Sometimes choosing colours can be the hardest & most time consuming thing about colouring! It's difficult to know where to start and I usually end up using every colour under the rainbow on my page, which is fabulous but it means that nothing in particular stands out. Using a limited number of colours can be more effective sometimes, and so can be planning your colours carefully by using one of my favourite tools: a colour wheel. More about that later!
I'm not a total pro when it comes to light sources or plotting shadows etc. To be honest, I'm pretty impulsive usually and tend to go with the flow. This is why you'll notice that the shadows, particularly on the arms, are probably not where they would realistically be on a human under those light conditions. But I'm okay with that. Oh and don't worry that the skin looks too orange! When you add more colours, this will magically tone itself down to the eye.
The next part is something I'm not too happy with but it's done now so que sera! I used cheaper gel pens which weren't nearly so opaque to give the impression of reflected fireworks in the water, as I wanted colours that were similar but not as saturated as they were in the sky. This didn't turn out great, but hey ho. I decided to fluff up the waves a bit by adding white gel pen ruffles here & there, but again I'm not sure how well that works.
I really hope you've enjoyed this walk through of my colouring & I'd love to hear from you so please do leave a comment either here or on Facebook!