How to determine a color palette. Red, white, blue: eight rules for choosing a color palette that everyone should know. Add color to the Swatches panel

And now we will find out in detail, how to make a palette for acrylic paints with your own hands. If novice artists have a question: “Why?”, then you have yet to fully discover the rich world of acrylic paints. And then, you will certainly use this lesson.

Special palette for acrylic, art materials

Acrylic paints were invented relatively recently and quickly gained great popularity among artists. After all, they have a lot interesting features. They resemble oil ones in properties, but are much cheaper. If acrylic paints are greatly diluted, they can be painted like watercolors and will be brighter than watercolors. But you won't be able to wash the bottom layer because acrylic hardens quickly and irreversibly. This is its distinctive property, to which one has to adapt.

It is precisely because acrylic paints dry quickly on the palette, and even tightly, that you always have to do some special manipulations with them. Artists will undoubtedly appreciate the convenience and cost-effectiveness of a homemade palette for acrylic paints.

• Step 1 .

The usual white tiles and plastic palettes are out. The principle of this palette is that acrylic paints do not dry out on it! And to make it, we will need, first of all, a special container. This should be a shallow rectangular container. About the size of a sheet of paper. It is better to take at least A5 format. With a flat bottom and sides approximately 2–4 cm high. This could be some kind of food tray, or baking dish, or tray. Moreover, your vessel does not have to be white, as in the photo. Change the color of the palette later as needed.

Base for a homemade art palette for acrylic

Step 2.

The second thing we need in order to make a special palette for acrylic is ordinary paper towels.

Line the bottom of your container with paper towels. You will need at least 6 layers for the palette to work well. Whatever color your towels are, that color will be your palette. Napkins must be laid out very carefully. The surface must be smooth, without humps, pits or folds. If there is excess, cut it off; where it is missing, add pieces of suitable size.

Special palette for acrylic paint - line the bottom

• Step 3.

Here, the bottom is carefully covered with soft napkins or paper towels. Now you need to carefully wet the paper. Pour in enough water to get it completely wet. Carefully drain off excess water so as not to move the layers of napkins. We don't need paper mush, we need wet paper. The palette should not be too wet, otherwise the colors on it will spread during work and become thinner than expected.

Carefully drain excess water from the palette

• Step 4.

Now we need to do one very important operation. You need to very carefully and thoroughly squeeze out all the air from the palette. Use your hands to smooth the paper from the center to the edges, squeezing out any air that may be trapped between the layers of paper. As a result, you should have an even and smooth base for the palette.

• Step 5.

And the third thing we need is a sheet of tracing paper. Which we will cut to fit the palette. It is better to purchase a good, high-quality tracing paper. In general, it can be used in many places, and any person who draws is strongly recommended to always have a good tracing paper in their arsenal. To create such a palette, the author of this master class, Walter O'Neill, recommends using Clearprint tracing paper. It is not cheap, but dense, reliable and of high quality.

• Step 6.

We will use tracing paper to make the working surface of the palette. We adjust the sheet of tracing paper to the size of the bottom of the container and lay it on our wet workpiece. The tracing paper will be saturated with paper and settle well. And then it will be necessary to expel the air from under it again. Carefully smooth the surface of the paper.

• Step 7

You should end up looking something like the photo below. That's it, the palette is ready, you can take it and use it. A backing of wet toilet paper will keep the paint evenly and constantly moistened. And when it starts to dry out, drip a little water into it. But this will not happen soon: you have a few days of quiet work with acrylic. When needed, simply bend the corner of the tracing paper and pour water into the hole. Keep your palette damp at all times.

• Step 8

Now everything is ready to draw! The photo shows how the colors spread slightly on the palette. Here is an example of grayscale that the author of this lesson created when he painted a black and white picture.

So, as you can see, making a special palette for acrylic paints with your own hands is not difficult and is very financially profitable. What did we need for this? Just:

1. tray
2. paper towels
3. sheet of tracing paper
4. some clean water

And it will last for a long time. When it gets very dirty, you just need to replace the sheet of tracing paper.

➡ When there is a pause in drawing, the palette should be placed in the refrigerator, covered with a plastic lid. Or you can cover it with cling film if there is no lid. This way the paints can stay fresh for months.

Author of the lesson and original text lesson on English language: Walter O'Neal

Color selection - one of the most important stages in the process of creating good design.

To make your task easier, we decided to compile a selection consisting of best services to create color schemes. They will help you save time and still get decent results.

01. Adobe Color CC

Adobe renamed its Kuler project to Color

You may be familiar with this tool by its former name - Adobe Kuler. However, Adobe just recently renamed one of its popular web applications to Adobe Color CC.

It allows you to select, create and save different color schemes, each of which can contain up to five colors. The tool is available in both browser and desktop versions. If you're using the desktop version, you'll be able to export your color scheme directly into Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.

02. Mudcube Color Sphere

If you're unsure about your color scheme, Mudcude has its own gallery of ready-made assets

Mudcube Color Sphere is a very handy miniature resource for designers that not only offers hex codes for selected colors, but also allows you to create color schemes for your own projects. It's also worth noting that Mudcube has its own gallery of ready-made resources that can also be used.

03. Check my Colors

Check my Colors is designed specifically to evaluate and select the background and foreground color combination for all DOM elements. And also in order to find out whether the elements are sufficiently harmonious with each other. All tests are based on algorithms recommended by World Wide Web Consortium ( W3C).

04. The Color App

The application will help you find out the RGB, HEX, and HSLA values ​​of the selected colors

iOS tool The Color App allows you to easily and simply determine colors using a large color palette. It allows you to find out the RGB, HEX and HSLA values ​​of colors, as well as create your own color schemes for the site.

05. Color Hunter

Color Hunter generates a color scheme based on the selected image

This is very handy tool, especially if you need to find a specific color. Select an image and upload it to Color Hunter. The tool will create a color palette based on the selected image. This is a great method for creating your own color schemes.

06.TinEye

If you need to get a specific color, just enter the HEX value in the URL

This site uses a database of 10 million images available free of charge. license agreement Creative Commons, which the creators carefully selected from Flickr. These can be used to generate appropriate color schemes.

07. Color

Convenient miniature web application. Hover your mouse over the screen and select the color you want, then scroll a little to select the shade. After which the tool will produce all the necessary HEX codes, which you can use in your own projects. One of the easiest tools to use.

08. SpyColor.com

Free color scheme generator that provides color information and also allows you to convert it to any scheme ( RGB, CMYK and others ). Available here various formats color schemes, including process, monochrome and others.

09.Design inspiration

On Designspiration, you can choose up to five shades with a convenient full-page palette that makes it easy to find exactly the HTML color schemes you're looking for. The site will then generate a page with all the images in the database that use a similar color combination. HEX values ​​will also be provided which you can use in your own projects. And images can be saved in collections on the site.

10.ColorExplorer

One of the most sophisticated web tools that offers many features related to design, customization and color scheme analytics. Here are some tools to help you determine WCAG validity of color schemes, and also generate your own color palettes.

11. Hex Color Scheme Generator

A handy little tool for generating a color combination based on one selected hue. Insert the Hex value of the color and the tool will provide a set of matching colors to use along with the base color.

12. COLOURlovers

COLOURlovers is a sharing community color schemes. Here you can get inspiration from other users' color sets, as well as create and share your own.

13. Color Scheme Designer

This online tool offers interesting ways generating color schemes, allowing you to adjust their brightness and adjust contrast. Here you can create several popular mathematical models color schemes, including monochrome.

14. COPASO

One of the tools from the COLOURlovers website. But COPASO is worthy of special attention, as it is an incredible all-in-one solution, and allows you to easily generate ready-made color schemes for the site. There are a variety of color matching tools available here, all in a convenient and easy to use simple interface. In addition, you can add notes to palettes, upload images, etc.

15. Colourmod

Colourmod represents software, which allows you to select individual colors from the widget area, whether you're using a Mac or Konfabulator on Windows. This is not a very simple tool for working with color palettes, but it will help you quickly and easily determine colors without having to download heavy programs.

16. ColorZilla

ColorZilla is available for both Chrome and Firefox

This project started as a plugin for Firefox, but today it is also available for Google Chrome. ColorZilla is an extension that includes several tools designed to work with color, including a palette, a CSS gradient generator, and an eyedropper.

17. Colormunki

A convenient online tool for selecting color schemes from the creators of Colormunki. It allows you to easily create eye-catching color palettes from Pantone-based swatches using multiple techniques.

18.colr.org

Colr.org allows you to set the color range of any image

This tool allows you to detailed analysis image colors, which is usually automated in other tools. This will allow you to choose the most suitable color. We recommend checking out this tool, although its interface is not as sophisticated as other apps.

19. ColourGrab

This handy tool creates color palettes from any image. Insert the URL of the image you want to analyze, and the service will automatically generate a 3D graph with information on the colors used. Although this application is not entirely suitable for choosing a color scheme for a website, it can be used to study images and their color characteristics.

20.ColorBlender

ColorBlender generates a palette of five matching colors

One of the simplest tools that allows you to adjust color and get five colors that combine with each other in real time. The generated palette can be downloaded in Photoshop or Illustrator as an EPS file.

21. GrayBit

GrayBit ​​allows you to analyze websites to understand what they would look like in grayscale

This tool will help you see how your site looks in shades of gray. Great service, which will allow you to identify areas that are problematic in contrast.

22. COLRD

A tool that can be used as a source of inspiration or to share color schemes. Of course, this resource will not help with generating schemes, but you should definitely take note of it.

23. Shutterstock Spectrum

Today I'll show you how to quickly create a color palette in Sketch. This is a cool trick that he taught me Mark Edwards a few years ago.

First, let's create three squares with a side length that is a multiple of three. In our example, these are squares 240pt high and 240pt wide.

Let's change the names of these layers to Red, Green and Blue. Let's fill the Red layer with #FF6161, the Green layer with #4F953B, and the Blue layer with #0076FF. Select these layers and press the “A” key to select the “Artboard” tool. Now select the “Around Selection” option from the “Inspector” panel on the right. Let's change the name of our artboard: let's call it “Color Palette”.

Now we will add different shades to the squares, dividing them vertically into three equal parts. To do this, create two rectangles above the squares, the width of the entire artboard. The height of the rectangles should be ⅓ the height of the squares — that is, in our case, 80pt.

Align one rectangle with the top edge of the artboard and fill it with white, and the second one with the bottom edge and fill it with black. Now set the opacity of the rectangles to 20%. We ended up with three different shades of red, green and blue. Let's rename these two layers so we don't get confused about them later.

Now we will divide the squares again — this time horizontally. Create a rectangle the same height as the square. The width of this rectangle is ⅓ the width of the square itself. Align the rectangle to the center of the red square. Now let's duplicate this rectangle and align the new rectangle to the right edge of the red square.

Now the fun begins. Fill these two layers with some cheerful color. We will use yellow (#FFE200). Set the transparency of the center rectangle to 40% and the right one to 80%. Finally, change the blending mode ( blending mode) to “overlay”.

Now we need to divide the main rectangle into nine equal parts. Basically you can just duplicate the last two vertical rectangles and move them to green and blue squares to create a complete color palette.

Final result

How to use colors in Sketch

Sketch has hidden function, which can be used to identify frequently used colors in a document. This feature can be found in the Inspector panel when selecting a fill color. On the right, just above the alpha value, there is a box with a color. When we click on this window, a panel opens that displays frequently used colors.

Saving colors in Sketch is quite easy. When you select a color, you will see two panels: Global Colors and Document Colors. Common colors are colors that are saved for all documents. Document colors appear only for the document you are working on.

Tip: To quickly select a color, press “Control + C” and click on the color you want. This hotkey for the eyedropper tool.

Sketch Palettes plugin

When you're working on major project With many files, it is not at all necessary to manually create document colors.

This is where the Sketch Palettes plugin comes in handy. It allows you to save palettes to a file, which you can later import into another document. This way you can quickly add brand colors to any new document.

Different colors and shades have different effects on our emotions and associations. Colors also influence our perception of design. It doesn’t matter what kind of design it is - interior, website or mobile application– color combination plays a very important role. Just a few centuries ago, the choice of colors, that is, pigments, was very small. Dyes were obtained from various minerals and plants, and it was quite easy for artisans of that time to choose matching colors. It is much more difficult for modern designers - they have at their disposal great amount shades and sometimes it can be excruciatingly difficult to choose harmoniously combined colors.

Each designer solves this problem differently. Some act intuitively, choosing shades almost at random, while others methodically compose ready-made palettes and then use them in their work. FreelanceToday invites you to check out different ways selection of color palettes shared by famous designers.

1. READY-MADE PALETTES AROUND YOU

Callie Hegstrom, a designer at Make Media, says, “I first take photos of something beautiful. It could be flowers, a sunset, anything. This way I get a ready-made color palette and now I just need to isolate the primary colors from the photo, which will definitely be in harmony with each other. I can then open the photo in Photoshop and use the eyedropper to make a new palette. It's even easier to make a palette using a tool like Photocopa. Just upload the image you like and get a ready-made palette.”

2. USE A COLOR WHEELS

The artist Marc Chagall said: “All colors are friends of their neighbors and lovers of their opposites.” What did he mean? “Friends” Chagall called shades located next to each other on the color wheel, for example, blue and blue. But “lovers of opposites” are opposite them on the color wheel, that is Blue colour will pair with various shades of orange.

Canadian designer Cindy Kinash of Cultivated Mind says, “When using watercolor to show shadow or depth, you can use a similar color, just a few shades darker.” This method of choosing well-matching colors is one of the best. By using friendly colors and combining them with contrasting shades, you can achieve stunning results - you just need to know how to use the color wheel.

3. LEARNING FROM INTERIOR DESIGNERS

Since, regardless of the type of design, the principles of working with color remain the same, you can pay attention to how interior designers create color palettes. British designer Elena Genova shares her experience: “When I do interior design, I use a rule that applies to graphic design. In my work I use the dominant color, its share is 60%, friendly shades (30%) and 10% is the color accent. If the palette seems too poor, then you can add several shades that will be “friends” of the dominant color, but you should not split the accent, it should be left as it was.”

If you're having trouble choosing colors, take a look at nearby design areas - you may find inspiring examples there.

4. SAVE GOOD EXAMPLES

Niki Laatz, owner of a print shop and design store, explained how she finds eye-catching color palettes and uses them in her work: “Whenever I see a painting or illustration with colors that I like, I take a photo or screenshot and save it.” their. Then, when I have to pick a color palette, I just look through all the images I have saved and always find something inspiring there.”

Search successful examples You can find matching colors anywhere – in museums, in books, in magazines and, of course, on the Internet. You can also use a site like Pinterest, where you can catalog and save many types of color palettes.

5. USE A FANPANTONE

Sometimes such a proven method of selecting colors as the color wheel does not help create a palette. In this case, you can choose colors like in the good old days using the Pantone fan. Sometimes it is useful to step away from the monitor and focus not on the digital, but on the physical sample colors. Kelly Hegstrom explains how to use a shade fan in her work: “Sometimes it's a good idea to have a shade fan handy, especially when you're not sure the shade on your monitor will show up correctly when printed. The fan is also useful if the client needs a special color - you just show him the fan and the problem is solved by itself.”

Pantone can be very useful in your work graphic designers– with the help of a fan you can create accurate color palettes, which will not only save time, but also allow you not to worry when it comes to printing in a printing house.

6. TAKE COLORS FROM NATURE

Our eyes are accustomed to the colors that are most often found in nature. Natural color palettes will always look good - because they are familiar to us. Designer Gary from agency CO-OP says: “The color combinations are endless. Landscapes, fruits, leaves, flowers - all these are natural, accessible and free sources of inspiration." Gary works in South Africa and therefore his palettes are warm and vibrant, just like the country's nature.

7. USE 3 OR 4 COLORS

If a designer consciously uses a wide range of color scheme, for example, he needs to depict a rainbow - that’s one thing. However, you should avoid using too many colors. Rodrigo German, a designer from Chile, recommends using three colors in your design. If additional shades are required, then they should be as little contrast to the main color as possible.

Showcasing the font he created, Marty, Rodrigo uses three colors - pink, green and black. At the same time, he plays with texture to achieve the desired degree of contrast.

So if you're having trouble choosing colors or aren't sure about your color palette, ask yourself if you can cut down on the number of colors, ideally to three. Sometimes this method is very effective.

8. COLOR PALETTE DEPENDS ON THE THEME

When choosing colors, you should always consider the theme. Are you working on a sports or business website? Or is your project dedicated to beauty and fashion? Think about which colors fit the theme perfectly. Are you creating a flyer for a beauty salon? It should not be done in dark colors. And if you are working on a sports magazine, what colors will you need? Each topic can be described in words - for example, fashion can be characterized by such adjectives as "graceful", "sweet", "elegant", and sports - with words like "dynamic", "aggressive", "vibrant".

Salome, a designer from the Graphic Box agency, suggests first making a preliminary sketch of the color palette, and then gradually choosing the most suitable shades. “For example, I want a ‘romantic’ purple,” she says. “Or I want to use a ‘cute’ pink.” Salome suggests using emotions to accurately select colors - this method helps create palettes that best suit the theme. She also believes that designers should familiarize themselves with color theory and read various materials that talk about how people perceive various combinations colors.

9. USEPINTEREST TO SEARCH THEMED PALETTES

You can find it on Pinterest a large number of color palettes created by designers from all over the world. Ian Barnard, founder of Vintage Design Co., explains how he uses Pinterest: “If I was designing a beach holiday poster, I would do a search on the site for ‘summer color palettes’ and pick one that would work.”

10. USE SPECIAL SITES

COLORlovers are creative community where people living in different countries, create and share color palettes and templates with other participants. By becoming a member of the community you will have access to more than 3.7 million ready-made color palettes.

If you are looking for inspiration and want to achieve results using a non-standard color scheme, the help of the professional community will be very helpful.

Attempts to find the ideal color solution go back far into history, to the masterpieces of great artists. Now designers are searching for the perfect combination of colors, like the philosopher’s stone. As the French impressionist Claude Monet said: “Color is my daily obsession, my joy and my torment.”

People associate colors with objects, such as red apples and green grass. Also, we consider color to be something constant, even when we know that white wine is actually yellow, even more golden, and that the blue sea is not blue at all, and its color can vary from dark gray to turquoise.

We completely ignore the fact that color interpretation is complex process, which involves in our perception not only the eyes, but also the mood. When creating a website, the designer faces a number of questions that require answers. And one of them is a color combination that is ideal for a future web project, no matter how trivial it may sound. The harmony of colors is the first thing that catches the visitor’s eye, so it’s better to think through this nuance well.

We present to your attention fifteen excellent online services that will help you choose the right color combination. Many resources allow you to download ready-made color palettes for later modification. Services allow you to search and group color schemes by specific keywords and shades. This is very helpful when you have one color and need to use it with a number of other colors that are close to it. But the most important thing is that all the services offered are completely free.

4. WITH ColoRotate you can easily create and manage color palettes in 3D volumetric space for better control text and background colors. Colors come to life because in volume our mind perceives color differently. The sliders and joysticks are intuitive and easy to operate. In addition, you can synchronize color palettes between computers and share blanks with colleagues or clients.

5.ColorBlender is an easy-to-use tool for creating color palettes for web development. The main function of this resource is to create a palette of six colors. You select one, and the program selects the remaining five corresponding colors. This allows you to create palettes quickly and easily.

6. Colormunki is a multifunctional resource for working with color palettes and color management in the field of graphic, industrial and interior design.

7.ColorExplorer is free tool for designing and working with color palettes. The site's set of tools is not limited to color selection; you can view popular color libraries, combine libraries, export the palette to popular programs, such as AdobePhotoshop, Illustrator and many others. You can also import colors from images. This site was designed specifically for professional designers. There is no registration; you can simply save the selected palette. However, if you want to protect your palette from prying eyes, you can create your own profile.

8. main idea Сolr: Playing with color and color schemes. This site is both a toy and a serious idea generator.

9. WITH ColorCombos you will find yourself in a world of colors where you are sure to find your ideal color palette. This site was created to help web developers and designers quickly select and test various combinations colors. The resource library contains hundreds and thousands of color samples. By using of this resource you can create a beautiful website with a great color combination.

10. On Ficml you can select color shades and, thanks to the number that is displayed, you can use these colors in Adobe Photoshop or other programs. Just a few mouse clicks produce color magic.

11. On Colrd you can create color schemes, templates, upload an image to find out its color scheme, and much more.

12. ColorHunter is a resource where you can find and create color palettes made from images. To find color palettes on the site, you need to enter search query in the box at the top of the page. You can search by tags, hexadecimal code colors or image link. The image can also be downloaded from a PC.

13. allows you to simulate nine types of color blindness.

14. Etsy- This is the most fun and unusual way to choose a color.

15. On Archizona The optimal combination of colors can be selected by moving the slider at the bottom. This is analog color wheel. This is one of the few Russian-language services on the selection of colors.

We hope these tools will help you find the perfect color palette for your next web project.