I hate to admit this, but that 'bat' pun at 15:40 was not intentional. But talk about your happy accidents!

I have another suggestion: While working in Photoshop, go to: Window--> Arrange --> Another window for (your image). It creates an identical image beside it, in another tab. You can turn that image into grayscale by going to: View --> Proof Setup --> working gray. This way, you're painting in colours while watching your values. It's the best way I've found.

I actually...find gray scale - color more difficult, I don't get how ppl do it, because the color afterwards never turn out how I want it

THANK YOU. I tried this technique the other day (I paint in color) and it was so frustrating and I couldn't igure out why. Was hard for me to not feel like a failure. ._.

This video contains more knowledge than all hours of painting class on the 1st year of my studies together. Thank you. EDIT. Omg, I didn't know there are so many people in similar situation. :O Hope you progress every day~

I'm amazed! This guy is not your average "how to draw" youtuber. We got some clean and analytic explanation useful for even professionals. Not to mention the incredible illustrations and real time examples making it so easily understandable. I wish you were my mentor. Hats off!

Marco Bucci just single-handedly saved thousands of dollars worth of art classes to most art students in the worlds with this amazing video.

a lot of people say grayscale to color is very easy to beginner, but I think, its work only for artist that already has a very good understanding about color

it's amazing how you get straight to the point of the topics that we students want to know (but nobody explained) ... just THANK YOU very much!!! (your book is unbelievable)

I watched this years ago and as a result, I stopped trying to push grayscale to color method. Now we're here and found that it's the best method for me! I agree with the reasons why grayscale to color doesn't feel right like about controlling the edges. So what I did was I just added my own twist in the technique. Instead of rendering the drawing in grayscale, I apply the color layer first (I use soft light instead color layer mode), then I make a new layer where I render the values + colors. That way I have more control! I do have a video of my digital art process so if you're interested you can check it out. You just really need to find a way to make things work sometimes. I struggle a lot with colors that's why I chose to give this method another try!

THANK YOU. I learned Digital Painting in school doing the greyscale to color method and It always felt off. I forced myself to do it because that is how I was taught. I not only hated how my pieces were turning out, I really disliked the process... I feel that's something important that artists don't talk about enough. Once I shunned what I was taught and started digitally painting straight to color, it was fun again. My work has increased and so has my mental state, haha!

"I kinda feel like I'm painting on glass or something" Artists who paint on glass: I will pretend I didn't see this

colour is by far the most daunting aspect of a picture for me. Maybe its because I'm colourblind. I often run into a wall where my colours don't look quite right, even to me, when I start greyscale - but I can actually finish an image without stressing so much haha

Another thing you didn't mention (I think) is drawing straight with color but having a pure black layer on top that is set to saturation(this turns it into grayscale without changing the values like desaturating normally does). Then you can enable this layer from time to time to see your values and disable again to continue painting in color.

Always waiting for Marco Bucci's color theory videos !

"The way your process feels to you has a significant outcome." I think this sums up why some people love this technique and others don't. I struggle with value and identifying value (maybe I'm just a bad artist), so taking the time to focus on shadows and light helps me to improve my sense of form in a painting. It also helps me to not use flat colours in a cel-shading style. I get the option to practice blending edges, paying attention to light and shadow, and focusing on form and shape. When I move to the colour, I don't use Overlay, Multiply, or Color; I use Light layers (soft light, hard light, etc.) and those act different as well. I get the chance to see how the colour works in the value and adjust based on my eye. My process doesn't take a saturated colour, smear it over the values, and then call it done. I have a very different way of painting than you do. Your art uses lots of textured brushes to add accents, and that's not how I paint. I don't need to add colour to a halftone brush or a broken glass brush, because that's not part of my process. I use fewer than three brushes in my art. Your technique, however, relies on those splashes of coloured texture for the "expression" in your image. The techniques you demonstrated to do colour are glazing, and that's not everyone's process either. I'm paused right now at 12:18 just because what you said really made me want to say all this. :P It's very interesting to see your process and how different it is to mine.

Wow! After all these years of trying to understand or trying to accept coloring from greyscale to color, I finally found the answer! Many artists encourage this method but I always struggled because it never felt complete or cohesive. So many extra steps just to include color. Sometimes I'd rather just keep it greyscale and call it finish. But I love color. Another answer you gave me that I didn't even know I was looking for was how to start with color. I was mind blown when you mentioned you started with neutral colors and added more or less saturation based on how you felt along the way. That's such an amazing way, I must try. Thank you so much for this video. It's just what I needed to start changing.

Thank you so much, this video literally instantly changed my life. I’ve painted more pieces I’m happy with in the 24 hours after watching this + your other videos on color than I have in the past three years, it’s like you flipped on the switch in my brain enabling me to paint with color. So glad I decided to click on this

Always love your art tips Marco. They way you cut right to the point on the technical stuff, but then express your thoughts when making artistic decisions is exactly what I need to get my mind thinking creatively. I prefer painting with color first as well.

You can always make even the smallest things about painting really interesting to learn about! Starting off immediately with color definitely gives more expression and energy to a piece, and I like the multiple options you gave in turning grayscale into color. I still personally prefer to start off with a grayscale sketch in my paintings, but I know I’ll start to think of how to preserve shapes and edges with the opaque color layers from now on!

You pronounce everything very clearly, have a nice tone of voice and explain everything so even a very novice painter like me understood your process, thank you very much for this video Marco.

I wish I had teachers like you in university. Your audio book gave me a lot to think about. Especially the "art is not academia" line.

Happy New year, Marco and all others who watch this channel! Most amazing videos! Thank you for all!

You are so expressive and articulate, I am so amazed. Thank you for uploading!

I'm at the beginner stage. That is why I am using values for now. Since back when I was a total noob. I just pringled colors into my art like a maniac. So, I just wanted to understand values much more. So, I chose to work with values.

Agreed with everything you've said in this video. I myself have been using the "gateway" method for a while now, and I'm starting to feel more&more comfortable with direct colors, so I definitely encourage other people to do the same if they're in that same "in-between" spot.

This is the best photoshop/color/value/shape/painting/etc video I’ve found anywhere, and it’s something I’ve needed desperately as someone who has worked with strictly grey with a pencil and paper and wants to start painting with color digitally. So great, I’ve subscribed

Your tutorials are incredible; thank you so much for making them. This is the kind of instruction I needed 15 years ago when I was starting in art back in high school.

I never used the grayscale method and I had such a hard time with it cos it seemed like every concept artist used it. I always just splotched colour right from the beginning. These are the very flaws you brought up here, and you also gave me some other useful tips. Much obliged, Marco.

Both approaches are correct to the purpose of a particular piece. The benefit of the grisaille technique, when done traditionally, is it can let an inner light created in the monochromatic layer come through the glazing that just isn't quite possible when working with opaque color. That being said I haven't been able to work out the same effect when working with digital paints. The commentary is a valid perspective. But, so is working in value first, in the right setting.

You are so poetic with how you describe colour and it definitely helps me understand art a little bit better.

This is the best art video I think I've ever seen on KZfaq except for that sketching one you just did. Thank you so much for giving legitimate helpful advice that has revolutionized how I paint

Oh wow, I never really liked the grayscale to color technique. Your points on how it makes it harder to incorporate color later helped me figure out why.

That's exactly how i've felt whenever i do it! and i always thought i was just very terrible at comprehending value to color. It might be that some artists have a stronger desire for color expression which would make color first more important. honestly i think the method comes down to what the artist strives for most.

omg this is amazing, incredible advice. I've been struggling with this very thing for a while, and your videos have been helping me so much overcoming my issues with color, but as you say in the video for the starting painter it really is a mind-bender to keep track of form, value, and color all at once. I'd been considering taking a step back from working purely in color and starting in grayscale first to help, but ending up with washed out color or color that I have to go back and adjust to match changes in form and edges throughout the piece have been big fears for me. Thank you so much for showcasing some alternate ways to tackle that problem with the suggestion of doing a basic grayscale breakdown and then going into color and explaining how gradient maps work in a way that I could FINALLY fully understand. I really needed something to help me practice thinking about color in conjunction with all the other painting fundamentals to build up to confidently working directly in color, and going full grayscale then trying to color on top really didn't seem like it was a bridge, more of a crutch, because I've tried it before and it felt like my feel for color wasn't improving at all. Thanks again, you amazing teacher!

Marco, your videos are gold! So much information communicated clearly in such a short amount of time. You're an excellent teacher.

I've seen a couple comments that mention that glazing shouldn't be used as a technique in painting, and this is just untrue. The old masters didn't do it soley out of necessity, they also did it to achieve radiant, almost glowing tones. The under layers reflect through the glaze layers and give an effect that can only be achieved through glazing. This is all speaking about oil painting though, so is it different on Photoshop? Im not entirely sure. But to say that glazing is a beginner technique, or that it isn't worth the time- is just Ill informed.

I feel like the greyscale method works great for drawing focused artists for more comicbook type work, and can really help them get exposure to the color world if they are lacking. The non greyscale methods would obviously be more appealing for those painter focused artists and of course the work style that goes with it. There are all kind of hybrids and thats great. Just do what fits you. its just amazing to have to many options and styles, just keep creating 👍

That was awesome! This is a concept I have been struggling with for sometime now. This has really helped me understand how to integrate color into my paintings better. Thank you so much!

Dude, I gotta say you have some of the most eloquent explanations I've ever heard about actually almost anything, not just related to art. I'm in love with your channel content. Keep it up!

In the past few years, I've started painting digitally a lot more, and not too long ago, an art teacher of mine held a intense, five day traditional painting workshop thats focal point was working with colours. It was like acrylic bootcamp. I learned a lot during the whole thing, and I basically modelled my digital painting technique after it. Then, during a feedback session, I had that same teacher tell me I should use the greyscale to colour technique. Lots of mixed messages in that school.

I completely agree with your assessment and feelings on this method. However, i am trying to do a preliminary value sketch before painting, because it helps me make a lot of composition and lighting choices. When I go to color, i start from 'scratch' again. But I have already though about the values, so the color choices come more naturally to mind.

This is such a superb video in so many ways. I’m r/g color blind and have been researching grayscale to color after getting back into working digitally. It’s so much easier for me to separate out the value stage without having to deal with color and then using a gradient map followed by direct painting over it with fresh brush strokes. But this video shows how with a little more confidence I might be able to move on and get comfortable working directly in color. Painting on paper or canvas, I can limit myself to three colors and use color theory to confidently mix what I need, but that is much harder to do digitally when you don’t see color well. So thank you so much for this extremely helpful take on the grayscale process!

I just want to say thank you for including a transitional/introductory way to start painting directly with color. I'm still not 100% comfortable with color, but I'm really great with values. So I've been doing the initial process and playing to my strengths. But I'm glad you included a way for me to start experimenting with color.

Pretty much the solution I'm slowly building up to. I got stuck recently with trying to add color to a detailed grayscale and hating both the result and experience... I ended up either having to redo everything afterward in color if I wanted to achieve a nice raw look, or simply accepting that it would look kinda muddy. Realized that introducing colors much earlier in the process would still allow me to focus on shapes at first (without color intruding in the process) but would let me have fun with the expressiveness of the colors and detailing process.

Gosh that painting is beautiful. I wish I had the patience to work on something that massive.

I love your art tutorials soooooooooo much! So much information I wish I knew before!!! I’ve tried grey scale before and it’s always ended badly, I’ve begun trying with just color and this is so much help!!!

Your videos are always so clear and fun, your explanations make sense. Thank you for doing this! This is a topic that I often wonder about. Now I have new things to try, but knowing why!

The "gateway" version reminds me lf what my traditional painting teacher had us do. We never went into a full grayscale painting but maybe 30% and painted ontop. Enough to get the main shapes, because doing a full grayscale and then color feels like painting it twice. Coloring ontop of grayscale digitally is tricky. You have to be a wiz at layer modes and picking colors. Most have desatutated tone and feeling because they go with the values. I think it works depending on the piece, but in general is pretty limiting due to how bright and saturated the colors can possibly look. So for me it's easier to learn grayscale > gateway method > full color

I was literally going to email you asking about this the other day. What kind of mind reading wizard are you?

I'm really impressed with the explanation you provided about not being able to associate the colors with their correct value in this method. It is probabmy the core of the problem yet I've never heard any other artist addressing it before !

Thank you for this great video! I really liked that you offered up options on how to work differently, even options that are compromises between different ways of working with colour and grayscales. It was super helpful!

Even though I find it rather hard and I still struggle, I try to go directly with colors as well. If I start with greyscale, I tend to get "stuck" when I start applying the colors, it just looks dull and washed out. When starting the colors, I add a black layer on color mode to check my values from time to time. It's not easy, but at least I look at the pros: the more I work that way, the more I get used to starting directly with colors :)

Exactly! It always felt weird to me to color like that, like it's lacking something and you said it.

You are an amazing teacher and such a blessing!! Thank you so much for sharing your vast wealth of knowledge 💛

Been doing the spiral through KZfaq recommended videos on digital painting after ordering a new tablet this week. This was fantastic, simple, and incredibly helpful. Thank you!

Thank you for this very good video. Still I think that you missed one major point: You ARE already a professional. You know how values, shapes, light and so on work. The problem is, that everybody starts out with colors and gets into this "Microsoft Paint" style with the colors, because they get easily confused and they often spend many years to figure out what is wrong in their art. Seperating colors from the other aspects is something I highly recommend everyone who starts out with art. You should focus on the fundamentals first before trying to get to expression. I totally agree with you on that point, throwing in the colors more quickly is mostly more expressive but nothing we should start with if we really want to improve. It helps me a lot, to leave out the colors first and I learned a lot about, why my colors did not work in the painting. Greyscale to color IS a very hard thing to do, because we often don't understand the connection between colors and values as you have shown in this video. But by using this technique we will learn from it and understand how this all works together until, if we prefere it that way, start painting directly in color. Greyscale is also a way to figure out compositions much easier, btw :) Also you should consider, that you have a very painterly style which is really not fitting for the greyscale technique. I think it depends also much on what you want to paint and what style you are doing :) Have a nice day and looking forward to your next video!

I like grayscale to color pieces, but only if they're used to convey a certain atmosphere in a painting. For instance, it works really well to me if the artist is trying to convey a sad, detached/eerie emotion in a piece or is trying to portray early morning/evening light. However, I don't like it when it is used in pieces that are attempting happier, livelier imagery because the grayscale creates too many desaturated tones that express the opposite of what is intended by the artist, which confuses the viewer. I think grayscale to color is fine as long as it is used appropriately and can have some really cool effects. This was a really great and informative video. You're really good at explaining art processes in a simple but effective way, which is something that I think most art channels lack. I tend to get lost when people try to explain concepts like this. However, I easily understood your message here. : - )

Oh wow, I tried a grisaille-to-color approach with traditional painting not too long ago, and couldn't figure out what bothered me about adding color later on, and thanks to you I finally understand it! Thanks once again, Marco, for an enlightening video! 💙

You have a wonderful radio voice! Thanks for the video I’m a gouache & watercolor painter who doesn’t really understand how to paint digitally but have been trying to wrap my head around what ppl are doing when I see a painting start in greyscale & end in color & not understanding why it looks off to me personally. Love the way you paint!

very well articulated. Thank you!

I tend to overlook my painting as a whole when I use color(and I can never do it correctly) so I guess doing value first makes is easier for me

This is one of the better videos I've seen explaining this method. Really informative!

There's so much good information in this video. I'm probably going to have to rewatch it just to help it all sink in.

"Right off the bat" while painting Batman, I hope the pun was intended!

Old masters were using grayscale underpainting and their paintings aren't inexpressive. Just use it correctly and then paint over if you wish with color glaze layer or thick normal layer. Grayscale helps to achieve more realistic "Rembrandt" type of painting where you can show form and light interaction with its surface. For cartoon style paintings it just adds complexity.

Thank you for making this video as you didn’t just give and explain your opinion in concise details, but you showed it to us. I actually know exactly what I need to work on now; Values and Tones. So thank you so much!

That's literally how I think about colors and all the reasons why I don't like to work greyscale to colors either. I've done it before though and it was instinctively exactly how you showed in the end (defining values on a sketch, introducing the colors and painting everything merges from there). Excellent video as usual!

Really interesting topic. While I wholeheartedly agree and believe in painting with colors, I think for beginners, grayscale painting is an important step for speedier learning. When you still don't have all the fundamentals down, when you have a finished artwork and decide to evaluate it to realize what you need to keep improving on, it might be a bit hard to distinguish if it's a value problem, a color problem or anything in between. Keeping it grayscale allows for less variants and for beginners to take one step at a time. Even though it's a lengthier process at face value (no pun intended) it helps to learn faster because pinpointing your mistakes is easier. The idea though, is to eventually graduate from that and start painting straight with colors.

what I do, as I'm still not so used to color, I open two windows of the same file but one in black and white. I hope that it would be useful to someone. Great video, thanks.

Thank you very much. This really helps me because I was frustrated with how I would do a good job in greyscale to later ruining it with placing color. This brings me a solution and gives me courage to start straight away with color :)

great tutorial!! you explain things very clearly, and your insight on the pros and cons of the technique are really interesting!

My solution for this problem has always been the like presented in the video. Stopping on grayscale image as early as possible and then and then moving with color till the end.

I totally agree with you Marco. Everytime I begin with color I feel that my art gets a better result. I think this is related to what you said about joy and fun while painting, because lets admit, painting in grayscale first is really boring. And another thing I was just wondering... I dont know any traditional painter who does grayscale technique, so why would we do that right? It is unnatural...

I need to thank you so much !! I always had troubles with colors so because of your trick now my art looks 100X better!!! thank you so much once more!!

Great video, as always ❤️ Painting with colors from the beginning makes it so much more fun and interesting !!

The black and white method works best for moody dark art with minimal color. You put way too many colors in your art too be messing with that approach.

I find painting directly in color is easier, the hue and saturation also affect values, that means I only need to get the value at about 70-80% correct, the rest will be done by the colors once I get the colors right.

I have once made an illustration of new york for a studio in grey scale i drew every little detail about Manhattan, time square and i took 2 months drawing that grey scale painting.. when i wanted to color it it was a big disappointment I wasn't able to create that harmony between the colours and shapes/values/edges.. so i understand everything you said in the video and absolutely agree, you are an amazing teacher please keep going!

The way you presented this is brilliant. Thank you so much for sharing this!

Almost done with watching but thank you so much, this helps a lot!

BUCCI GANG BUCCI GANG BUCCI GANG BUCCI GANG

men... you have no idea how much you helped me right now! I was stuck for ours trying to make a color palet work.

Such a helping tool you created. Thank you for creating this video, I'm just starting painting by myself and this will help me a lot. Thank you again.

clicking like before watching means something!

For its like most things in the world, starting with values is a tool for certain medias. Being a painterly artist worried about strokes etc then ya starting with values makes no sense at all. If your a concept art using say a digital matte painting style then starting with values make way more sense and works. Different media and styles utilize different tools.

the way you explained this video and your viewpoint made me more interested in your work, and thus have subscribed. Looking forward to more of what you make!

Great discussion! I'm learning some of these lessons sketching with colored pencil. I'm not a color artist to begin with, and approaching it by using color to build up values and shapes moves things forward for me.

I never understood how to make greyscale to color and was planing to learn it because everybody was saying how better it is. now I don't want to anymore. and I don't even draw the color-y way you do. plus I use color picker too much. that would be impossible in that way.

you best teacher sir👏

this was really helpful!! ive always heard that greyscale to colour was so much easier but after seeing this, id rather not change. using colour first is way more fun and less daunting.

I really appreciate how you thoroughly explained why you don't like this process without making it some proclamation of judgment about how "if you do it this way it's wrong!" Great video!

I couldn't agree more. Doing greyscale to colour just adds problems and a butt load of unnecessary work, you pretty much have to paint your piece 3 times over (greyscale, colour map, final layer on top) just to achieve the same results. Also colours from overlays, multiplies and colour layers feel extremely artificial, you can immediately tell that it was done by Photoshop. Maybe I'm just buyest because I ale preffer traditional look but this is a tedious technique that's just not worth it.

idk for me it's the opposite, I prefer having a desaturated look and then paint a few highly saturated areas on top

Just wanted to say, I really like the way how you explain things. Its really easy to 'feel' what you mean and encourages me to think about these concepts more. Thanks for making these videos :D

This channel is pure gold! Thank your for doing this sir.

This isn't related to the topic but have anyone ever told you that you and YongYea sound almost exactly the same? Both in tone and the way you speak.

lol...showed us how to paint with grayscale while condemning it on the low. Good one

Wow, your videos are amazing, you have a great way of expressing your thought process that not many artist have. I think many successful painters think like you, but they just don't have that conscious connection to what they are doing.

I love this stuff! Every video you post is better than the last. And that's saying a lot, cause your videos have been great for a long time.