Professional artist whose work is very much about color here.
2. It's better to pick a single color to use to darken everything when shading; this gives a more unified feeling. Usually the best way to do this digitally is what most art programs call the "multiply" transparency mode, which I believe is simply r1xr2, g1xg2, b1xb2.
4. If you are designing for paper printing then work in the CMYK color gamut from the start. You will save yourself tons of headaches. That said modern high-end printers DO have a wider gamut than older ones, if you're going to be doing professional reproduction then talk to the people doing the printing and get color profiles.
5. Personally I do almost ALL my color choosing in HSV, it's a much better match for the way humans think about color than any other I've used. Hue: the color. Red orange yellow green purple. Saturation: how greyed out the color is. Pink is a low-saturation red, brown is a low-sat orange. Value: how dark it is. Poppy red vs. brick red. (HSV is also known as HLS, hue luminance saturation. IIRC there is a slight difference to this model, mathematically, but in practice it is much the same.)
The human eye is MUCH more drawn to contrasts in value than in hue. Two colors with the same value but different hues will vibrate uncomfortably when placed against each other. You can check for this by going to greyscale (in art programs, create a layer at the top of the stack, fill it with white or black, and set it to saturation mode); if two colors become the same grey then change one of them.
2. It's better to pick a single color to use to darken everything when shading; this gives a more unified feeling. Usually the best way to do this digitally is what most art programs call the "multiply" transparency mode, which I believe is simply r1xr2, g1xg2, b1xb2.
4. If you are designing for paper printing then work in the CMYK color gamut from the start. You will save yourself tons of headaches. That said modern high-end printers DO have a wider gamut than older ones, if you're going to be doing professional reproduction then talk to the people doing the printing and get color profiles.
5. Personally I do almost ALL my color choosing in HSV, it's a much better match for the way humans think about color than any other I've used. Hue: the color. Red orange yellow green purple. Saturation: how greyed out the color is. Pink is a low-saturation red, brown is a low-sat orange. Value: how dark it is. Poppy red vs. brick red. (HSV is also known as HLS, hue luminance saturation. IIRC there is a slight difference to this model, mathematically, but in practice it is much the same.)
The human eye is MUCH more drawn to contrasts in value than in hue. Two colors with the same value but different hues will vibrate uncomfortably when placed against each other. You can check for this by going to greyscale (in art programs, create a layer at the top of the stack, fill it with white or black, and set it to saturation mode); if two colors become the same grey then change one of them.