Pixel Painting Series Tutorial 7: Relationship between Light and Dark – Production Example

Pixel Painting Series Tutorial 7: The Relationship between Light and Dark It is not enough to grasp the bright tones in pixel painting. Sometimes the colors of the picture are still not vivid enough. This is because there is a lack of changes in light and dark in the use of colors.
Only by following the changing relationship between objects and light sources can we present pixel paintings that are both vivid and consistent with our visual impression.
When we are preparing to draw a pixel work with a changing relationship between light and dark, we must first determine the location of the light source, and then add highlights, intermediate colors, light and dark boundary lines, reflections, etc. to the object according to the illumination of the light source. For projection, if the pixel work drawn is very small, then you only need to grasp the bright and dark parts.

The light and dark depiction of objects
As shown in the figure , based on picture A, consider the direction of the light source and grasp the light-receiving surface and backlight surface of the object. It should be noted that the hue of the object, whether it is the light-receiving part or the backlight part, must be consistent with the overall hue. The bright part can be brightened by adding white or light color to the main color, while the dark part can be darkened by adding black or dark color to the main color.

The light and dark depiction of characters
As shown in the picture, compared with the objects The description of light and shade is complicated. Although the direction of light exposure is the same, the color tone of people’s hair, hats, skin, clothing, and texture of objects are all different. Therefore, we should still depict them separately according to the attributes of the objects. If there is a painting with a background, sometimes you have to consider the reflection of the background on the characters, which is what we call the environmental color.

Light and dark depiction of overlapping objects
As shown in the figure, two Or when more objects overlap, in addition to following the changing rules of light and dark, you must also pay attention to the overlapping images produced when objects overlap, so that the objects will be more realistic.