Colour and Light
A 10 week course where you learn the essential colour and lighting skills so you can create stunning and vibrant full-colour concepts and illustrations
Artwork by Elton Lo
Colour and Light
Do you possess basic digital painting skills, but still struggle when it comes to creating stunning and vibrant full colour concepts and illustrations? Would you benefit from learning how to use colour and light to create the right mood, atmosphere, and depth in your paintings? A thorough understanding of colour and light will allow you to create fantastic artwork that engages your viewers and provides them with a truly compelling visual experience.
In this 10-week course, you will gain a thorough understanding of the relationship between colour, value and emotion so you can tell a complex visual story that evokes the desired emotional responses from your audience. Through a series of challenging technical exercises, you will gain the colour theory expertise that will give you the edge over most artists, even those in the industry.
You will learn how light sources react with a variety of materials and how to best adjust and control the lighting so you can effectively guide the viewer’s eye to the focal point and create visually appealing images that drive the story forward. In addition to this, you will also become proficient in manipulating light and atmosphere which will enable you to create artwork that conveys the correct mood and feeling across a variety of lighting scenarios in a believable and emotionally appealing manner.
By the end of this course, you will have learned a powerful new set of tools and techniques that will help you create vibrant, well-composed and satisfying artwork that immediately resonates with the audience and enhances the story. Your understanding of colour and light will have increased greatly giving you the ability to efficiently create new artwork across a variety of scenarios, moods and lighting. By learning these skills you will be able to create spectacular concept art and illustration that stands out from the crowd because of your new proficiency in colour and light.
- Course Type Concept Art and Illustration Classes
- Duration 10 Weeks
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Skill Level
Level 3 Level 3
These courses are for people who can already draw and paint realistically and can create complete digital illustrations.
Level 3 classes will help students to give a new edge to their images, properly render their digital work, and bring them closer to a professional level.
- Language English
Our Classes fill up on a First-come, First-served basis so register now to secure your spot!
Schedule
Note: This class will be offered online only
Class Timings: Wednesdays from 7 PM to 10 PM, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT or UTC-4h)
Date of first class: April 3rd
Duration: 10 weeks
If you are unable to attend the class during the times listed above, you will still have access to video recordings of the class lectures and will still receive personalized feedback from your instructor.
Prerequisites
- Proficiency with all basic Photoshop tools.
- Should have completed the Digital Painting course or equivalent practice/experience.
- Some intermediate drawing and basic painting skills (use of proper perspective, proportions, shading and colour).
- If you do not have the required skill in drawing, painting or Photoshop, it is suggested that you take our Digital Painting class.
Language requirements: You need at least intermediate level English to take this class. Please be advised that there could be artistic nudity in our classes. Students should be 14 years old to enroll.
Required Materials
Material List:
- A desktop computer or laptop with Photoshop installed*
- A graphic tablet with pressure sensitivity (from brands such as Wacom, Huion, or Xencelabs), OR a tablet-laptop hybrid (also with Photoshop installed) with pressure sensitivity (such as the Wacom Cintiq Companion or Microsoft Surface Pro).
Important note:
Please note that the vast majority of our digital classes are taught using Adobe Photoshop and that this is also the recommended program for students to use. You may consult our FAQ for more information on other software which may be potentially used for class, however, please note that no technical assistance will be provided by instructors on the use of alternative painting software as they may not be familiar with the program.
Please ensure that all of your hardware and software are functioning properly before the start of the term; there will not be any time to resolve technical issues in class.
*Please consult our Tech Requirements below for more precise computer specifications.
Tech Requirements for Attending Syn Studio Online Classes
Minimum Requirements
- A strong uninterrupted broadband wired or wireless (3G or 4G/LTE) connection with a minimum 600kbps bandwidth (up/down).
- A Laptop/Desktop computer equipped with a single core processor (at least 1 GHZ processing speed) or a smartphone/tablet with equivalent processing capabilities
- Good speakers/earphones to listen to the classes
- Browser - IE7+, Safari 5+, Firefox, Chrome
- Operating System - Windows XP, Mac OS 10.6, Linux distro based on 3.0 kernel, Android 5.0, iOS 10
Syn Studio Recommendations
- A strong uninterrupted broadband wired or wireless (3G or 4G/LTE) connection with a minimum 1.5Mbps bandwidth (up/down). You can also connect to the internet directly using your ethernet cable to improve your experience.
- Laptop/Desktop computer equipped with a dual core processor with at least 2 GHZ processing speed and a 4 GB RAM
- High Quality speakers/earphones to listen to the classes
- Browser & Operating System - We recommend using the latest version of the browser and operating system for an optimal online classroom experience.
Course Outline
*Please note that the following outline is subject to change slightly at the teacher's discretion.
Week 1
Become proficient in gathering references and assembling a visual reference library that can be used as an inspiration and guide for your concept art creation process.
Learn the impressionist approach to creating artwork so you can quickly sketch rough images that are bright, vibrant and rich in colour.
Week 2
Learn to add values and properly balance them in your image so you can create an easily readable image with appropriate contrast and the illusion of depth.
Week 3
Gain an in-depth understanding of essential lighting, colour and texture fundamentals so you can create realistic full-colour artwork.
Weeks 4 and 5
Become proficient in distinguishing colour and value and using colour temperature variation to create vibrant images.
Understand how to use saturation/exposure and how to create colour temperature harmony to make your artwork appear well-composed, balanced and beautiful.
Week 6
Become proficient in painting a variety of common daylight scenarios including backlit, frontlit, overcast and dappled light. Learn to use shadows to create compositional focal points that direct the eye to the desired locations in your painting. Understand how to apply atmosphere and haze to create a sense of realism and depth in your art.
Weeks 7 - 8
Understand the key differences to lighting different spaces such as rural, urban, exterior and interior scenes. Learn how to relight a scene, change local colours, reposition elements and depict sunrises and sunsets so you have a more complete toolkit as an artist.
Weeks 9 - 10
Gain proficiency in depicting night-time scenarios, including how to combine natural and artificial lighting. And learn how to simplify objects such as rocks, foliage, vehicles, etc. so you can quickly and efficiently paint anything anywhere with stunning lighting and colour!
Registration
Our Classes fill up on a First-come, First-served basis so register now to secure your spot!
You will soon receive an email receipt for your purchase.
Please bring a photo ID for the first day of class.
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Questions and Assistance
Feel free to send us an email at [email protected] or give us a call at 514-998-7625
Please consult our FAQ; most of the commonly asked questions are answered in detail there. If you cannot find the answer to your question, please feel free to fill out the form below, or, send an email to [email protected]