coloring help. first attempt

ok so today i got bored and started trying out coloring. this is my first ever attempt at coloring, so its not going to be that good. so far, ive got subtle shading on the clothes and skin, but perhaps too subtle. photoshop doesnt always show it exactly like it comes out though, so its kind hard to judge sometimes. just give me tips, suggestions, criticism, anything.

dont really know what to do with the hair. a suggestion there would be nice.

working on making the shading and highlights show up better on the output image.

NOTE: all this coloring jazz i self taught myself this morning, so i dont really know the "real" technique [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

http://jeffp.no-ip.org/pics/toujouaya.jpg

OK first the skin color is too pink. you need to have it more orangish/redish( -ish being important). second try tracing the artwork with a 4-8 pixle brush if this is at 600 dpi if it's at 72 I suggest making atleast 300-600. Then fill in the color with the brush tool. You get a cleaner look, and allows for better color in the long run. on the shading I normaly have seperate layers for highlights and shadow and adjust the opacity to give it that shdow or high light look. ALso you might want to have several diffrent shadow and highlight layeers to create contrast through the peice. Besides that it's very good first attempt.

for you multilayer shadow/highlight scheme, do you make a layer underneath the coloring layers then lighty transparent-ize through the color layer to let the shading layer through?
and i was just too lazy to clean the edges since this was just going to be an experiment that started to turn out better than i thought it would, so i thought id run with it.

on another note, is there a way to get photoshop to show the colors morelike they will look when it is saved? currently i have to exaggerate everything in PS to get it to show right when saved

found a good skin color by going slighty red. i was going the wrong way [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

No I put the shadow and highlights over the color. That way your not guessing what will happen with the color. On the color thing I don't know way your having trouble with your color. Also be aware that every computer show's the same color diffrently(ever so lslightly it's not even npticably to the human eye).

screenshotted image in PS and elsewhere. PS is on the top. HUGE difference.
http://jeffp.no-ip.org/pics/wtfwiththecolors.jpg

I think it's your monitor. it might need to be recalibrated to show better color.

Edit: Ok he's using a PC. The whole scren shot had me thinking a digicam was used. Stupid me. Yeah Albino is right. You need to reset your color options in Photo.

nah its prob PS sometimes its color settings can go janky, especially with reds and red variants like orange and tan

i am learning how to color better, well faster too

heres a place with some helpful tips in coloring http://www.steeldolphin.com/tutorials_photoshop.php