Eyes: Now, this may be just my bias since I dislike neon colors ESPECIALLY green- but I feel just putting the neon color by itself is very straining on the eyes. Now, if you happen to like the neon color I suppose you could continue to use it so long as you throw some shading in there to direct from the bright color itself like so-
However- even that small bit of shading still has it looking quite bright.
There are tons of ways to shade eyes though! But since I only know my style- I'll try my best to utilize it and show how I'd dilute it a bit. qvq;;
I bring down the opacity of the green-layer just a tad, throw some white shine on, a darker green for detail and a pupil. However, it still looks a bit bright. Though not quite as blinding. I tend to think detail distracts from the brightness a bit- however if it still is too bright you can always blend more dark colors in! I don't use a lot of shading on the eyes though 'cus I'm a weenie. orz;; I try to avoid neon as much as possible and dilute it if at all possible. Don't be afraid to throw more cute details in those eyes! Like hearts or shine, etc. Just be sure to no go over-board and clutter the eye too much.
Black Lines on Eyes: Okaaay so- I struggled with black lines for a long LONG time and am still trying to get over the darn things. Now, a lot of styles make very good use of them but it can be hard depending on your style and know-how. In fact, I just recently started coloring the lines on my eyes. orz;;;;;
Now, note the difference between the black lines on the eyes and when they are a dark brown:
Makes a bit of a difference, right? Just looks a bit more pleasing to the eyes. Now- what about other colors? Dark green maybe?
Not bad. Dark maroon/purple?
Kinda funky- but not terrible. It's really all about playing with the colors and seeing what looks good. I tend to stick with dark brown and lower the opacity as I see fit. However- black doesn't always look bad either! It kind of varies. See the difference between a black outlined eye and a brown one:
While neither look particularly
bad- the black is just a bit more
in your face while the brown tends to blend better.
OH! And to make it blend a bit more- take the skin tone and airbrush it onto the ends of your eye-lashes, blend, and lower the opacity.
Hair Coloring: as Lemon Pop said- NEVER shade with black! Not even when coloring something that is portrayed as black. It's recommended to use a dark blue or something of the sort. It makes the whole drawing look off and a tad odd. So- let me try to show how my dumb butt can help with this even though I'm a coloring noob. Let's start with the base color:
Not much to say here except for make sure it's a nice medium between the dark shading you'll use and the light shine. //shrugs
Now, for shading I usually start with the base color- move it a smidge darker and move it a bit into the next blending color like so:
Now, which way you go and how far on the last step is up to you and the color your using. If I were to use a light blue I'd probably take the color swatch down a bit further and more into the dark blue area of the color wheel. (as you can see from some of my pre-made swatches ahuhu)
So, let me just do the basic shading.
So- since this was a sketch and I didn't take the time to throw all the proper hair lines in this will be kinda hard BUT- I'll try. Just plop that shading in around any hair lines and where any natural shading would go. I may have to add a few more hair lines. And as you can tell- I darkened the shading by a bit as it wasn't dark enough. Don't be afraid to change the shading if at any point it looks off to you!
Now I'm going to take that same color, and on a different layer I'm going to airbrush it into spots where i feel shading/darkness might fit and hit the hair to give it a smidge of dimension. Don't be afraid to play with the opacity either! Sometimes the color may be too dark, I almost always lower it to about 75%.
Now, for some shine. There are tons of ways to do this and tons of shapes to use- but I tend to just do either a white or lighter color of the original streak across the hair, then just erase and create some random lines and lower the opacity a tad. Just play with it until it looks right.
I'm leaning towards the circles so I'll stick with that for now. Not done yet though! Now I tend to take the skin color and airbrush it on around the hair surrounding the face and blend it a bit.
Why do this? Because it helps the face stand out and adds a bit of brightness~ not done though! You have to lower the opacity so it just barely shows through. About 45-50% is pretty good!
Black Lines: I struggle with black lines- always have and still am. My best advice- try to avoid them unless you can make them look good. Some people color all the lines EXCEPT for the very outer ones which gives it a nice effect. Can't find any examples right now but they're out there! So- once you have all of your stuff shaded, you're ready to mess with your lines!
Let's start with the skin. Now, the trick is to find a nice medium so the lines aren't too light that you can barely see them nor too dark that they are blunt. I usually take the color I shaded with and tweak it a bit darker until I find a good color.
Too light.
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Too dark.
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Pretty good!
Mind you- these would look way better if I actually lined them, but I'm sick and lazy so bah. So now that the skin is done- on to the hair! Same basic concept really. WAMBAM
Now for a finishing touch I usually just make a new layer, swipe some white where the light hits and a dark color of your choice where the shade would hit and blend like so:
And lower that opacity to around 10. You can totally skip this step- I just do it for fun. I go into Photoshop and mess with the lighting a bit there too- so blah. SO WAMBAM YOURE DONE
