>>12799260It looks ugly to you because you don't truly know what you want in your coloring. You may have what you think is a clear image in your head (it's most likely more muddy than you realize), but you haven't yet learned to transfer that mental image to your canvas. All levels of the process pyramid are subject to this, sketch, line, color, etc. They are isolated from each other and each takes their own practice in order to master. Just because you're happy with one doesn't mean you won't fall short on another.
>But why don't I know what I want in my coloring?Because you don't understand light. Color and depth can only be registered by your head as such when light is present; hence why when you're in a truly dark area all you 'see' is flat black. And light has its own rules and properties. These are what you must first at least dip your feet in if you want to delve into coloring.
There's a reason the Itchy light tutorial is linked ad nauseum,
http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/light.htm, read and understand it. Keep the properties in mind while you practice and don't hide behind mess.
Now, of course, how you use this light depends on why style you want to draw in. If you're drawing cartoony, you need only simplify the bare bone properties down, if you're going for realism, you need to fully understand and apply shadowing, reflectivity, planes, etc. Everything else sits somewhere between these two extremes. When deciding which you want to work with, remember it's easier to learn all the rules and consciously disregard a few than to not know the rules and be stuck in the dark. It's better to leisurely step down whenever you want than to always struggle to step up.
>How do I know if I'm doing it right?Remove your line layer. If it's unrecognizable it means you've failed to depict your coloring as a coloring and have instead just added frill to your linework. (This is actually a very common problem and you should watch out for it).I'moutofspace
