This class is designed to help artists develop a method for picking colors, color schemes, and light temperature when painting their drawings.


Often artists develop the skills to create masterful drawings but constantly fall short in their color choices for objects, characters, clothing, and backgrounds. This class gives artists options and steps to begin logically making color choices for their illustrations. Will shows how you can neutralize your colors to avoid creating accidental focal points as well as making conscious decisions for your intended focal points. Controlling emphasis is to control the story you are trying to tell.

Will demonstrates how he picks colors, how he uses light to influence his colors, and how culture and symbols dictate what colors you should use. If you struggle with your color choices this video will help you develop a system of attack.

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About the Instructor

Illustrator Will Terry

Will Terry has been a freelance illustrator for 26 years. He got his start working for magazines and newspapers in the Washington D.C. area. His early clients include publications such as Time, Money, WSJ and ads for Sprint, Pizza Hut, Fed Ex, and Master Card. He has illustrated about 30 children’s books for a number of publishers, including Random House, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, and Penguin. When he's not mountain biking, hiking, or snowboarding he works out of the svslearn.com office in Provo Utah. 

Course curriculum

    1. Intro

    2. Symbolism

    3. Choosing colors for objects

    4. Emphasis

    5. Light influences color

    6. Picking local colors

    7. More on light and color

    8. Working with red

    9. Summing it up

    10. Downloads

About this course

  • 10 lessons
  • 2 hours of video content
  • 9 Videos

Reviews

5 star rating

Excellent Course as Usual

Kate Creates

I'm sure I'll revisit this one. A great shorter refresher or introduction to color. A few of the tips on applying lighting will definitely help with the st...

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I'm sure I'll revisit this one. A great shorter refresher or introduction to color. A few of the tips on applying lighting will definitely help with the struggles I sometimes have with color harmony in digital. Thanks for another great class with general things to consider combined with easily applicable tips!

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5 star rating

Choosing Colors for Storytelling

Connie Knowlden

I really enjoyed this class. Many examples of how to emphasize the main character in an illustration. Wil also showed how contrast can point to the central...

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I really enjoyed this class. Many examples of how to emphasize the main character in an illustration. Wil also showed how contrast can point to the central object in the picture. As a novice, I can see how I get caught up in just producing a pretty picture without choosing colors to help tell the story. Excellent class.

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5 star rating

Excellent info!

Nathan Drushinin

Will did a fantastic job talking through color choices and how they affect your illustration. He used clear examples that really drove his points home.

Will did a fantastic job talking through color choices and how they affect your illustration. He used clear examples that really drove his points home.

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5 star rating

Loved it!

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5 star rating

Awesome course!

Patsy Parker

I enjoyed this course because it is broken down in many sections of subject matter. There is a lot to absorb in each section so the time span for each one is...

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I enjoyed this course because it is broken down in many sections of subject matter. There is a lot to absorb in each section so the time span for each one is perfect. This course gave me so much more to think about inthe terms of how warm and cool colors work together! I will definitely be going back to review things.

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5 star rating

Excellent examples

Bethany Hissong

I didn't realize what I'd forgotten to apply to my illustrations surrounding color choices and emphasis. This video was excellent in pointing out how to make...

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I didn't realize what I'd forgotten to apply to my illustrations surrounding color choices and emphasis. This video was excellent in pointing out how to make a much stronger story with color! I am so thankful that I can take these classes and that Will has been so great at sharing his methods!

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5 star rating

Awsome!

sam marrero

Great resource.

Great resource.

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5 star rating

I loved it

Alex Diaz

Excellent class! I love Will Terry's classes. He explains so well and goes through the information in a very through manner.

Excellent class! I love Will Terry's classes. He explains so well and goes through the information in a very through manner.

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5 star rating

Awesome course!

Patsy Parker

I enjoyed this course because it is broken down in many sections of subject matter. There is a lot to absorb in each section so the time span for each one is...

Read More

I enjoyed this course because it is broken down in many sections of subject matter. There is a lot to absorb in each section so the time span for each one is perfect. This course gave me so much more to think about inthe terms of how warm and cool colors work together! I will definitely be going back to review things.

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5 star rating

Colourful Ideas!

Diego Araujo

A lot of thinking goes into choosing colours - its more of a brain process than just an arm movement thing! Will Terry manages to distill this into a lot of ...

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A lot of thinking goes into choosing colours - its more of a brain process than just an arm movement thing! Will Terry manages to distill this into a lot of useful information! I like how he presents this class as a series of ideas for developing our own personal way to properly choosing colours, instead of just a set of rules to follow.

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5 star rating

Extremely helpful

Laurie DeMott

I find choosing colors to be more difficult when doing a children's book because for consistency sake, I have to retain the local color of characters or thei...

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I find choosing colors to be more difficult when doing a children's book because for consistency sake, I have to retain the local color of characters or their clothing while putting them in different scenes, situations, and lighting. This was very helpful in beginning to understand how to use color more effectively even within the constraints of a consistent story line.

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5 star rating

LOVED IT!

Anita Waugh

I found this very helpful for me. Thank you!

I found this very helpful for me. Thank you!

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