Which colors do you like in Furry artwork?

[Symphony]

I've been thinking about colors in Furry artwork. I like them :D

I like the many possibilities there are in furry artwork. I like to see characters of different colors together. There are simply so many possibilities. Fur color, hair color, the color of their clothes and surroundings. All of which is beautifully colored in Vanessa's art.

I've also been thinking of natural colors versus unnatural colors. When I started working on my fursona, I put a lot of thought into which colors I'd like for her hair and clothes. First I thought of something like purple hair, but eventually I settled on a natural dark brown, because that was simply easier to match with her clothes.
But I don't mind unnatural colors in fur or hair really. One of the first characters who drew my eye was Daphne, who has purple hair. I also really like Mary who has blue fur. So it's not that I dislike colors that aren't natural to that species, although it may depend on the species and how it's done. A green elephant with pink hair might look a bit silly. ::0wassat::

Did anyone else give any thought to this when creating their fursona? It seems to me that the majority of the Four Aces members have picked rather natural colors.

And do you have a preferences regarding the fur/hair color of a specific species? Like preferring white cats, or something like that?

[Crimson]

I wanted something natural but I also wanted my favorite color as well.

[Symphony]

Oh right, I forgot about the eyes. I thought about something unusual there as well, preferably something that would match either the main color used in the clothes, or some piece of jewelry. But I ultimately chose a natural color there as well.

[Tadelesh]

I think, in the main, I prefer natural colours, though Vanessa's characters that have unnatural colours work very well. Take Violet, for instance. A purple raccoon? Most unusual, but also gorgeous.

My fursona, when first created, was slightly unusual. I decided to make him an all-black tiger. He did actually have stripes, slightly darker than the rest of his fur, only seen when up close. However, after a long time, I decided to change his appearance. In the land I created him in, he was a mage; I gave him white stripes with silver lining, which were a permanent illusion. In PBB, however, I will have to change that a bit. Perhaps say it is a dye of some sort, I'm not sure. He has black hair as well, as I thought any other colour would just look weird. I gave him natural coloured eyes, as well, that I described as like sapphires. I love describing eyes as precious stones..

Oh, and regarding Mary. There is a breed of cat called the Russian Blue, which at first I thought she must be, until I looked the breed up. It's more of a silvery blue, not like Mary's blue at all; I rather like her, though.

[Symphony]

I also like to use jewels to describe something colorful, though in my case I didn't do that with my frusona's eyes. The reason for this is that she wears rubies, and I didn't want her to have red eyes. But I did describe her dress as being part emerald green with some ruby red in it.

Regarding your fursona, it'll be interesting to see how that turns out. A dye could be a good way of telling why his fur looks the way it does, but I'm not sure if it wouldn't be okay to just have it be that his natural fur looks that way. Violet as you mention is a rather unusual color, so perhaps it's not a problem with your fursona.

[Tadelesh]

Good point, though at least the pattern is natural. My fursona's is not. Then again, I don't really need to mention it unless someone asks whether it's natural or not. :lol:

[Symphony]

What about the color of his clothes? You seem to have your fursona planned pretty well, so is this something you've been thinking of as well?

I personally had a lot of problems trying to match the clothes, jewelry, fur and hair color on my fursona. I even spent time googling for pictures of fancy dresses and reading advice on which kinds of jewels go well with certain colors of dresses. :roll: :lol:

[Tadelesh]

Well, the game I first created him in is completely textual, and you have to write a description for your character. So, it's all written out. However, clothes were seperate items that you had to buy, so I have to try and remember what he wore (I stopped playing that game about a year ago).

I more or less have it sorted, though. I think I mentioned it in my first topic here, "Greetings". Everything he wore was silver or white. Hat, shirt, jacket/coat, cloak, trousers, shoes/boots. I thought it contrast well with his all-black fur, and still worked with his white/silver stripes. I haven't decided, however, what pieces of clothing exactly to put him in. I think I was going to go for a fedora, shirt, cravat, trenchcoat, trousers, boots. As to which items are what colour, I still need to sort out.

I think I need a few pictures for reference to decide on all the aspects of clothing. I thought perhaps Van Helsing, but then I looked closer and decided no. Maybe closer to Indiana Jones, but a little more refined, and a longer coat. Hrm.

[Symphony]

I was going to make a comment about whether the primarily black and white color scheme was a guy thing, but looking at the four aces suite, it really doesn't seem to be all that popular among the male avatars. ::0wassat::

[Taliesin]

Well depends on the atmosphere the picture wants to recreate. First of all it's a matter of cold and hot colours... Blue is cold, red is hot, and green stands jsut between the two, the other colours run along the whole scale. Black and white can be both hot or cold... For a sensual, pretty intense picture, I like hot sexy colours like pink, red, purple and indigo. For a sad, scenographic and / or relaxing pic, I'd choose azure, blue, emerald green and violet.

When I draw, I usually check not to mix colours too much unless I want to focus on certain details... Think about a pink dragoness laying on a purple bed with azure eyes... they'd be the first thing to pop out. It can really be effective to underline some details... so, again, there is no favourite colour for me in a pic, it's a matter of balance and situation.

I hope I got to reply to your question properly, miss... *chuckles and rubs his head*

[Symphony]

Now there's definately something I was looking into when I was searching for inspiration regarding which colors I want for my fursona. The whole hot and cold stuff. For the dress of my fursona, I was primarily focused on hot colors, the purple one was quickly dismissed, but I also thought of which colors might go well with brown fur.
In the end I decided to basically make my fursona brown, green and red. I hope that'll be good. I was hoping for a sort of natural/earthly look with the brown and green, and to have the red as a bit of warm contrast, and to fit with the rubies of her jewelry.

I also looked into complementary colors, and that just gave me even more to think about. This was especially in relation to highlighting possible details on the clothes and for jewels. For these I went with white gold and rubies.
I don't think that my color composition is perfect, but I think it'll look good anyway.

Besides, I spent way too much time looking at dress catalogues, reading articles about color wheels, and going through discussions about jewelry. I could probably go on and keep changing all sorts of details, but at some point I'd just like reach an acceptable result.


And what about you Taliesin? I seem to recall that your fursona is a blue dragon/lizard. Any specific thoughts on why you've chosen the colors you have?

[sexymanz]

Quote: Well depends on the atmosphere the picture wants to recreate. First of all it's a matter of cold and hot colours... Blue is cold, red is hot, and green stands jsut between the two, the other colours run along the whole scale. Black and white can be both hot or cold... For a sensual, pretty intense picture, I like hot sexy colours like pink, red, purple and indigo. For a sad, scenographic and / or relaxing pic, I'd choose azure, blue, emerald green and violet.

When I draw, I usually check not to mix colours too much unless I want to focus on certain details... Think about a pink dragoness laying on a purple bed with azure eyes... they'd be the first thing to pop out. It can really be effective to underline some details... so, again, there is no favourite colour for me in a pic, it's a matter of balance and situation.

I hope I got to reply to your question properly, miss... *chuckles and rubs his head*



AHMEN TO THE DRAGONESS at least someone shares desires with dragonnesses like me...

[Crimson]

what do you guys think do my eye stand out? Does he look good?

[JohnnyPsycho]

I do like the red eyes on your avatar, Crimson... I think it works well...

For my own preferences, I'm afraid I must admit that when I draw things, color tends to be the last thing I think about. In fact, most of my artwork is purely centered on line-art, and I seemed to develop a talent early on with shading my work in pencil. My strong-suit, obviously, is in observing shadows and light in whatever it is I'm trying to draw. I have to say, color coordination has always been my weakness.

Still, I try to always put in complimentary colors into the few things that I draw, so as to bring out certain details and really let them "pop". When I originally described my avatar before Vanessa drew it, I remember specifically giving her options as to what colors I'd like him to wear. This is mostly because I can't trust myself to coordinate the colors in my own clothes in real life, so I hoped someone with a better eye for color could help me out and make her own judgements.

I was originally going to be dressed in either blue or chocolate brown. In hindsight, the blue works better with the slightly orange fur, and the bits of tuquoise and red in the jewelry help to brighten up the avatar as well.

I must admit, I was originally going to go for an all black look (similar to what Ketsudan's fursona wears now), but decided I wanted my coyote to be a bit more brightly colored than that and try to steer away from my black-and-white tendencies.

[Symphony]

Crimson wrote: what do you guys think do my eye stand out? Does he look good?
I like the eyes, and the rest of your avatar as well. It's really nice and slightly unusual. :)

JohnnyPsycho wrote:
I was originally going to be dressed in either blue or chocolate brown. In hindsight, the blue works better with the slightly orange fur, and the bits of tuquoise and red in the jewelry help to brighten up the avatar as well.

I must admit, I was originally going to go for an all black look (similar to what Ketsudan's fursona wears now), but decided I wanted my coyote to be a bit more brightly colored than that and try to steer away from my black-and-white tendencies.
I had some similar thoughts about having the fur color be too close to the main color of the clothes. I actually thought of creating a native american, but then my only idea was light brown clothes on brown fur. :lol:

Besides, I too had thoughts of coming up with an avatar that was brightly colored.

[BrightAngelChii]

I mainly love soft pastel colors but that is just me. :roll: Mainly I am into white/red combinations.

[Tadelesh]

I'm a bit like you when I'm drawing, Johnny. Colour is the last thing on my mind. I prefer to just sketch and then ink it either manually or digitally. I haven't got round to trying digital colouring yet, though, only used coloured pencils so far when I've actually coloured something.

Is the white, black and silver fur with white and silver clothes a bit much, or do you think it will work? I might start drawing him myself and see how it all looks, though I'm not very talented.

[JohnnyPsycho]

You could always add little hints of color to that outfit so as to avoid being completely black and white... maybe throw in a bit of gold trim to your outfit, or a brightly colored tie or cravat?

[Symphony]

Perhaps some blue in his outfit, Tadelesh? That'll go well with the eyes and it'll add to the whole "cold" look of your avatar.

[sexymanz]

as i dont mind too much about color... i do mind in the texture and the curves if you know what i mean...

but color does make a diference... as no one would want to date a rainbowed kind of anything... wouldnt be right...