It's a wishful thinking that one's got to be taught by [Victo Ngai - a known digital illustration artist.](https://victo-ngai.com/about) However, it's now possible and easily accessible, thanks to [Skillshare.](https://www.skillshare.com/) 

As a budding self-taught artist, I rely heavily on tutorials, from written to videos. Many videos are freely available in platforms such as Youtube. The key difference with Youtube and Skillshare is that there are more chances you can find well-explained classes in the latter.

So, I stumbled upon Victo's class entitled <b>"Color Masterclass: Simple Steps to Create Vivid Art."</b> The steps are really simple. Key takeaways are to (1) know the basic principles *<relativity, consistency, value contrast, accent color, ratio)* and (2) try "stealing" a color palette to start your practice if you're still not confident in choosing your own. 

Immediately, I tried to apply what I learned and although it's messy, I'm quite happy with how this turned out. I felt that at least, I have some direction now.

![color practice.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/debilog/UIGGyAdJ-color20practice.png)
<center> *After sketching and laying the first colors.* </center>

### STEPS

https://youtu.be/_nY4vgA_Qxw

<u> Step 1:</u> SKETCH THE OUTLINE. I love plants so I want to incorporate them in this piece. I'm also into drawing girls if it's not obvious in my [IG account dedicated for my drawings.](https://www.instagram.com/thelazyspirits/) Hairlines are not consistent but yeah, I pushed through with that. lol

<u> Step 2:</u> PICK/STEAL, PERSONALIZE, and REFINE THE COLOR PALETTE. Since I'm new to all of these, I tried Victo's suggestion to borrow colors from other artworks. So I found this:

![](http://www.marlamallett.com/K-Kimono_Group.jpg)

<center> <sup> Kitao Masanobu: "The Courtesans Hitomoto and Tagosode." 1783. Published in J. Hillier, Japanese Colour Prints, Oxford, 1978 (w/c I grabbed from http://www.marlamallett.com/k_design.htm) </sup> </center>

I personalized this and with some mix and match of ratio, I created a plain-colored piece below.

<u> Step 3:</u> LAY THE COLORS. 

![99440086_3247063435305490_771304640925925376_n.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/debilog/6xCzxlAH-99440086_3247063435305490_771304640925925376_n.png)

On the upper right, you can see the colors I color-picked from Kitao's piece. Victo suggested that you put these colors on top of a gray background so you can see their "true" colors because the contrast will be different (principle #3: value contrast) if the background color is.

Personally, I like how it is now but I tried to do more and see what can I add or if adding anything actually helps.

<u> Step 4:</u> DO THE FINISHING TOUCHES.

![color practice_final.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/debilog/Xb7JzXNL-color20practice_final.png)

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In Skillshare, you can upload your projects and share it with your classmates and Victo. She can also leave some notes, too! Here are some of the most liked projects uploaded there:

![Screen Shot 20200601 at 4.18.49 PM.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/debilog/SqmYzcBM-Screen20Shot202020-06-0120at204.18.4920PM.png)

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*I drew digital artworks to ease the sadness and anxiety brought upon by the pandemic. I upload my artworks on [munimuni.space/artworks/debi.](https://www.munimuni.space/artworks/debi)*