Need advice!

Z

ZJOmega

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I'm new to airbrushing and need some tips here. I am starting an octopus piece. I already put in the ocean background, which has left me with a giant white space where the octopus will go. My question is what colors should I start with as the base for my octopus? I want to use some pinks, blues, purples, orange and some transparent to blend. I never know what color I should use to outline. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have attached to this post a picture of what I have so far.... I'm scared to move forward from this point.octopus painting.jpg
 
Hi, I would say don't use any colour to outline it will make it look like a cartoon, unless that is your desired effect of course. Make sure you have a good reference photo and start with the darks/shadows then work upwards to dark to light colours. Thats what i would do anyway. Some folks will start the other way round it is purely personal preference.

Lee
 
Thank you so much! And Yes I do have a good reference photo I just wasn't Sure if I should start light or dark. I do have opaque black and transparent Black. Which on of them should I use to start my shadows?
 
trans black... opaque is really unsubtle... You can always go darker, going the other way can be tricky. What paint and substrate are you using?
 
What is the largest (or maybe most common) colour? Can you post your reference up?
 
This is my reference photo. I'm not going for what you see there through. Mainly using this photo for texture,and color/shadow. 160331-specials-octopus-ink-thumbnail-01_txtls_noaudio_4504501_640x360_658610755914.jpg
 
As for paint, in using createx water based, as well as createx blood line colors.
 
OK - if you were to use an opaque burnt umber or similar and map out the bigger wrinkles and define the suckers. Make sure you mask your background.
 
Okay thank you, with that being said should I still be using the transparent black to outline the dark shadows of the octopus?
 
Thank you! And thanks again for the advice, so pretty much so I have this understood, I should use a burnt umber to start rather than the transparent black?
 
I would make the lightest purple using white and vascular purple and injury ocher to weaken the saturation if need, then go darker from there, ad Mark says there are so many ways to approach painting! I like to get as close to te colour straight off the bat :)
 
Yes as you are only mapping and you adjust the colour and tones later. Don't go in too heavy. Then when you go over with the trans black later it looks a lot more like shaded skin rather than black area in the skin if that makes sense.
 
As for paint, in using createx water based, as well as createx blood line colors.
When you say Createx water base I think Standard Createx designed for textiles and not the Wicked or Illustration one.
Being all Createx lines is considered water based
 
Lol I feel dumb your right. The some of the colors are standard createx, some wicked, and some blood line.
 
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