Plan values before you pick a hue
Reduce the picture to a few grays so color has a structure to sit on.
Caricatures and posters fail when everything is mid-tone. A value plan is a drawing decision. Software only makes the grays easier to see.
Tools
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Photopea
Desaturate and posterize a copy of the reference or the scan.
Krita
The same value study inside the painting file.
How to do it
- 1
Duplicate
Copy the scan or the photo reference onto its own layer. Never posterize the only file.
- 2
Remove the color
Desaturate. Then posterize to four or five levels, or squint and paint three grays yourself in Krita or Photopea.
- 3
Name the shapes
Write light, middle, and dark on the big shapes only. Small details can wait. If the face and the background are the same gray, move one of them.
- 4
Color on top of the plan
Keep the value layer as a guide at low opacity. Choose hues that can still hit those values. If a bright color cannot get dark enough, it does not belong in the shadow.