Oh HELL yes!!! Possible contender for nameplate of all time even. Could you read it??
(When I stumbled across this in the wild, in my state of excitement, I saw the romaji right away :( But 山上 is usually read Yamagami, occasionally Yamakami, rarely Yamaue or Sanjō.)
山 means mountain, and it’s read やま, サン, or セン.
上 means above, up, or raise. For readings, there’s a lot of verbs! There’s transitive/intransitive pair 上げる (あげる) to raise/elevate and 上がる (あがる) to be raised or to enter. We’ve also got 上る (のぼる) to ascend/be promoted/go to the capital, or 上せる (のぼせる) to raise/bring up (a matter)/serve (food). It can also be read うえ, うわ, かみ, たてまつる, ジョウ, ショウ, or シャン (usually in Chinese worsd, as in 上海 (しゃんはい) Shanghai).
@aro-langblr sure thing! First, the outer frame is just decorative, so let’s get rid of that.
This shows just the lines that make up 山 and 上. The two characters are arranged vertically, and central line is shared between them. Let’s look at them separately.
On top, the three vertical lines sticking out of one horizontal line (in a pitchfork shape) make a squished, stylized version of 山.
On the bottom, we have a faithful (if wide) version of 上. Now, put it all together, enclose it in the frame, and:
it’s ok if you’re scared. or tired. or unsure. or one million billion other complicated emotions at once. but i’ve decided things are going to be ok anyway. and i will hold that belief close to my heart no matter how scared or tired or lonely or depressed or one million billion other things i am. i will hold onto that. and if you’re scared, you can hold onto me. we can carry each other through
do you have any tips on color harmony and the colors of the rainbow? I'm trying to draw a 10 color rainbow but I'm struggling to make the colors match and any color system like RYB, RGB, CMYK or Munsell doesn't work (Usually green doesn't go well with the transition to blue or purple and yellow get stronger shades than other nearby colors)
Color harmony is a really complicated subject, so definitely remember to be patient with yourself.
Colors are significantly affected by how they interact with each other. A red next to orange will look different than a red next to green, which will look different next to blue… etc.
This is really important when it comes to making a color palette, because the colors you use WILL play with eachother, so you have to be sure they’re playing nice.
This piece, for example, is entirely red. It’s all the exact same hue, but the value and saturation makes the colors still distinct from eachother.
When making a rainbow, especially with 10 distinct steps, you have a lot of potential with your colors.
Personally I use HSB/HSV sliders when I’m illustrating. Hue, Saturation, and Black/Value. This lets me be as precise as possible when I’m selecting my colors.
I’ll be explaining everything with these terms! (Hue, Saturation, and Value)
1: These colors vary only on hue 2: These colors vary on hue and saturation 3: These colors vary on the hue and value
You can see how much each of these will affect the colors and how they look next to eachother. Manipulating these factors can give you a lot of control over your palette.
Now, I’m varying which color is the “focus” of the palette. I’m also modifying every aspect of HSB to make them play nice.
4: This palette has a lot more yellows and oranges than the rest, and barely any/no blues 5: This palette is an even spread, 5 colors are warm and 5 are cool. 6: This palette focuses mostly on green 7: this palette focuses more on the purple and blue side of the spectrum.
If you’re finding you’re struggling well with green transitioning to blue and purple, then you can just have some more greens to make it feel smoother.
When manipulating all three sliders, you can make rainbows that are entirely tinted to a certain hue. This can get you really cohesive palettes.
When your palette is like this, you’ll find that putting in a contrasting color will pop significantly more.
(These contrasting colors are pulled from the original fully saturated rainbow that I put together, #1. Notice how different the colors look here than they did in their original palette!)
You can use this effect as you please or avoid it as much as you like!
As always with art more information is key to making your decisions.
Exercises I suggest to understand color theory better:
Making pieces without using specific colors (try to make something look “Green” without using green)
Make a cool toned rainbow and a warm toned rainbow (every color has a cool and a warm variant) and draw something with each of them (one drawing cool, the same drawing warm)
Use red for shadows and green for light, and then draw the same thing with green for shadows and red for light (or any 2 opposite colors
Copy art and photography that has colors you like, but DON’T color pick until you’re done to see how close you were (don’t post pieces where you copied someone else’s work without explicitly saying you did so, it’s for study)
Paint from life
Take some colored pieces of paper and shine lights on them and watch how the light reflects off of the paper onto different objects
Here’s some studies I did for one of my classes in school. They’re old, I can’t paint traditionally anymore without pain. But what I learned was still important whether or not the art is old!
I also suggest keeping these timed, All of these were under 1 hour (traditional) or under a half hour (digital). The more practice you get, the better!
And, if you can practice in different media (I understand it can be expensive, take up a lot of space, or even be painful), I personally find that each media has different pros and cons and forcing yourself to work within the limitations of a particular medium will teach you a lot!
