How to improve your traditional coloring skill?

Many of you have noticed that my latest copic works are way better than anything I have done before. How did that happen? It's simple – I started to do the color thumbnails in Photoshop before I grab copics and paper.

You can see the side by side digital color thumbnail and the final traditional result comparison in the attached images. They differ, but the goal was not to match it perfectly but to break my coloring habit and no longer have the fear of making a mistake on paper. I’ve noticed that I tend to pick the same colors for skin and other stuff. Doing the coloring digitally you can experiment, go back and forth, add effects and filters, make color adjustments. By doing this, you may discover that with this environment the green skin with purple highlights looks more natural than the usual boring peach color.

And yes, this takes more time and effort, but if you have the opportunity to invest this time – try it, the results are worth it. Well at least it was the case for me.

Digital thumbnail vs final traditional piece