192: How to Create Beautiful Color Palettes

Want to know the secret to creating beautiful, cohesive color palettes? I'm going to share it with you. My very best color palettes, well, they always come from nature. Who knew nature always has the perfect color palette? It kind of makes sense, right? So in this episode, I'll show you how you can gather inspiration from anywhere you live in the world and transform it into a breathtaking color palette for your next project. The process is easier than you think. And honestly, it's so fun, it might be even a little addicting.

I'm Bonnie Christine. And this is where all things creativity, design, business, and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. But when I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today. I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast.

If you've ever felt stuck creating a color palette, well, you are not alone. So many of us are right there with you. This. There are so many colors to choose from, and the options can feel impossible to narrow down. And here's another fun fact. Sometimes I think that we need to understand and be trained in color theory. And quite frankly, I am not. I'm aware of color theory, and I've studied it mainly later in my career so that I can, you know, speak more intelligently about it when students have questions. But to be honest, I never used color theory for the vast majority of the beginning of my career. I kind of just learned from really reverse engineering what looked good together, what I was drawn to, why I was drawn to it. So we're not going to be talking about color theory today, and I hope that that kind of opens the possibility for many of you to lean in and just have fun with this. Because truthfully, you know what works, you know, when you like something, and we can kind of use that as our guidance to figure out what colors we're going to use when we do our own work. So some things that we come up against, right, are, well, I don't know, color Theory, or how can I possibly choose only a few colors? Or do I have enough colors? Or how can I make sure that the colors complement each other and what shade or tone do do I want to use of colors? So the process of creating a color palette, it can quickly move from really fun and exciting to a bit overwhelming. And that's what we're going to break down today. So rather than create beautiful palettes from our own existing inspiration or Pinterest or, you know, sometimes we find ourselves leaning on trends or pre made palettes from more experienced designers. That all leaves us feeling uninspired, maybe uneducated about what works and maybe a little defeated. So today we're going to talk about how to do it yourself. You're going to have so much fun. So picture this with me for a moment. You unroll a beautiful patterned bolt of fabric made from your design. Every detail of this fabric came from you. The motifs, the, the pattern, and of course, the color palette. You created the beauty that you wanted to see come alive in the world, and now it's in your hands. Not only is the color palette you designed perfectly balanced, but you loved creating it. In fact, you can remember where you were when you took the photo that you pulled the colors from. And so now your work has real meaning and depth and memory attached to it. Designing the color palette was fun, and the secret lies in stepping outside and looking around. Now, I've told you I don't have any formal training in color, in color theory, or why things work. And there was a bit of time where that really led to some imposter syndrome for me. I felt like I wasn't educated when it came to color. But I knew what I liked and I knew what I didn't like. And on one of my simply, like, I need a break walks outside, I began to notice how the soft pinks of this beautiful rose outside in the garden from where we lived, played so beautifully with the greens of its leaves. And I studied that little flower and I admired the rich golds and browns in its center. And I decided to take a few photos. And I brought this newfound inspiration right back into my desk, and I let it guide my color palette and it worked. And so that was the beginning of me making nature my go to source for color palettes ever since, soaking up each season and everything that glows in the garden. And also, you might see me pulled up on the side of the road, taking pictures of the sunrise or the sunset or the weeds that are just the right color right now, as you might know, I've planted my own flower garden and I use that as a source for all of my designs, my inspiration, and yes, my color palettes. So curating color palettes is now something that I love so much and I want to share my kind of simple four step process with you so that you can have fun with it too. Are you ready? So the first step to creating a beautiful palette is to just begin noticing the colors around you. Go ahead and take a walk outside. Whether you're at the beach or in the mountains or at a field or at a city park, anything outside is going to do. Sometimes maybe all you need to do is just look up into the sky, but be intentional. Start. Start noticing the color, the browns and the tree bark. How many shades can you see in a single flower? Observe which colors are paired together in nature. This is so fascinating. So the golden yellow and the black of a honeybee on the lavender of a flower. You see how those colors pop and they really go well together. Notice the blues and the greens of a nearby creek. And what do you like about what you see? Look at the horizon and notice the layers of colors that are stacked on top of each other. I think you'll find, as I have, that nature boasts the most beautiful, well balanced palettes and you can capture those. So step number two is to begin curating the palette by taking photos. Now, these don't have to be like gorgeous pictures. You just need to capture the colors. So grab your phone, take some pictures, Notice the plants, the flowers, the landscapes, the skies, even fruits and vegetables. Okay? Then you're going to look for combinations that naturally draw your eye. So once you've filled your library with this bounty of photos, I want you to just work with maybe three at a time. Sometimes I only work with one and bring them in. Choose them to be the first foundation of a color palette. Now don't delete the rest. They're going to be perfect inspiration for another color palette. You just want to narrow it down right now for the singular palette at hand. Now, side note is that I love to select these photos that I'm using for color palettes and put them in an album on my iPhone. That way in two months, when I'm ready to do another color palette, I can go straight to my album and not it's endlessly scroll my library pictures. Okay, so step number three is start to play. This is the part that is so fun. I want you to take your photo or two or three photos and get them into a digital tool. There are a bunch of options. You can use Canva, you can use Adobe Illustrator, you could use Procreate, or you could use Adobe's app called Adobe Capture. And feel free to kind of place or arrange your photos. However, it works best in your working space. And then each of these apps have something that's similar to what we would call an eyedropper tool, or a way for you to extract and pick the colors from the photo. So start extracting the different colors that you see inside every photo. In fact, I have an Illustrator tutorial on how to do this exactly. So I'm using Adobe Illustrator to do it. If you have Adobe Illustrator, I would love for you to come just watch the process. Even if you're using one of the other apps or programs, you can see how I build the color palette. So come watch this free lesson. I'll put the link over on the show notes of Today's episode@PropriationalCreative.com and you can see the photo that I chose, how I'm using the Eyedropper tool to get the the colors from it, and then you'll also be able to see my final color palette. Okay, so I typically recommend selecting somewhere between 10 and 12 colors for your palette. So kind of explore your first photo, click around to find the right shade and add it to your palette and then go on to the next color. This is so fun. So make sure that you realize that. Make sure you're having some fun while you do this.

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Now, the next step would be to really refine your palette. So as you play around with the new color palette, here are some things that I want you to keep in mind. I want you to look for contrast between the tones that you're choosing. You'll want to include enough dark colors to really anchor your color palette. And so right now, it's just squares or circles of color. Right. But when you apply it to an illustration, you're going to want to make sure that there's enough contrast to make sure that the lines really stand out. So while you might be really drawn to a completely pastel color palette, you'll find that when that's applied to an illustration or a pattern, it falls flat because there's not enough contrast. So go ahead and choose some dark colors to go along with some light colors. You're also gonna wanna include some neutral colors. So every good pattern has a couple of neutrals. And sometimes this doesn't feel natural to pull out when you're actually building the palette. So you're going to want maybe some creams or beiges, maybe some grays, some browns, just so that you've got a solid neutral foundation to. To play off of as well. It'll actually help the other colors pop along with these neutrals. I like to have a background color in mind. So if you are doing a single illustration, let's say, for an art print, what's the background gonna be? For me, it's typically a off white or cream, but that doesn't have to be true for you. Just think about the background color that you're gonna want on your pattern or your illustration. I would also encourage you to consider how you want your palette to feel for this. Again, nature is the perfect example. You know, spring colors will make you feel excited and fresh and new, and summer will help you kind of feel bold and vibrant. Autumn feels warm and earthy and cozy, and winter feels cool and very much like you are hibernating. Right. The next step is to test your palette. So no palette is final at this stage, even though oftentimes I Think like, I nailed it. I will always have to go and fine tune and test it and tweak it as I go. So go ahead and apply this palette to some of your work, and you can play around with the various combination and see how the shades work together. So if any of the colors seem not to fit, then just adjust them slightly. Maybe you need to come off of the color from your photo just a little bit to nail the one that you are really going for, and that's fine. Again, the lesson that I will have you watch is going to show you how I do this as well. So go ahead and dive in. Have so much fun. So that's it. You've learned how to create a cohesive color palette from your own inspiration. Now, here's the thing that I don't want you to miss. This pulls you into the world. And of course, you could go over to Pinterest and pull pictures and make a color palette from it, but in doing that, you'll have sat at your computer the whole time. So I don't want you to miss this. Part of the beauty of a career in surface pattern design is, is that it invites you to be and see the real world in a different way. And so even though you could do that, I want to ask you not to. I want you to go explore and be present and intentional. And this can take no more than 10 or 15 minutes. Right. But just leave your digital space. Go be in the world for a few minutes and see what you get. And that, in and of itself, brings depth to your work. It brings depth to your interaction with your work. And I think that your final work, there's just something different about it. It has more soul. And if you haven't experienced that, just give it a try. Now, knowing that we all have the computer at our fingertips, I also know that you're likely wondering about things like trends. And knowing what's trending in the world of color can be helpful. So, for example, Pantone recently announced their color of the year. It's called mocha mousse, and it's a color that just happens to be featured predominantly in my wardrobe. So I, for one, am super excited about mocha mousse. Some of you are not. It's basically a beautiful, warm, tan brown color, and it's one that I love. But I hear you. Some of you really wanted a vibrant color this year. But whether you love mocha mousse or not that creamy brown, well, it could be the perfect neutral for your palette. It could inspire you to Design a super cozy collection. The important word is, is, could. Because trends have their value, but the moment that you make being on trend your priority, well, you run the risk of diluting your voice. So you also have permission to not follow a trend. And I would say definitely don't follow a trend if it doesn't really settle with you just right. Early in my creative journey, I often found myself in a cycle of over consumption, right? The endless scroll. I would be looking for color palettes and inspiration and trending things. And the more I consumed, the more I found myself questioning whether my work was good enough or would fit the current trend or would even fit in at all. And that's when I decided to flip the script and let me encourage you to do the same. You do not need to consume any amount of inspiration before you sit down to create. You should go gather your own inspiration, be in the world, and pretend that no one else exists. That's what I'm talking about when I say create the beauty that you want to bring alive in the world. Not that your feed told you to create, not that's trending, not that you saw someone else do. But you yourself, your soul, your heart, your mind. What do you want to see come to life? That is the power that you have as an artist. So create color palettes from your lived experience. The world needs that perspective of yours and what you notice and pull for inspiration, it is going to be the perfect color combination, and it's going to be unique to you. It's going to be something else that someone else passes by because they didn't see it quite like you did. That's unique. So it may be challenging at first. It's easy to get in the habit of looking around at what others are doing and then sourcing inspiration from there. I know that feeling well. But when you create with a clear mind and an honesty to coming to the work, it's going to feel so much more authentic, so much more connected to who you are, and that's going to show in your final work. Your color palettes are just one piece of the puzzle, and it helps take the center stage and will help grow your collection or your patterns and prints into something truly unique. Curating a color palette. It doesn't have to be something that you dread or feel like you're incapable of doing. It can be as simple as walking outside and noticing what's around you. My favorite places to go are on a walk into my garden at the grocery store or the farmer's market, and then I start Playing with colors one photo at a time, it's honestly calming. I love the process so much and I can also trust it because it's made from my own inspiration and I know that nature will always provide. Now, if I could encourage you to do one thing today, it would be this Step outside and take a few minutes to just not notice the colors that nature is inviting you to see. You may just find the perfect inspiration for your next palette. My friends, head over to the professionalcreative.com to see this in action. I'm going to invite you to watch a video where I'm actually doing this process. And before you do, let me share this reminder. I've got this brand new workshop. I'm so excited about it. It's called your pattern design playbook and it's in full swing until February 19th. So if you've been looking for a way to turn your creative passions into a career in surface pattern design, I want you to come join me. The workshop is completely free and it's self paced. So you are going to leave with a grand understanding of what pattern design makes possible. You're going to leave with your first collection all mapped out. Yes, you are. You're going to leave with probably the biggest gift I could give you, which is a map to success. So we're going to be taking your big dream. Whether that's to have a finished portfolio or finished collection or license your designs. We're going to break that down into milestones and action steps so that the journey is laid out ahead of you so that you don't have any questions about what this looks like. And then, my friends, I'm going to teach you how to create income from your art. All the different revenue streams that artists are using to create income. You are not going to want to miss this workshop. I only teach it once a year. My favorite thing that I do is really impactful. So come learn the exact strategies that has helped me launch into the industry. You can sign up@bonniecristine.com workshop again, that's bonniecristine.com workshop. Keep creating the beauty that you want to see. Come alive in the world. And remember, there's room for you.