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[girlyswot]

I don't spend a whole lot of time looking at fanart. Most of it's bad, and even that which is good rarely fits my pictures from the books. One thing that particularly irritates me, however, is the portrayal of Weasley red hair. I think this may be because many of the artists aren't used to seeing people with naturally red hair and so they have an entirely false view of what it would be like.

One of my favourite websites is COLOURlovers, and while I was browsing there I thought I'd look for some Weasley red palettes to give a proper idea.

This palette is called, appropriately, Ginger Girl.  I think that the third and fourth colours are closest to what I'd expect of red hair.  The two on the left are too red and not orangey enough.

This is called Henna Red Hair. You can see how the colours are less orangey and more red, reflecting the addition of the dye.



The colours in this palette, Obsessive Love, are never found on anyone's head naturally.



And here's my palette!  The colours are taken from a photo of the most beautiful red headed boy in the world (no, not Charlie!)  You'll see how they're not really red at all.  Browns and oranges are what you need.  The darker colours also make good freckles.  *grins*

Comments

[leochi.livejournal.com]

It's quite nice of you to put up some advice for artists, but it would be fair not to condemn fanart as "mostly bad" when you say yourself you don't spend much time looking at it.

Would you please post some of your art, so other people can learn from it instead of posting colour charts?

And btw have you ever tried to scan a watercolour pic or any pic done in natural media, where the colours come out originally? Believe me, I have. And I have been most disappointed with the results, because you never get the original colours, e.g. softer brownish and yellowish tints. Colours always tend to appear more garish when scanned.

I'm one of those artists who post fanart quite often and I don't appreciate being told my art is bad without any comment on it why it is so. And I know a lot of excellent fanart that is done with much love, patience and diligence. So I would appreciate a bit more fairness to the artists spending time on it and sharing it.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I have posted some art, but it definitely falls into the mostly bad category and no one would learn anything from it. I agree that scanning and colour representation on screen is hard, but quite often the problem is in digitally produced art and it's not just a shade or two out, it's in completely the wrong end of the spectrum.