Color is everything! Whether it be a brand, individual product, illustration, or an ad campaign. Color is the principle player in communicating emotion and energy. Think for a minute the difference between a bright spring green and darker rich green then think of how greens flow into fall reds and yellows. Each using these colors in sequence can convey the passage of time.
But because color is — everything—- it can be difficult to focus on narrowing the field and choosing a tight color palette. During Seattle’s COVID19 shut down, I had a lot of time to take online classes and I came across a Skill Share Color Masterclass: Simple Steps to Create Vivid Art by Victo Ngai. This Masterclass covered a great deal of juicy color theory that has opened my eyes to the importance of preselecting a color palette.
To give you a quick example of what I learned in the class here are some of my practice samples.
Victo shows a super fun way to create color palettes using class works of art.
Select a classic work of art. Open in Photoshop. Select the Crop tool and pull out the canvas to add 1 inch to the side for a color palette area. Select the Eye Dropper tool. Choose a color from the art. Choose Brush Tool and paint the color swatch on the side. Repeat until a gorgeous pallet begins to appear. Save the color swatches to your Adobe library and label for your needs.
Here I choose the Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix.
Birth of Venus by by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli,
The great thing about this simple color palette exercise is that it never gets old. Once you start picking colors from classic works of art then it gives you a fierce appreciation for the masters sensibilities for color expression.