One way to instantly level up your color skills
Color is definitely one of my favorite parts of the creative process.
Yet, it can be a tricky thing to get right.
Recently I read an informative article by Greg Gunn aptly titled How to not suck at color. It well worth the read and packed with great information on ways to improve in the color aspect of the creative process.
Yet one tip, in particular, struck a chord with me.
Colour can breathe life into a project, bring a brand to life or help in effectively communicating your message.
It is important and provides value beyond making a design aesthetically pleasing.
Often when working on a project I find the color palette works well together yet something is missing.
What is missing is difficult to pinpoint. It is frustrating and can be time-consuming to figure out.
This is where this one tip can help.
A useful tool that can perhaps forever banish color confusion in the creative process.
Contrast is a crucial ingredient not only in life but also in the color palette of a project.
It is important that colors work well together, but also equally important that there is enough contrast between the chosen colors.
Why?
If there is not enough contrast, all of the colors will fight for the viewer’s attention.
The design will look a bit flat, bland and not be visually exciting.
Contrast means that the values of each color are not too similar to one another.
Similar values will result in unhappy eyeballs.
Do you want unhappy eyeballs? I thought not.
To test the level of contrast in our design we can quickly enlist the help of Photoshop.
All that it involves is converting an image to black and white. This can be quickly completed using the below three steps.
Step 01: Open the image you wish to check the values on.
Step 02:
At the bottom of the layers panel select,
>Create new fill or adjustment layer
Step 03:
Then select the option > Black & White
Viola! Here is a quick tonal value test. In the above image, I chose dark blue for the background and light blue for the three simple shapes.
Clearly, this simple image lacks contrast. There are only two different tones. Hence it looks flat and is visually not very interesting.
Now we are aware of where the problems lie, we can experiment with finding a solution.
How can we do this? There are three potential fixes.
I was curious if this quick test is also effective when improving the color within more complex images.
So I decided to put my own illustrations I created for a personal project under the magnifying glass.
The objectives were,
Level of contrast: Overall the level of contrast is ok but could be much improved. I would say that the range is quite unequal.
For example, the third figure to the left has quite a dark tone for her hair color yet the rest of the color severely lack any contrast hence a lack of balance.
The gradient color used in the backdrop offers a broad range of tones which helps to lift the illustration.
Ways to improve:
Level of contrast: The level of contrast here is not so good.
It is difficult to distinguish a lot of the assets from one another as there is not a broad range of tonal values.
Although the runner is the key figure, there is nothing that clearly identifies him as the focal point of the illustration
For example, the third figure to the left has quite a dark tone for her hair color yet the rest of the color severely lack any contrast hence a lack of balance.
The gradient color used in the backdrop offers a broad range of tones which helps to lift the illustration.
Ways to improve:
I hope you found this quick tip useful and can use it in your own creative process. I certainly learned a lot by writing this and looking objectively at my own work.
If you have any color hints or tips I would love to hear them
One way to instantly level up your color skills
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