Exercise: One image, multiple colour palettes (Patreon)

Hello everyone! 🤗🌸 In today's exercise, we'll first explore how different colour palettes can change the feel of the same illustration. W

Hello everyone! 🤗🌸

In today's exercise, we'll first explore how different colour palettes can change the feel of the same illustration. We'll use the same reference image and apply different colour schemes to see how colours can transform mood and style.

Understanding Colour Theory

Before we jump into the exercises, here is a brief overview of some colour theory basics:

Primary Colours: Red, blue, and yellow. These colours cannot be created by mixing other colours.

Secondary Colours: Green, orange, and purple. These are created by mixing two primary colours.

Tertiary Colours: These colours are made by mixing a primary and a secondary colour.

Monochromatic: A colour scheme that uses variations in lightness and saturation of a single colour.

Analogous Colours: Colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel and create harmonious designs.

Complementary Colours: Colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel, providing high contrast and vibrant looks.

Exercise 1: Create three different palettes

Palette 1, Monochromatic: Choose one colour and use its various shades, tints, and tones. You can mix and match brush pens and pencils. It's best to choose a lighter brush pen colour and darker coloured pencils. For example:

Base Colour: Blue

Shades: Navy (pencil), Sky Blue (Pencil), Light Blue (brush pen)

Palette 2, Analogous: Select a base colour and two colours next to it on the colour wheel. For example:

Base Colour: Yellow

Analogous Colours: Orange and green (You can choose darker matching shades coloured pencils of those colours to add more depth in the Illustration).

Palette 3, Complementary: Pick two colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel. For example:

Colours: Purple and Yellowish green (Also choose darker matching shades of coloured pencils to add more depth in the Illustration).

Exercise 2: Illustrate three versions of the same reference image

Monochromatic Version: Colour the reference image using only your monochromatic palette.

Analogous Version: Colour the same image using your analogous palette.

Complementary Version: Colour the image using your complementary palette.

As you can see in the image below, I chose blue for the monochromatic version. For the analogous version, I chose green, yellow, and orange, because those colours were also present in the reference image itself. For the complementary version I chose yellowish green to match the leaves and the complementary colour of yellowish green is purple. So I decided to colour the branches purple to let it stand out! ☀️

Compare and Reflect

Post all three versions of your coloured image in our group chat or in the comment section below. Which palette do you prefer and why? 🤗

Happy colouring! Celyn 🌸