Colour Discussion

Today my coursemates and I had an online discussion about how we use colour in our work.

Are there specific colour palettes that you tend to use in your work? 

Common colour palettes in my work include complementary (usually red-green or blue-orange) or analogous colours. More recently I've experimented with triadic and split-complementary palettes for variation.

Additionally, my work often features red or blue as a focal colour, as these are colours I happen to like.

I tend to use fairly saturated colours, but not to the point of unnatural brightness. If working with a monochrome or analogous colour scheme, I tend to chose colours down a diagonal to ensure a range without it looking odd.

What do you intend to communicate through colour to the viewers of your work?

My use of bright and harmonious colour palettes is to create a happy image, as I generally aim to spread positivity with my work.

Do you find using colours 'easy', or do you spend a long time deciding which colours to use? Do you prefer to draw in greyscale/black-and-white?

I find it fairly easy to use colour. Colour is often the most important thing in my artwork, and I enjoy using and experimenting with it. I only use greyscale or black-and-white if sketching or checking tonal contrast, or if drawing a panda. A greyscale piece would be a challenge for me, so I may experiment with one in the future.

I chose colours based of the subject of the image - for example, if I was drawing an animal, I would draw it in a more saturated version of it's real-life colours. Then I would generally use complementary/analogous colours in the background and extra details.

I experiment with and choose colours before beginning the full illustration, by digitally colouring roughly using the airbrush tool underneath the sketch layer.

Have you used a 'colour wheel' before and if so, do you find it useful? Do you have another way of choosing colours to use?

I extensively studied the colour wheel as part of my A-Level personal investigation. I usually decide on a focal colour, and then use my knowledge pick colours by eye and instinct.