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TUTORIAL // choosing colors (Patreon)

Published:
2020-07-13 16:32:02
Edited:
2024-08-07 10:18:08
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Allright guys, here it is: the second tutorial video for you, my lovely patrons! This one is about choosing colors. You guys actually voted for expressions but I didn’t want to do two tutorials about construction in a row - I wanted to try a different kind of subject as well, but I will definitely be doing expressions next month! 

So for now I made one on colors, or more specifically, using digital color adjustment tools to find colors intuitively. I use photoshop for this but the process can be replicated in pretty much any digital art software! Let me know if you have any questions after watching this, because if there’s anything that I didn’t cover, I can take that into a future tutorial. Looking forward to hearing what you guys think! 

Files

Comments

Shay Maven (edited)

Comment edits

2026-11-03 03:00 Fantastic tutorial! I did struggle a bit with the section on blending though. Do you have a tutorial that shows the settings for the brushes and did you use the smudge tool?
2024-03-17 02:19

Graphic Kraken

Awesome! I will definitely be checking these out!

Tiramisuz

Hi, thank you for explaining this so in-depth! I’ve been doing digital art for 3 years now and I’m at a point where I like my sketches and ideas but my colors look unappealing and often muddy and I feel like this does so much to the quality of a painting. So your tutorial has given me some great insight, especially the tip with using multiply on the outlines, I’ve always been changing the outline colors only manually. Greetings from Germany 👋🏼

Loish

I'm so glad you enjoyed this one! It's so foundational to my workflow and has all of the most useful tips and tricks I use in my process, so I'm glad you found it helpful!

Даша Влезкова

Hello. I'm Daria, this is my first time on Patreon. I decided to try subscribing to you, and I don't regret it. There's a lot of useful information and lessons. This guide has been very helpful for me, thank you. I'm satisfied and I liked it)), now I just need to apply it in practice.)

Anaid Huntress

Oh my gosh, this has helped me A LOT. I have always struggled with color palettes, making them cohesive and such. Been trying a lot of different methods but this tutorial has shed light on things that I couldn't understand. I really love the intuitive approach, an playing with colors and the color editing tools will surely become an integral part of my process. Thank you very much!!!!

Loish

I'm so glad you found it helpful Anaid!

Kathleen Cunningham

Very cool video! I have a tendency to think of digital art as just physical art but on a computer. I use Corel Painter, and many of the brushes are intended to mimic traditional art and media. This adjustment of hue/value/saturation and the manipulation of different layer settings really helped me understand that digital art has its own unique strengths and options. I'm excited to try these techniques out!

Loish

I'm glad you liked it! I definitely think that applying traditional techniques to digital art can work really well. traditional artists bring excellent skill sets to digital! but color editing is definitely a benefit you don't wanna miss out on!

Ember Leigh

The selective color adjustment is so cool! It almost has me ready to use my pc instead of my ipad with procreate, but I'd have to get a tablet for the computer. Most of the other color options I can do on the ipad but I don't see anything close to this tool on there. This is the best color tutorial I have ever seen, I've learned so much! Thank you!

Ember Leigh

Oh my goodness, why have I never seen recolor?? It's pretty amazing! Thank you so much Loish!

孙奕婷

i feel so lucky finding this platform and loish, most of the color tutorials on chinese platforms start from color theories and the complexity has always discouraged me from taking the first step. This tutorial has reignited my interest in making art!

Loish

I'm so happy to hear that! thanks so much for your support! 💖

Camille Dlb

Hi Loish, I got a question for you. when I have my sketch in multiply mode, I can't merge it with my color without it changing my sketch color. How can I fix it ? Thank you for your help, have a nice day !

Loish

hey camille! that usually has a lot to do with the layer below the sketch lines. are you merging onto the base color layer, or on a different layer that has less coverage? sometimes it helps to group all your color layers first, before merging.

Sybille Sterk, Artist

This was a real eye opener, especially choosing different colours for the highlights and shadows.

Loish

so glad you found it helpful, Sybille!

Emilia

have you ever thought about making a tutorial about shading and how to not blend too much?

Loish

definitely! i will be making something on this topic in the future.

Nick Miulli

Love seeing the way you use the digital tools! I come from a traditional background and I've been digitally painting for a little while. I have to constantly remind myself to approach digital painting differently. Thank you for sharing and I can't wait to see more!

Vespora

Very nice! This was very easy to follow and it's so great to hear your thought process on choosing accent colors in particular. Thanks for putting this together. :)

KYRAT

Wow, this was SO helpful! You have such a wonderful balance between intuition and practice. It's honestly really inspiring.

Joffery Black

Thank you!, looking forward to watching this afternoon. The lasso demo was amazing!

Lynn Larson

Very informative! I have never thought to play with color this way! Thank you <3

Scott Thigpen

this has been your best tutorial ever.

Tina Kavčič

So insightful, I love seeing your process explained in so much detail. I can also see how this intuitive approach really contributes to the finished product.

Юлия Соколова

Oh, thank you! I am so happy you’ve chosen do to this theme! I’ve been voting for it. That is my problem spot and your tutorial helps a lot! ❤️

Ivan Lam

These tutorials are amazing! Keep it up! Where do we vote on your next tutorial?

Kat Craig

This is SO helpful. Especially when choosing highlights and shadows. I've always tended to choose just lighter or darker hues of the base and it would always look so bland and muddy. Definitely going to give these methods a try. Thank you Loish! <3

SK

My god this is possible the best tutorial I’ve seen on color! It makes a lot of sense to think about what colors work together and develop that sense intuitively than to chase after the color wheel. I find the color wheel a little hard when you stick to all the rules

Shirley Swa

This tutorial super helpful, i enjoy how beautiful and vivid it is when you description the journey of colour! Thank you so much for making this video! Please make more of these tutorial!

Aneta Bronisz-Antoniolli

"Colorize" - the option in Hue/Saturation!!! I needed this my whole life!!! My digital art process has been a lie till now xD. Thank you Lois!

Atılay Sargın

It is great to explain many things that I have seen in speedpainting videos like this video! A video about rendering and painting would be great, thank you Lois!

Loish

haha i learned this trick from one of my workshop students, changed my life then too!

Loish

yep, definitely. also it's quite limiting to think of colors that way, you may not get the most out of your color scheme when you are in a 'rigid' mindset!

Loish

just posted a poll! sorry it took so long!

SAFIYYAH ALLI

I learned so much from this, thank you! Do you work in a similar manner when using procreate?

Christina Gardner

Thank you so much for this. This is the first time I feel I've understood the "intuition" side of a color tutorial; thank you so much for going in-depth showing your thought process and experimentation there.

Kamila

This tutorial was super helpful. In one hand I knew and used most of these color "tricks" but understanding how you thoughtfully use it and how it makes your colors, blending and lines work together as a whole is really a kind of a discovery :). These comments are precious!

Mollsie Wallsie

This is one of my favorite tutorial videos I've seen, you do such a great job breaking everything down and giving advice overall. Little things like avoiding the use of straight black or white is something I learned awhile ago but totally forgot, and it's definitely been holding back my illustrations when I've been trying to go for a more soft and subtle color palette. Thank you so much for this wonderful tutorial!

Marta Krajewska

Hey Loish! Maybe it isn't good place to ask, but I want to ask, Have you ever struggled with different look of your works at phone and pc? when I draw on my laptop colors are perfect but after upload it on insta (or other platform) and check it on my phone my work usually looks terrible. do you have any method to be sure that your painting be looking good everywhere?

Rinaldo Ishak

Hi Loish, why I cannot see the video ? Just appear picture in your post. And I didn't see any link to the video. Thank you

Kayla MacGown (edited)

Comment edits

2026-11-03 03:00 This was absolutely amazing, I was wondering if you knew if there are procreate equivalents to some of these tools like setting your lines to the correct setting before coloring them. I definitely know where to find the saturation, hue, tone, etc. editors but I'm not sure about the lineart setting or the feathered lasso tool. Maybe I'll just have to break out the old huion and give photoshop a go again because this was a total game changer!! Youre amazing!
2020-07-16 05:24

Brittani Harris

I have always struggled with color. All the color wheel explanations just bored me. Thank you so much for this tutorial. It will definitely change my work flow as soon as I figure out similar adjustments in procreate.

Cheryl Meredith

This was amazing! One of the most helpful tutorials I've watched. Really well done, so helpful! :D

Albert

Wow. Thx you so much!

Loish

so glad you like it!

Loish

hey kayla! the exact same tools are available in procreate! when you make a selection, there's an option called 'feather' in the bottom menu that pops up. you can also set your sketch to 'multiply' in the layers panel!

Loish

yep, i use more or less the same process! i use color editing tools and i change the color of the lines.

Garciartist

A very helpful tutorial! thank you Loish!

Ahmed Kaki

The best tutorial ever

Mickz Clouds

These tutorials are just the best. So well done and insightful. Thank you so much for this, Loish, I'm gonna watch it a couple of times like I will do with the first one.

Beitzy Cubas Yalle

thanks , i love it , these tutorail was very helpfull and clear doubts about selectin colors, thanks a lot.

Flügelchen

thank you very much for this amazing tutorial. the voice over is really great because it helps understand your goals. <3 i feel instantly inspired

Niquey

I know this is over a week old, but I only just got to watch it and it ended up being so timely. I'm working on improving my portrait drawing skills and I just started on a portrait from imagination and I was struggling a bit with choosing the colors. This will definitely come in handy!

Melissa

This was so helpful! I'll definitely try the sliders and multiply line art techniques. The way you show color distribution is a game changer for me. Thank you so much! You explain so clearly and it doesn't feel like you're talking down to anyone at all. Keep doing what you're doing, I really appreciate it <3

Loish

hope you find it helpful!! i'm glad you liked it :)

Angela

Finally got around to watching this in its entirety and it was awesome :) Thank you for taking the time to put this together and give so much insight into how you think about colour. I've always thought that the most striking things about your paintings are the colour and the movement/flow. I especially love how much depth and life there is to the skin tones that you choose and am really excited that you're considering sharing more on skin colour specifically! Thank again :)

Julia Badow

This hs been absolutely epic! I love your approach to color and breaking down all the places you use gradients has me stunned. Your colorful lines are so subtle, yet so powerful, too! This has been the first thing I immediately watched after signing up, I don't know what other treasures are on your patreon, but I am excited. I'm looking forward to your tutorial on rendering and I am also curious if you ever draw on ipad with procreate? Finding and using all the sliders in different programs might be an adjustment for me, so if you do use procreate, I'd love to see the same content you showed here with a different program again. (And if you think that would get repetitive and boring, it won't, you are so good at explaining naturally and have such a nice voice and way of talking, I could listen forever :D)

Sharon Tu

I am new to procreate and was wondering if you can show this method on procreate? Like selecting area and choosing color? Thank you !

Loish

sure! I will probably be doing a little tutorial on procreate in the future.

Kura

Really appreciate you and your intuitive tutorial 💕

Alice

Thank you so much for this tutorial, it was really inspiring ! I'm not sure how I can apply it for traditional medium but I'll try to keep your advice in mind :D I can't wait to watch the next tutorial :)

Loish

true, this is so dependent on digital media! i know an artist who uses digital to choose the colors and then uses that as their ref for the traditional work.

Alice

This is a good idea ! It allows to take more risk and be more confident on the choices of the color ! I’ll try that 😊

Celeste

when you speak about how using several colors for highlights/shadows, is there anything that nudges you towards a specific color for a highlight/shadow in one area vs another? Im specifically thinking of the piece at 1 hour where talk about how you have a less saturated lighter in tone mauve as a highlight as well as a deeply saturated blue

Loish

i always mess around and just experiment with what works, but most of the time i gravitate towards cooler shades for shadows and warmer for highlights. but sometimes i throw it around and do the opposite. just depends on what 'feels' right for that drawing!

Yousef Abdullah

This is super useful. I’m not sure if anybody asked this but how do you know when to stop adding new colors? When is it too much? I’ve seen some artists that recommend always limiting your palette. Also during your process, do you think about the color of the light source and the ambient light, or do you make those “follow” the desired colors for your subject (if that makes any sense haha). Thanks Loish!

Shelley Webb

Incredible tutorial, I’ve never seen colours explained in this way and I can’t wait to try it for myself.. absolutely ingenious work which I’m so grateful you have shared with us ❤️

Loish

so glad you like it!!

Carmen Redondo

It was suuper helpful, thanks for explaining all so well ❤️❤️

Agnese

I really enjoyed this tutorial! you say it is very "vague" but actually it is the most concrete I have seen so far! I will try out your techniques next time :) Thanks a lot!

Loish

glad you like it!!

Sharon Tu

I would like to see this in procreate. Also, in the end you delete your line art but how do you get your edges so defined still. As though there looks to be lined

Loish

i always keep my lineart! but i reconstruct it a lot at the end, using colors that are on the canvas. i will try to translate some of this stuff into procreate for this month's tutorial!

Sharon Tu

Thank you! So you’re saying you go over with canvas colors line art and not use rough draft for final

Jakob Andersen

You are an excellent teacher. I learned a ton. Thanks alot. I would really like more of this colorstuff. Your color choices are super inspiring.

Loish

glad you like it!!

Kolja Kähler

Very inspiring! My brain always wants to confine me to rather stiff „rational“ color choices, so the words that appealed to me and which I‘m going to tack to my screen are ‚emotional response‘, ‚playful‘ and ‚movement‘ :)

Loish

i'm so glad you found this helpful! i relaly think following your intuition is the best bet for having expressive color.

Bri Art

This is so helpful! Thank you! I'm an oil painter trying to get into digital art and struggle with actually using the digital medium as it's intended instead of just as a brush substitute. I love your explanation of all the various tools you use.

Loish

thank you! the great thing about digital art is that it is so versatile and you can work with it in any way that suits you. if you're used to oil paint you could try more painterly type software, like painter! either way I'm glad you found the tutorial helpful :)

Caitlin Blaine

Thank you so much for this tutorial! I always feel like I really struggle with colors and choosing colors. I love your intuitive approach and how you use the original linework on multiply to assist in the process. I can't wait to try your methods out!

Loish

glad you like it! i think once you realize that you just have to see it in front of you and assess whether you like it, you'll feel a lot more confident in choosing colors!

Aratrika Gangopadhyay

Gosh am I very late to say this that this just saved me a ton loish! Thank you so much! This really really helped me a lot! But I do have a query though. Since I am using procreate, I don’t know how to modify my ways when it comes to the “selective color” section. Is there an alternative for it in procreate cause gosh I saw huge changes in color. Thank you for inspiring us! 🖤

Loish

thanks so much, i'm glad you like it! they don't have selective color in procreate, but color balance behaves a bit more like selective color with more subtle variations between light and dark tones. i also sometimes use recolor in procreate to get similar effects!

Aratrika Gangopadhyay

Oh my! Thank you for the reply! Yes, okay, I’ll try working on this the way you instructed in here. I’ll try using recolour as well. Thank you so much for the help!! 🖤

Loish

no problem! just experiment with the sliders and options and see what it can do! there's really no right and wrong when it comes to experimenting with color!

Diana

first of all thank you so mucho this video has been very useful and clear. I have a question, I got lost about in which direction move the color saturation around de 45 min? if some of you guys can explain it pls would be great. thanks

Loish

hey diana! around 45 minutes i'm using the color picker to choose a color. to get a more saturated tone, move it more towards the right side. the right has the most saturated colors, and the left has the least saturated (if you're using the same color picker setup as me!)

Diana

Thanks a lot for your reply, It has been great to learn from you. I feel very inspired.

burchiburchi

Amazing tips! I don't want to use pre-made color palettes anymore lol!

Loish

glad you like it! i find pre-made palettes very limiting.. but you can always start with one and then tweak it as you go, depending on what you'd like to change!

Tracey Lane

Just signed up to your Patreon a few days ago. This is awesome. I have been using Procreate and have just bought a Cintiq and Photoshop and am finding the transition a little difficult. These tutorials are helping a lot with both the transition and techniques. Thank you.

Loish

I'm so glad you find it useful! I have procreate tutorials too, I talk a little bit about how the process is different from my photoshop process in those. They're listed in the pinned post :)

Nate D

Very informative! You have a great way of breaking things down and explaining everything so clearly. Love your work! Thanks :)

Loish

so glad you like it nate!

Simadream

This is very similar to how I pick colors -- and I'm *so* glad. I've always felt like I was doing it wrong because I wasn't using fancy color laws about using all kinds of shapes on the color wheel etc. I did also pick up some new tricks from this that I hadn't thought of. Thanks!

Ilaria

I love your approach so much! 🥺 Thanks for this helpful video, Loish! I just became a patron and this is the first tutorial I wanted to see because I have always loved your way of using color. Now I know that “playing” is the key word! I can’t wait to experiment with these tools and see all the other tutorial videos. I will never stop thanking you! 💜 I wish I had you as a teacher years ago.

Loish

i'm so glad you liked the tutorial! thanks so much for the support here on patreon :)

Sheza Yancheva

Thank you so much for this wonderful tutorial, Loish! I particularly enjoyed the part where you choose a slightly different colour for the shadows and highlights as opposed to just darker/lighter variations of the base colour. Super useful!

Loish

glad you like it!

okosketch

I gotta try this! I always had a hard time because everyone seemed to know tricks and "must do" with the colour wheel and somehow my brain won't register that. I just hope my intuition in colour is decent haha

Loish

i also struggled with the color wheel a lot! the more technical the approach to color becomes, the less i can focus on it. intuition is something you can train! i hope you find this useful :)

okosketch

that's good to read, I hope I can train my intuition <3 my brain goes to hibernation when I try to understand a technical approach ahaha

Tania Huerta

Was having some trouble figuring out how to use the lasso+ gradient tools when I viewed the step-by-step lasso tool pdf. But this really helped to clear things up for me! Thank you <3 :]

Loish

happy you found it useful!!

Sketchyfox

Thanks to this tutorial my skills have improved soo much!! ♥♥♥

Rita dong

Don't know if this video can have subtitle translation? It is convenient for foreigners to study, thank you very much

Virgo Phan Art

This tutorial have an error when playing, it stopped at middle of the video, hope it will be fixed soon

Loish

hey thanh! patreon is asking which browser you're using / if you're using the patreon app?

Madni

Hi Loish, I have the same problem on Firefox for iPad, last version :)

Virgo Phan Art

I'm using Safari on Macbook, sorry for late reply

Loish

thanks for letting me know!

ning echo

Can some basic videos be uploaded to YouTube? At present, many can not see the translation, only a sentence with translation software to see. YouTube has language translation. Loish, many of us foreigners like you very much too.

Loish

thanks so much! Unfortunately I can't upload them to youtube, because then they can be easily shared with anyone and there is no way to ensure that the video is protected. Since my patreon content has been pirated so many times before, it is not a wise decision for me. At the end of the month, you will receive a link to the video and the separate subtitle file, which you can run through a translator! If you'd like the subtitle file sooner, feel free to send me a DM :)

ning echo

I am really sorry about that. I see what you mean. thank you very much !

chicken

Hello! New Patreon here and I have a question for you. I have been following this tutorial closely, but I must admit I am sooo scared of using one layer for coloring haha. Pushed myself to do it and I really like my results but omg I was SCREAMING inside. Am I at a disadvantage for using multiple layers for coloring? I really like your approach, and I would like to continue to challenge myself :)

Loish

thanks so much for supporting me here! i think it's okay to use multiple layers for coloring if that works better for you. for my workflow, i find it cumbersome, but everyone is different! i think many layers only really becomes a problem when it is triggering perfectionism in your workflow which can hold you back. you can try my workflow and then adapt it to your own way of working as much as you like!

Yana Adamovic

Awsome video! I’ve been using some of your techniques this week when sketching and already I feel like my art has been amped up and pushed in a new interesting direction.

Eunice Figueroa

I absolutely love these tutorials! I can’t wait to try these techniques out in my work.