Take the guess work out of colour palettes with these simple tricks to find great colour combinations!
A great colour palette is absolutely fundamental to bringing your artwork to life and can make or break an illustration or pattern.
However, coming up with a colour palette is easier said than done and it was certainly one of the things that held me back from starting a new project when I first started designing.
Now I absolutely LOVE creating new palettes and I’d love to share with you some of the tools that I use to help me when I’m stuck for colours or looking for some fresh ideas.
Colour can tell a story, and can set the mood. The use of a colour palette in an illustration or pattern collection brings cohesiveness to your work and can enable different elements to work together. In my pattern collections I usually have a palette of around 3-5 colours.
1. Use Procreate's built in colour tool
Did you know that Procreate has a built in colour tool that will help you in finding colours that work together?
To use this feature, first find one colour that you would like to work with.
Click on the colour circle on the top right menu of Procreate and create a new palette by tapping the plus at the top right.
Add your starting colour by selecting it and tapping the first box of the palette to add it.
Now along the bottom menu tap harmony.
This brings you to a colour wheel. Under the word Colours at the top left you should see the word Complementary. (If it says something else, don't worry, just tap this word) A menu should come up.
Start by tapping Complementary and the wheel will show you a colour on the colour wheel that complements your original colour. This is a colour driectly opposite to it on the colour wheel. If you tap the complementary colour you can then tap the next box of the palette to add it.
Reselect your original colour and try one of the other settings. Each one of these settings gives you one or more colours that will work with your original colour.
Sometimes I find great pairings using this that I would never have thought about!
You may not always like the results, and that's ok! It's all about experimenting and this is a great tool to give you ideas and help you think outside the box.
2. Create a colour Palette from a photo
This is a quick and easy way to form a palette if you see some great colour combinations in a photo or picture.
Download or screenshot the picture and import into onto a canvas in Procreate.
Create a new palette and then hold your finger down on the colour you'd like to use first. A small colour wheel should appear. Now just tap on the first square of your new palette.
Repeat the procress until you have selected all the colours you'd like to use.
3. Use a Colour Palette Resource
There are so many great sites on the internet that will help you create palettes or give you ready made palettes you can use. Here are a few to get you started:
Coolors is a really powerful palette generation tool that helps you to create your own palettes by suggesting colours that work together.
You can then use the palette visualiser which shows your palette on artwork, patterns and lettering so you can see how it would look.
Coolors also has a huge selection of trending palettes which you can browse and use any that fit your style.
Well worth checking this website out!
Adobe Color allows you to create your own palettes by selecting colours that complement each other on the colour wheel.
You can also explore the latest colour trends in different categories such as fashion, graphic design and illustration.
So much inspiration!
Pantone is an important website to know about when it comes to colours and also has ready made palettes you can download and use.
It's worth taking note of the Pantone Colour of the Year which has a huge impact on global fashion and design trends.
Spoonflower always does a yearly design challenge around the new colour of the year which is announced in December.
I recently came across Colours Cafe on Instagram and I think it is a great place to browse palettes and see how they look!
A word on Hex codes
Often when you are dealing with colour palettes, the colours will be named with a Hex Code. This will look something like this # 4d5b1d or 4D5B1D.
This is just a way to communicate the exact colour, and is much more accurate than taking a screenshot and grabbing the colours with the Procreate colour drop tool.
You can find the Hex code of any colour in Procreate by selecting Value on the bottom menu of the colour tool and looking at the Hexademical number.
If you would like to add a colour to your palette using a Hex number, just start typing the code into the box and your colour will appear!
What next?
If you've found this helpful, or have any questions, feel free to leave a comment in the comments box below and I'll get right back to you!
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