Experiments in Coloring: Underwater

[J. B. Warner]

I recently got a scanner for my birthday, and I've taken the opportunity to scan some of my black-and-white drawings (which have been infamous in the past for always remaining uncolored) and color them by computer. One continuing theme that crops up in a lot of my art is an underwater setting, and I wanted to do some of those to see how well I could color them realistically. Here's what I've come up with:

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/44120286/

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/44161349/

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/44165460/

I tried to achieve a darker scheme for the ocean floor pictures, and I went a little lighter for the one that's closer to the surface. I know that there are some flaws, like the light being reflected only on the sand and not the rocks or anything else, but these are primarily color tests anyway. Thoughts?

[ElBarto]

Use multible tones of blue for the water.

[J. B. Warner]

Use multible tones of blue for the water.

I want to, but my only coloring program right now is MS Paint, and you can't do gradients there. I should probably ask for Photoshop for Christmas...

[stephane dumas]

I want to, but my only coloring program right now is MS Paint, and you can't do gradients there. I should probably ask for Photoshop for Christmas...

You can also use GIMP http://www.gimp.org/index.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP or Pixia http://park18.wakwak.com/~pixia/ althought they don't have all the features then Photoshop have, they're useful and both free to download (in the case of GIMP, it's an open-source software)

[J. B. Warner]

I know it's been upwards of two months since I posted this thread, but I recently did another underwater drawing that I think came out much better than my previous four, in terms of the colors. Rather than trying to produce the tinted colors myself, I colored the scene normally and then used a photo-editing program (not Photoshop, but it'll do) to futz around with the color balance, adding more blue and increasing the brightness to give it a little bit of haze. So, no more green skin, thankfully. Regardless of the fact that it features the cast of "Pokémon", what do you think?

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/47933749/