color palette / watercolors

[Jason Bowen]

I think if you want all your work to be unified using a limited palette of colours works well for traditional painting. So only have say eight colours on your palette and just use them might help.

[NessIllustration]

Watercolors can be reactivated after they dry by simply adding more water into them. So I suggest you mix your colors ahead of time on a plastic palette in big quantities then keep re-using the same paint by adding a bit more water into them That's what I do when I work on a big painting over more than one day, it's a life saver!

[demotlj]

When I first started painting in watercolor last spring, I looked for paintings or illustrations that I liked in terms of their color palette, and then I tried to match those colors painting swatches on a scrap piece of paper (and writing down what colors I mixed to get those swatches.) I then used those swatch colors on my painting, changing only the values. I'm much better now at understanding color relationships and choosing my own palette because I started with those strict limitations.

I don't know how experienced you are with watercolors -- you may not need to restrict yourself that much -- but choosing a book you like and starting with that palette is a good way to get consistency.

[Julia]

@Ailantan : I think I used all the Youtube resources dedicated to traditional watercolors (I came across this video too) but none of them is addressing how to unify multiple illustrations, which a priori look different (characters, action, etc.)

@Jason-Bowen : I never limited my palette, I'll give it a try!

@NessIllustration : I'll definitely do that for the main character. For the rest, I'll write down my mix as my plastique palette is really small (or I may invest! safer!)

@demotlj : I love this idea! I will go to the library today. This is brilliant!

Thank you all for taking time to help! This is much appreciated!

[Teju Abiola]

@julia

Concept wise, color is the same regardless of medium, and I would think the same advice in the videos about digital would apply to using watercolor. Decide what you want the overall color to feel like for your story, and stick to that.

As far as the technical aspect of watercolor, how familiar are you with your paints, and how much experience do you have using them? The advice to limit your color palette is a good one, which can be done by limiting the paints in your palette that you use, sticking to a predetermined color scheme in the final image, or both. If you don't feel as confident mixing colors, then having fewer colors will help unify everything. Swatching, testing colors, and doing color studies before you begin final illustrations will help you understand your color scheme. You could do a color mixing exercise to figure out what different mixes all your paints can make if you don't have much experience with what the pigments will do yet. Mess around with your watercolors for a bit before starting the project to get used to them. You need to know what mixes you are capable of making.

With your example asking if you mix colors with burnt sienna in one image, then should you do it in others for consistency, the answer is maybe. It doesn't actually matter how you get to the color you want, as long as the color on the illustration is the color that you want. It would certainly make it easier to stay consistent if you use the same pigments throughout. Like I mentioned earlier, get to know your paints, because some pigments get really dull when mixed with certain colors.

Plan out what color scheme you want, then do color studies before your finals to make sure it's the colors that you want.

[Julia]

@teju-abiola very true! I am not confident with colors but I can't imagine the book without! I tried color pencils (I thought it was an easier technique) but it doesn't look as nice as watercolors. I guess I should postpone the coloring part until I run enough tests to be satisfied. Today's experiment was a disaster
The highlight was, I find a book with an inspirational color theme!

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

Hi, Julia! Perhaps you can try other mediums like pastels if you’re still not that familiar with watercolors. They’re more easy to use.

[rcartwright]

I have taken a number of classes on color but by far the to me the best lessons are the ones Will terry teaches even his YouTube painting have a ton of info on color. Beyond that spend time doing studies of the images you like to break them down and learn their color formula.

[Julia]

@nyrrylcadiz ahah! thanks! pastels are no way easier unfortunately for me

[Julia]

@rcartwright love the idea! I feel I still have a lot to do before I am happy with the result. I guess my nephew and niece may be adults when I am ready to give them the book!

[demotlj]

@julia How old are your niece and nephew? Two years ago when I decided to get back into drawing/painting I started a book for my 3 year old niece but I sent it to her as letters, about one a month. I knew that at the end I would have to revise the whole thing if I wanted to do a genuine book because I was learning as I went, but it was fun for my niece to get mail, it kept me working and improving, and she didn’t have to wait for me to finish to be able to enjoy it. (She was 4 before I finished!) It’s not a good method if your goal is to produce s cohesive book, however.

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

I’d really love to see the finish product though. Do you have your sketches done?

I don’t know if this will be helpful but if you’re still trying to build your color pallette, i suggest going with the basic colors. When i was still using watercolor as my main medium, i have a pretty limited pallete but it still worked fine. Here’s the list of the paints i used:

Cadmium Red
Alizarin Crimson
Cadmium Yellow
Lemon Yellow
Ultramarin Blue
Pthalo Blue
Burnt Umber
Raw Sienna

You can also consider using Payne’s grey and some purple paint. They’re a pain in the butt to mix every time. Having ready to use tubes/pans will save you time.

Now, with the color pallete above, you can create a very wide range of colors. But if you want a more “sophisticated” color pallete, you can still downsize the list. I hope this helps.

[Julia]

@demotlj This is a very good concept! my nephew is 4, my niece 3. Did your niece recall the previous letters? was she frustrated not to know the rest of the story straight away? What if I fail and miss to send the following part of the story? Wouldn't it be a bigger disappointment to them than to me? I shall admit this method is very tempting but also scary!

[Julia]

@nyrrylcadiz thank you! I think I need to tun some tests now, I'll let you know! I also put the outcome here and let you know which advice worked the best for me!

Many thanks again to all, this is a wonderful community here!

[demotlj]

@julia The reports I got from her family were that she loved it. She loved getting mail addressed specifically to her and she always poured over the pictures very attentively. I sometimes skipped a month or once when I got behind, I sent her a random picture and invited her to add her own drawings and stories based on it but she never seemed upset by the irregular schedule. (I always texted her Mom when I’d put one in the mail so she could tell my niece to begin watching for it.) At the end, I sent the whole thing electronically because her family admitted many of the letters had gotten scribbled on or torn over the intervening months and they wanted a complete clean copy to keep. I also did this for my daughter her first year in college, sending her a letter every week with a cartoon or two of life at home. I think snail mail is very unique and personal for kids today.

[Julia]

@demotlj this is very sensitive! I love your story (and snail mail too). I am now very tempted to replicate the idea - I just have to re think my organization! thank you!
PS : may I see your story for your niece?

[demotlj]

@julia I'd love to show it to you but right now it's still in letter form. I hope to get it into book form next summer. I did the story of Balaam's donkey from the Bible (adding my own humorous take on it) and some of the pictures are posted to my instagram account (instagram.com/demotlj). You have to scroll down because I posted a bunch of watercolors over the summer but basically any paintings with donkeys or angels were from the book.

[Enholm Molly]

When painting, using a watercolor palette helps you arrange the color family you want for your artwork. It is far more practical to utilize a tiny palette with all of the colors you want to use rather than a large palette with 50 distinct hues when you only intend to use a handful.

[Katherine]

I think what you're looking for are watercolour triads. Choosing 1 red, 1 yellow, and 1 blue from which to mix all your colours in a limited palette. This will ensure your colour palette is harmonious. For example this is a colour wheel I created with just three primaries and a little colour study of a character I did using this limited palette.

And here's a fantastic resource that will elaborate on the topic and provide many more triads!

https://www.janeblundellart.com/watercolour-triads.html

I could spend all day every day just playing with watercolour triads I hope you get as much delight out of them as I do!