Starting to do some colour studies. I was doing backgrounds for our Regency Love game and I felt like the bit I had most trouble with was working out a good colour pallet. The colours either were a bit too saturated or they started to look muddy when I mixed them too much. Then often I couldn’t get the mood right, like it was too blue/green when it was supposed to have a warm feel.
Hence, thumbnail studies, concentrating on getting the general colour and atmosphere right. Found it quite challenging but useful!
Bierstadt – Praires
Orlovsky – Spring Day Ukraine
How do you usually start picking colors? I read through the color theory, and yet when it comes to putting things together, I tend to make a very boring blend, or something that I can’t stand looking it for more than 1 second.
I know what you mean! It rarely ever turns out well when I try to stick to some hard and fast rule. Definitely haven’t found any Holy Grail yet but I find that thinking about creating focus is a good guide. What’s the main colour/emotion you want in a composition? Make that your focus and then every time you choose another colour, think about how it relates to your main colour. Do you want to highlight the main colour by contrasting it with another colour, or soften it with a supporting colour? Then I kind of add colours in one at a time and make adjustments as I go (I’ve been doing that in my UI designs lately and it’s been working well for me).
You can still use those complementary, analogous, trichromatic schemes, but it’s you and your experience/taste that decides exactly which colours within that range fit the effect you want to create.