Character Coloring Process

Alright, since dribbble doesn't have any character limitation, I'll write a bit about my process of coloring characters, if you don't mind.

I divided my process into four different parts,
(see attachment):

1. Lines
I usually sketch everything in Photoshop and then move it to Affinity Designer, where I “ink” my lines using pen tool

2. Grayscale
Determine main values of the character using grayscale shading

3. Gradient Map
This is where the fun begins. Gradient Maps are widely used in painting/CG, but I only recently started using them for coloring vector illustrations (yeah, I know). And you know what? Gradient Maps are awesome! (go read Bjango' article, if you've never used it). The goal here is to create interesting colors, so it doesn't really matter if some areas doesn't look “right”. I consider everything at this stage as a starting point for my color palette.

4. Final colors
And this is where I set my final colors, using palette created in previous step and filling “missing” colors

And that's it! Coloring charaters is always hard for me, but the more I do it, the easier it gets

(well, actually, no, it does not, haha)