How Does One Develop A Personal Coloring Style?

Hey everyone,

In today's article I want to discuss artistic identity through color style. I'm sure many of you enjoy that part of my art and it's not something I commonly speak about. Let's delve into what this really is, its importance and three tips for you to try right away.

For those not familiar with this, coloring style refers to an artist's distinctive approach to applying colors in their artwork. It encompasses various elements like the choice of colors, colors in values (shadows and light), and how these colors interact to create mood. Developing a unique coloring style is crucial because it not only sets an artist apart from others but also becomes a signature of their work, reflecting their personal vision and artistic identity.

Here are three tips for artists to develop their own coloring style:

1. Self-Analysis: Style is the combination of personal taste out of experiences. Experiences that can be from any other external source like entertainment products or nature. If you don't know where to start, the simplest way is by listing your favorite things and then analyzing their palette composition. This in order to find the color palettes with which you feel strongly connected.

The reason why some colors evoke some feelings and others don't is mostly caused by the experience you had in relation to X color, your current emotional state in relation to X color, and the concepts we commonly associate with X color, like red used for more aggressive subjects for instance (I'll explain more about this last one in the point).

It's the awareness you bring through the analysis of the colors you like that will help you understand which one of those previously mentioned factors justify that attraction. Perhaps the reason is not something I mentioned, but the point is to 'pay attention' and document.

In this article, you can find a straightforward strategy I used to analyze Guillermo del Toro's work, one of my favorite directors https://www.patreon.com/posts/impact-of-color-85863146

2. Understand Color Theory: You might think this should be the first step but I think it's easier for me to start with the things I like and then check some theory to find out why that is, that's why this comes as the second step.

As I mentioned previously, this point is about the concepts associated with specific colors or color combinations. Learn how different colors interact, the emotional impact of colors, and how they can be used to convey different atmospheres or themes in your art.

This education layer is key for you to understand some concept behind the colors you resonate with or perhaps emotions you seek to evoke. I have not written an article focused on color theory only as many of the basic information can be found already everywhere, so I don't think it's necessary but maybe a compilation of these concepts in one article might be helpful, just as a shortcut for you. Let me know in the comments, in the meantime, this one covers some basics.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/color-theory-and-81790140

3. Practice Consistently: Self-analysis and theory is cool but you need to get your hands dirty. Like any skill, developing a unique coloring style requires consistent practice. This means in part hours of not fully knowing what you are doing but exploring.

I'll suggest you set some very simple goals whether it's a character, props, or environment, list three colors and make one of each, for instance, if it's characters what you like and your colors of choice are magenta, blue, and green, make three characters that embody those colors. If you want to push a bit more, take blue for example and try any of these options:

• Make your character a combination of blue with black or white, like blue and white, or blue and black.
• Make the blue more saturated in some parts and less in others.
• Pick tones of blue that goes closer to the colors like green or purple but still predominantly blue.
• Pick a complementary color of blue to set some small details around your character.
• Make your character all one desaturated tone and use blue light and shadow to bring some saturation into the character.

All these simple techniques can be applied not only to character but any other concept, the idea is to practice by creating palettes that express various moods or ideas, regardless of your feelings around the color/palettes.

Conclusion

Ultimately, color style is a combination of awareness, education, and execution, understanding what colors or combination of colors evoke the strongest feelings in you, finding why, delving into the subject through the theory and then exploring consistently over time.

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