Creating A Color Scheme for My Children's Picture Book
/I want to have a consistent color palette for my books. When I colored my first two books, I started with a color palette (the Frankentoon Crayon color set). Unfortunately, I didn’t keep track of my character’s specific colors — I made the mistake of assuming that I would always remember that Betty Burro’s hair was bright orange, and that Jimmy Jay’s shirt was a specific shade of yellow green. When I completed my books, I realized that I had given Betty pink hair instead of orange hair, and that I had used several different shades of blue green for Jimmy’s shirts. It took many hours to go through all 48 images and correct the colors. That’s when I made a rule to my Future Self: Get the colors right the first time.
So, before I get into the painting part of book three, I’m making this simple color chart so that I’ll keep my character’s colors consistent. I think of these colors as the “right out of the tube” colors. I’m free to de-saturate them or change their brightness, but I won’t change their hue.
Resources
Frankentoon Crayon color palette from his Procreate Cartoon Brushes.
