The class project is divided into two parts; the Exercises and the Project. The Exercises are meant to get you thinking about your unique colour sense. We'll also be building a simple palette, based on findings from the other exercises, and which we'll use in the project.

The Project is to make 2 illustrations, one based on a simpler palette, and one with more variation. Both will be based on the same root colours and therefore consistent with one another! I'll walk you through the process, from coming up with your theme, to sketches, to final.

As usual, I leave it up to you to work your own illustration tools and techniques into the project, in your own unique way. You should feel free to do what you do, not copy exactly what I do! (Of course, those who prefer to follow my techniques more closely are welcome to do so).

All steps are covered in the videos, but they are also summarized below:

THE EXERCISES

Exercise 1: Colour Self-Inventory

Description

A collection of 5-10 favourite pieces of your own illustrations or artworks, especially in terms of colour. Some observations or notes can be written overtop these images, or written out separately. Deeper reflections about the set, in response to some prompting questions may also be written separately.

Purpose

To identify colours you are already using, especially those you seem to turn to repeatedly. This is a big clue to your natural colour sense.
To find links between how you use colour and your tools, techniques and style.

Outcomes

A stronger sense of the colours you like and how you use them in your art.
We’ll also be using the findings from this exercise in Exercise 3 (Build a simple palette).

Instructions

Spend some time looking through your body of work, aiming to select 5-10 of your favourite images, especially in terms of colour.

If it helps, narrow your search to specific criteria such as a specific period in your work or one style or media type you like to work in.

I limited mine to my commercial work between 2013-2015, a time when I was still a bit all over the place with my colours, but definitely coming close to something more consistent.
Arrange your selections on one page so you can see them all at once as a set.The page should be roughly 8x10 inches in vertical orientation (or the default screen dimensions of your iPad if you are working in Procreate). Add a title at the top “Colour Self-Inventory: Your Name”.
Now it’s time to make some quick observations about your set. If you are able, write them somewhere on the same page as your images. You can use arrows and lines to call out specific things, and you can also write down your observations in point form. (I made a list called “What I Like/Observe”).
OPTIONAL DEEP DIVE: You may also download the “Prompting Questions: Color Self-Inventory” from the Class Projects and Resources page and write out some more thorough observations about your set.
When you’re done, post your set and notes (if separate) to your Class Project.

Exercise 2: Colour Inspiration Study

Description

A Colour Inspiration Study is a collection of 5-10 images from your favourite illustrator. To get the most out of this exercise, I recommend doing 2-3 studies, each one featuring a different artist. Some observations or notes can be written overtop these images, or written out separately. Deeper reflections about the set, in response to some prompting questions may also be written separately.

Purpose

To identify your key sources of inspiration (or heroes)
Specifically, to find links between their style and use of colour
To find connections between what you are inspired by and what you want to make yourself, especially in terms of colour and style—to learn from the “masters” in your sphere of influences.

Outcomes

More clues to your colour sense and how that relates to your own artistic vision
Insights into how colour and style influence one another
Inspiration to try colour techniques you may not have considered
If you skipped Exercise 1, then this exercise can be the basis of the palette you will build in Exercise 3.

Instructions

Name 2-3 of your favourite illustrators. Include at least one from the past and one from more recent times, if you can.

Now, for each artist do the following (To get the most out of this exercise, I recommend doing 2-3 studies, each one featuring a different artist):
Collect 5-10 favourite images from this artist. While it helps to choose these in terms of colours you like, it’s not totally necessary. It’s okay if you love the art but not the colours so much.
Arrange the images on one page like you did in Exercise 1. Add the title “Colour Inspiration Study”.
Somewhere near the top of your page, write down 1) the name of the artist and 2) their style or preferred media (e.g. collage, painting, vector illustration, etc.).
Similar to Exercise 1, make some quick observations about your set. If you are able, write them somewhere on the same page as your images. You can use arrows and lines to call out specific things, and you can also write down your observations in point form. (I made a list called “What I Like/Observe”).
OPTIONAL DEEP DIVE: You may also download the “Prompting Questions: Color Inspiration Study” from the Class Projects and Resources page and write out some more thorough observations about your set.
When you’re done your studies, post them, along with any writing, to your Class Project.

Exercise 3: Build a Simple Palette

Description

A step-by-step process for building a simple palette based on the colours you love most?

Purpose

To quickly come up with a unique, simple, and versatile palette we can use in the project, and maybe even beyond!

Outcomes

A personalized palette based on a triadic colour scheme
The palette has a simple version with 6 colours (plus a “dark” or black), and an extended version with various tints and shades, all based on the simpler version.

Instructions

Follow the demo or use the downloadable worksheet from the Class Projects & Resources page.
Post your finalized palette to your Project page.

THE PROJECT

Theme Prompt and Setup

For this project, we’re going to use Food as our overarching theme! To make it more personal and fun, we’ll add to this theme an activity or idea of our own. Your project theme should be something like Food x [activity name] — for example, Food x Cycling, or Food x Studying. And then you can imagine what sorts of food, utensils, or other accoutrements might fit the theme, as well as what a scenario involving that food and activity might look like.

Setup Instructions

Choose your Food x ___________ theme.
List 5-10 simple objects related to your theme. Make sure these are simple objects that are relatively easy to draw. Objects are things like Camp Stove, Frying Pan, Bacon, Eggs.

Avoid more complex concepts like Cooking, Smoky, Greasy, and so on. Choose objects as much for their simplicity as their topical relevance. These will form the basis of your first illustration, and will likely appear in your second one as well.

You might want to list a whole bunch of objects first and then whittle down to just 5 later on. If you need some assistance, you can use Google to help seed some ideas for objects.

When you have a list you think you can work with, you can move into the first illustration.

Illustration 1: Simple Objects, Strict Palette

Description

In this part of the project, we’ll illustrate 4-5 simple objects in a sort of flat-lay arrangement on a clean or solid background. We’ll use just the 6 elemental colours of our simple palettes, without too much variation.

Purpose

To practice using a very simple palette using your chosen style, tools and techniques.
To demonstrate how its easier to apply a simple palette to simpler illustrations.

Outcomes

An illustration, based on your food x activity theme, comprising five or so simple objects using a simple 6-colour palette.

Instructions

Finalize your selection of five objects from your theme list (which you created in the setup).
Research: Use an image search such as Pinterest or Google Images to find reference images for each object. You may have already done this in the setup part, when you were coming up with this list, but feel free to find more if you want or need to.
O-Mode Sketching: O-Mode Sketching is where we draw from observation, whether from real life or reference images. The purpose is to “download” visual information about yoru subjects to your mind, so you can later draw them in some way from memory. Spend some time, maybe 10-30 minutes, sketching from the reference images you gathered (or from objects in real life. (Don’t worry about remembering what you draw, just draw what you see.) There are no goals here other than to do this “downloading” of visual information. The sketches here don’t have to be good at all! Take as long as you need. When you are finished, take a break.
I-Mode Sketching: I-Mode Sketching or Ideational Mode Sketching is where we start sketching out our ideas or intentions for the illustration. With simple objects, it’s not really an idea as much as an arrangement of the objects in question. The task here is end up with a composition you are pleased with for this illustration. Spend 10-30 minutes sketching out a few different arrangements of your 5 simple objects. You can do as many different sketches as you want, but you should end up with one that you feel happy with to illustrate from. If necessary, you can refine your sketch by tracing over it and making it more decisive and confident. Since this is ideational mode sketching, you should focus on having a clear idea in your illustration. The idea of Food x Your Activity should come through clearly in this case.

For a deep dive into my Sketching process, I highly recommend watching my class Drawing Toward Illustration.
Final: Once you’re happy with one sketch, it’s time to flesh things out in your style, with your colours! Of course, how you do this exactly will depend on your tools and techniques, but in this video I’ll talk you through my own process. This will give you some insights into how I am applying the various concepts we learned in the primer in terms of colour.

Illustration 2: Complex Scene, Varied Palette

Description

In this second part, we’ll illustrate a more complex scene, which should include the food and activity you chose earlier, but also some people interacting with one another and the food and objects in the scene in the foreground. This illustration will be more complex because we will be dealing with different skin colours as well as creating a sense of foreground and background. To do this, we’ll use our more expanded palette that we created in Exercise three. We may even have to extend and modify it even more as we go. The trick will be in keeping the colours consistent and as simple as possible, using extended colours only as needed.

Purpose

To practice using the same colours from one illustration project to another, regardless of complexity.
To demonstrate how a palette can be extended without losing its sense of consistency between illustrations.
To demonstrate how to meet more complex demands such as varying skin tones and more complex compositions without losing the feeling of colour simplicity of a stricter palette.

Outcomes

An illustrated scene, based on your food x activity theme, with at least 3 people, a foreground and background.

Instructions

Research: Depending on how much image searching and O-Mode drawing you did in the first part, you may need to do a bit more research for this illustration, since it will involve more than simple objects. For instance, you may want to find images that have scenes of people engaging in your theme’s activity. In my example, I looked for images that had campers eating at picnic tables and around the campfire. If you are illustrating Food and Studying, for instance, you might look for images of a study group in a coffee shop or snacking in a dorm room or library.
O-Mode Sketching: Just as you did before, if you want, spend some time drawing from your O-Mode references before moving into the next step. For this project, I would say this step is optional. Feel free to skip to the next step, I-Mode sketches if you want. If you get stuck, you can always come back and do more O-Mode sketching to download some much needed visual information and inspiration.
I-Mode Sketching: Now it’s time to work out your composition. Here is where you’ll definitely be challenged more than the first illustration. That’s because the image is more complex. You will be working out what I call the Three C’s: Concept, Content, and Composition. The concept is pretty straightforward: people interacting over food within the context of a specific activity. But you can be more conceptual if you want — that’s up to. you. The more important things here are content and composition: What will you include in the image and how will it all be arranged on the page? Keep in mind that at this point, we’re only working in pencil, without colour. We’re just trying to come up with an idea for our illustration that is clear and confident. You will probably start looser and less clear and then iterate toward something more and more refined. By the end of this step you should have a sketch that you are happy enough with to use as the basis as your finished artwork.

For a deep dive into my Sketching process, I highly recommend watching my class Drawing Toward Illustration.
Final: Again, once you’re happy with one sketch, it’s time to flesh things out in your style, with your colours! And again, how you do this exactly will depend on your tools and techniques, but in this video I’ll talk you through my own process. This will give you some insights into how I am applying the various concepts we learned in the primer in terms of colour, this time, especially with skin colour and working out the details of a scene.

DELIVERABLES

Here are some key things you can share on your class Project page:

For Exercise 01:

Share your completed Colour Self-Inventory. If you used Procreate like me, you can upload it as a single image. Alternatively, you can simply upload your images and type out the written portion directly in the Project.
Feel free to share any other thoughts you have at this time!

For Exercise 02:

Share your completed Colour Inspiration Study. If you used Procreate like me, you can upload it as a single image. Alternatively, you can simply upload your work images and type out the written portion directly in the Project.
Feel free to share any other thoughts you have at this time!

For the Project:

Share your Theme and List.
(Optional) Share your Rough and Refined Sketches for each illustration.
Share your Final Illustrations! You can also include your thoughts on how the process went. What were your biggest challenges working with colour? What insights did you gain? Did you have any big breakthroughs?
Share each new illustration as you go! Let us watch as you grow! Also, if you plan on sharing outside of the Project page (such as on Instagram) please let us know your @account so we can catch you there! Don't forget to use the hash tag #OnePaletteIllustrator

FINAL ILLUSTRATION DETAILS

Suggested minimum: 8 x 10 inches at 300 dpi (2400 x 3000 pixels)
Can be horizontal or vertical, as you are inspired

Again, if you share on Instagram, please tag @mrtomfroese in your post and use the hashtag #OnePaletteIllustrator

BRUSHES USED IN THE CLASS

KYLE T. WEBSTER BRUSHES

Available from Adobe. Watch this Video to learn how to install in Photoshop.

Kyle's Paintbox - Gouche G Blair Dry (Texture filler)
Kyle's Inkbox - Fountania B (Linework/Inker, Some lettering)

RETRO SUPPLY CO. BRUSHES

All from the Woodland Wonderland set

10 Water Fill (Plaid stripes)
13 Back Woods Pencil (White linework/details)
21 Classic Gouache (Some lettering)
30 Waxy Roller (Texture/shading)

DOWNLOADABLE CLASS RESOURCES

You will find on this page some downloadable resources for this class, including:

Colour Self-Inventory Questions (PDF)
Colour Inspiration Study Questions (PDF)
Simple Palette Builder (PSD)
Simple Palette Builder (Procreate)
Simple Palette Builder Instructions for Procreate
Theme Worksheet (PDF)
Simple Icons (with Sketch) PSD
Complex Scene (with Sketch) PSD

INSPIRATION LINKS

One Palette Illustrators

Catalina Mariani

Illustrator | Designer

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