally I would add some billowing to the sails as right now they look completely flat. Still, that may just be a stylistic choice. Anyhoo, looking forward to seeing where you take this with colour.

Billowing ... why didn't I think about it before? That's clever. I like it, more interaction with the clouds.
Now, I just need to figure out how to do it nicely :/

[jtougas]

This is really very good. Either black and white OR color would be great.

[JPIKE]

Wow, that is really great Dain! It's a great illustration even in B&W. The terrain kind of reminds me of the old SNES Legend of Zelda game, which is cool. I can't really give you any advice because I don't know how to use photoshop, but I can say that it is very impressive even without colour. Good luck.

[Dain]

Thanks for the comments guys

I also like the B/W version as it is but in the meantime wonder how all this could be improved with colours.
Anyway, here are the final version i'm gonna work on.
Finger crossed for the next pic to be uplaoded