Paint colourful character art

See how Pernille Ørum takes the idea for a character and brings it to life using simple techniques and vibrant colours

As a visual developer in the animation industry it’s your job to realise yours and other people’s ideas, and to tell a story using your creative skills. This means that you need to convey your objective to your audience and understand the effect different elements in a composition have on the viewer. This being art, nothing’s written in stone, but learning the rules and then deciding how you want to use them is a great start.

I begin a painting by identifying the story. Who is the character or what’s the mood I’m after? Here, I’ll be painting a lady from the Wild West with an attitude and so I think about the colour palettes in the American West and how the warm tones of the prairie could carry this illustration.

In my workshop I’ll be focusing mostly on colouring an image. So to get the most out of this article it’ll be helpful to have a strong understanding of how to construct an image using form, negative space, how to paint light and how colours relate to each other.

I’ll take you through my ideas process and how I decide on the colours early on. Then I’ll show you how I build up an image using flat local colours, before bringing it all together at the end.

Thumbnailing my ideas

When starting your drawing it’s important to have a clear vision of what you want to show, and here thumbnailing is a great tool. It’s a chance to quickly sketch out and test various idea without spending too much time on them. It also enables you to run your ideas past other people while it’s still possible to make changes easily. Here I want to draw a Wild West-themed woman with attitude, and try out a range of poses.

Cleaning up and simplifying

I work very simply, so before I begin colouring I try to have as clear a line drawing as possible. I correct the character’s anatomy and draw many of her clothing details. Now I’m ready to simplify my drawing.

Produce a range of colour thumbnails

Once I’m happy with the line drawing I create small colour thumbnails to see what works best for the illustration. This is one of my favourite steps and I enjoy playing with different ideas and just being bold with my colours. It’s important to bear in mind basic colour theory and the principles of the colour wheel. I normally don’t spend more that a few minutes on each thumbnail.

Blocking out the character

When I’m ready to start colouring I reduce the Opacity on the sketch layer. Then I start blocking out the character with a solid colour using the Brush and Eraser tools on a new layer underneath the sketch. It’s important to have a clear silhouette and I find that I have more control when I draw it by hand.

Colour blocking

Next, I create a clipping mask within the blockedout shape and on a new layer for each colour, proceed to block out the main shapes of the drawing. I usually start with the hair because it has the most details, and place it above all the other layers.

Add lines to increase volume

To make the flat shapes appear volumetric I use the information from my worked-up sketch and add lines where they support the shape. It can often be a bit tricky to know when and where to put in a line. Keeping them on separate layers makes it easy to amend your choices.

Details help to enhance a character’s personality

Now you can start to introduce little touches that give the character more personality. Here I’ve added a ruddiness to the cheeks and nose, freckles, details to the eyes, a lasso and other clothing embellishments.

Bring in shadows

To create more volume and definition I add shadows that aren’t based on directional light, but rather the volumetric form. They help to define the shape of the braids and separate the character’s shirt from her body.

Painting the fence rail

The railing that my character’s leaning against is the last key element in the scene, so I make sure that it’s separated from her and appears three dimensional, by using the same techniques that I used for her body and clothing.

Background blocking while maintaining variety

Before I start adding environmental light on the character, I colour in the background. I begin this stage by blocking out the shapes, making a conscious effort to avoid repeating myself with my choices of shapes.

Background details

Less is more when adding details to a background. It’s important not to lead the viewer’s eyes away from your character, so think about atmospheric perspective and work with monochromatic and analogous colours, while still being aware of which shapes you’re trying to define.

Enhance the atmosphere of the environment

I use the Gradient tool to select colours from the background and combine layers to boost the atmosphere in this part of the composition. This should be done carefully, because it’s easy to overdo this step and make the image look flat.

Painting in soft light

To bring the character forward from the background I mask the top layer and use the Gradient tool to add a soft light. In this drawing I use the yellow from the sky to show light coming in at an angle and a warm orange from the opposite direction. Then I reduce the Opacity and change the layer mode to Overlay.

Hard light and reflections from the prairie

Finally, I paint in the hard light, which indicates the direction of the sunlight in this image and helps to make the artwork pop. I always apply some reflection on the shadow side. Here I’ve chosen a bright orange, which adds to the prairie atmosphere. And that’s the painting done!