How do you choose the colors in your art? Your color palettes always look so cohesive and so pleasing to look at!
ah, this is gonna be pretty long so i'll talk about it under keep reading :^]
now i am no expert!!! i am just a guy!!!! i'll just be talking about how i do it! ok!
PART 1: COLORS??? HELP.
i really like going with warm stuff on my art so it's kind of a given that most colors i use end up wounding up on this side of the color wheel
so, let's say i'm coloring trucy, a character who wears blue, i end up choosing warmer looking blues, sometimes i end up choosing purple or gray if the other colors i chose makes it look like blue, yannow, color theory and stuff. like this for example!
now the first one is noticeably blue, but the second one is like a lavender and third one is like, really not blue! it's like a desaturated rose color or something, however, paired with the right colors...
they're all "blue", aren't they?
PART 2: CHOOSE WEIRD COLORS
by weird colors, i mean colors that aren't like what the thing looks like irl. like, a leaf is green right? but, it doesn't have to be when you color it!
like when i color things gold sometimes, i use a light and desaturated red-orange for it or how like with the color blue, i don't even use blue at all!
now just because i use warmer tones a lot doesn't mean i don't use the colors from the other side of the color wheel, it depends really, if the color scheme i'm going for is monochromatic or if i really wanted to make something pop
but of course, you can't just color willy-nilly, you gotta take into account
PART 3: CONTEXT AND MOOD
where and when is your drawing set? what's the mood? are we having fun here or are there Horrors?
see how it changes the mood? the things we're supposed to be feeling when we look at the drawing? yeahg. ill use warmer colors when i want the drawing to look happy dreamy etc but ill break out the blues and greens when we're in sinister town pftt
also, just wanted to share again how other colors can change what another color looks like:
PART 4: GRADIENT MAPS AND OVERLAY LAYERS
now as for making colors more cohesive... seriously, just slap that thing on top of your piece and it helps the colors get together even more! like of course i choose my own colors but gradient maps + overlay layers are kind of like adding that one final thing.
i'll use this one as an example, left one is no gradients maps/overlays and the right one is with them. i just really prefer some good ol' ourple tones in my art so there are a couple of things i add on top to really bring out the warmth in here, like so:
PART 5: ANYTHING ELSE?
uhhh don't be afraid to use tools in your program to correct the colors you don't like ala color balance tone curve contrast brightness etc etc.
hell, you can even color pick from like irl pictures and adjust accordingly to what colors you want.
i also do have like colors that i consistently use when shading things after countless trial and error; like how i'll use purple to shade red, blue to shade with green etc etc
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