Thursday, May 19, 2011

How I pick a color scheme

Many times, when I create patterns or new drawings, I already have a color scheme in mind. Many times I draw and draw and draw and NO IDEA which colors I’m going to use. Like every single normal person, I need some daily inspiration to keep going. And honestly I think it’s not better source of inspiration than internet! I have to constraint myself to don’t spent hours looking for pictures, reading inspirational blogs, playing on Flickr, etc… And still I haven’t play with Pinterest, because I’m afraid is going to be a new dangerous addiction ;)

Yesterday I was creating a flower pattern and I knew I wanted to use orange (and that is normal, because I use orange all the time!) but I needed a little bit more of inspiration for the whole scheme. And here I will tell you the simple technique I use to apply my “internet searches inspiration” into my drawings ;)

1.- I try to identify my mood. I want something super colorful or something neutral? I’m feeling Morocco style or more like a desert mood?
2.- Go online and try to find a picture inspiration in no more of 1 hour. Because if I stay online longer, I know I will never going to finish what I suppose to do!
3.- Save the lovely picture and remember where you found in case you will use it in you blog and you need to credit the picture.
4.- In Illustrator, I create a little color chart using the predominant colors in the picture.
5.- Use those colors into the drawing.

And here you can see the product of my search and final pattern.

Inspiration + the color chart I created:

oragen_room

Final pattern:

orange_pattern

… and regarding the point #3.. well.. I forgot to write down where I found the picture! Ops! Sorry :S

Hope you are having a great Thursday!

4 comments:

lesleyzellers said...

Love the artwork and those colors are awesome!

nicwest said...

That is why you need pinterest. You just click the 'Pin It' button at the top of your browser and it takes the picture (along with the url) and posts it to your account. Then you can always find it later.

Rebekah Leigh said...

I always wondered how people did this...simple! Thanks!

Krista said...

I love creating palettes from my photos and then creating designs from those colors. Also, you have to check out this blog http://www.design-seeds.com/ so much color inspiration all in one place!!