There are quite a few people allowing their linearts to be colored by other people.

What can you do with these? How can you make the artworks unique, while respecting the original?

Personally, when I color other peoples work, I am having a big problem on figuring where to start.
The people who made the linearts work in a totally different way than I do, so it feels unnatural. Also, I can often not imagine how those drawings would look colored, while I can with my own work.
I might paint over it, again and again. But how do other people do it?

Last week, the pixeljoint challenge was to color one of arachnes linearts.

I send out quite a few requests for comments on artworks from the creators. I got a lot more replies than I had expected! To keep the article interesting I decided to not put in all replies I got. I am sorry for that.
However, in this article you can find all the art works and their full descriptions. So for more inspiration, please go there!

I am going to feature some of the entries, and say what I think of them. Read on!

Okay, so here are two completely different versions of the same creature.
The first one is made by Elk, the second by Jeremy. The original lineart is here.

In the first one, Elk gave the creature a beautiful shiny skin. Defining each scale, making it look like something snakelike. Set on a beach in a shining sun, it gives the feel of an chameleon too.

Elk:
“My aim is to create realistic pieces with alot of depth fusing the object (outline) with the background seemingless. Realism is important for me there to make it pretty and appealing for the viewer, the balance of colors within the picture (different saturation in objects i.e), being not 100% accurate but still calm for the eye.”

Jeremy however clearly did not go for Realism. A distinct color style, defining every muscle. It stands out very well on the dark background!

Jeremy:
“I liked the challenge, it was quite different in that the focus was on rendering rather than form, but not inhibiting creativity.
Comparing my version to Arachne’s work, colours and rendering style are the biggest difference, Arachne uses her flawless dithering, something I’ve found it’s best for me to avoid ;D
My colours were dictated by the *wonderful* Microsoft XP Paint Palette, which is pretty much the opposite to Arachne’s more muted tones.”

Something funny I noticed: While the original lineart pupil is round, Jeremys eye is a horizontal line, Elks a vertical one ;)

Again 2 very different images! Thanks HMC (first) and Jumpei (Second)! Original lineart here.

The first one shows a high contrast, smooth and slimy monster, in a desert setting. Very well chosen colors! The blue>green>yellow works great here!
Of course, if you would like to learn something, you should study the very well placed dithering here!
The pink flowers make an original and eye catching detail.

HMC:
“I wanted to make the monster a bizarre cactus-creature.
I colored it and turned it into a plant with flowers coming out of it. Honestly, I just played around with colors until I got something I liked.”

Jumpei however did not use any dithering at all to make his version interesting!
It has a very interesting and polished wood-like texture. The original lineart is also still there, intact. He used the black of that very nicely!

Jumpei:
“Its not safe to say it is 100% mine as I only interpreted the shapes sugested by the lines, by giving the piece color and texture. The lineart was wonderfully done in a simple non binding way that gave me lots of room to create something different from the other participants.
I immediately had a general idea of doing an organic monsterous kind of tree, then I chose a base color, a color for shades and highlights.”

Comparing the two: Do you see what a difference there is by pulling the eyebrows to the front, or by making the whole eye area hollow? The volume can make quite a difference, but you are free to go in any direction you want. Linearts do not define volume!

And once more, two beautiful different entries!

The first one is made by Crusader333 and the second one by Zombi2.  Original lineart here.

Again, the two are totally different. Crusader used a scary light source, and added some weird drips of pixels upside down on some places. But more interesting, he added something to the line art. The cage was not in the original, but now it is the most interesting part of the image!

Crusader333:
“Well primarily I’m quite a surreal artist and I don’t really like to take things at face value. When initially looking at all the line works I was really attracted to the ‘Bird’ , but it took me several days to come up with an idea to be able to twist it. The idea of seeing the ribs as a birdcage came to me and I couldn’t resist. I also like to place a lot of emphasis on colour choice.”

Zombi’s way of working is everything but regular too.  Defining everything that was also defined in the original line art, but clearly with a hard palette to work with.

Zombi2:
“I generally make pictures in the graphical mode of the ZX Spectrum (80s home computer).
Apart from being high quality lineart, the bird is, because of the organic forms and low level of detail, quite suitable for the chosen approach. ”

I hope that you realized that there are so many ways to color something! Infinite styles and possibilities. Get inspired!

And to focus on coloring only, it can be interesting to take someone else’s line art. There is a big list of stuff thats free to take here. In the filename there is always the artists name, make sure to give proper credit if you use their lines!

For more colored line arts, have  a look at this article too!

And in the comments, there is room for discussion about this article.