When first attempting to paint as a high schooler, I remember being told the cardinal rule was to never use paint straight out of the tube. Mixing paint is the deal, Jacob. Get good at it. Use a fancy palette and become one with your artistic predecessors. Learn how to spell ochre. Learn how to use ochre. Don’t buy obscure colors when you can mix it yourself, like a real boss. Get proper ventilation so you don’t end up talking to your paints.
Good advice, but yeah, no.
Painting is not for me. I find the alchemy of mixing paint in the traditional sense way too slow and methodical. I’d cut off my own ear to avoid mixing paint.
But color?! COLOR!? I’ve always had an eye for it. I’m the kid who grabbed a purple crayon to color snow.1 I think both the orange and yellow crayons make a good point about the real color of the sun in The Day the Crayons Quit. My Mom and I can famously talk about chartreuse for than 20 minutes and not get bored. I don’t have a favorite color; I love them all. I can and do help my wife with wardrobe color choices effortlessly. And I’m always right.2
So, let’s talk about how I think about color and apply it to my work as an illustrator of picturebooks. And let’s do it using a series of principles?
There are no off-limit, ugly colors
I once had someone tell me to avoid drab colors in books for kids. What? Insane. I think this is the lamest advice. Ugly colors don’t exist. A color works or doesn’t work based on context. What color is it next to? What is its purpose in the story? Both of these questions provide purpose and meaning to a colors usage, despite a general societal distaste. For example, a person might find brown ugly on its own, but when it’s the color of our chestnut horse that the princess befriends and rides through a field of daisies, it gains beauty both in terms of story and if done well, aesthetically.
Color is a storytelling asset
I’m in the business of getting people to respond to stories, color is one of the ways you can do so. Beauty moves people. Red can evoke anger. Using a limited grayscale palette alongside a neon pink says “look at me!” How about working in a color that doesn’t belong, like a green sky or a yellow tree? What does that add or take away from the story? The style?
Color can set time and place. Using only colors that existed in paint at the time the story takes place? Fun! A classic use might be to harken back to a memory in grays or browns, while the current reality is in full color. Or:
Don’t sleep on color as a storytelling asset. I am always worried I’m becoming safe with my color choices and leaving something on the table.
Limiting my color choices
I wrote about this principle a little in a post called Undo is for Losers but let’s dig a bit deeper.
The idea here is that unlike analog art where your color choices are limited to what you can mix, the limit in the digital world is what your monitor can display, which is a lot. A metric ton of choices makes it hard to achieve page to page continuity found in sequential storytelling. It can also add to the mental load of making decision after decision, driving an illustrator mad. Limiting your color choices to a manageable amount frees you up! It’s a bit like saying “I’m going to illustrate this book using these 6 tubes of paint.”
I’ve used the same palette to make the illustration at the top of this post and this:
Red is not Red
This one is tricky, but let me explain before you get all up in arms and contact the authorities (CYMK PD?) Very often, much like the color of snow being white, our brain says “apples are red” when in fact apples vary in color, lighting and the setting around the apple can alter our perception, and who says they have to be red anyways? When I limit my palette, there are times my brain is saying “shoot, no red. You’re screwed. Apples are red” and I’m forced to hack at it with what I have to get an approximation. Turns out, this is way more interesting! I often throw caution to the wind and try a non-traditional color for something and find it a much more compelling solution. This is kind of my secret sauce.3
Simple can be better
All of the principles above are solid, but sometimes I find myself lost in a jungle of conflicting color choices. TOO MUCH PINK. NOT ENOUGH OCHRE. WHY AM I YELLING?
There's a time to just let my eyes rest, take a break, and apply a simpler choice.
Like paint straight from the tube.
Snow is white. Light does weird things to snow and it gets damn gorgeous. I’m not wrong.
This is the one and only area where I can make this claim, credibly.
Crap. The rules about secret sauces say I cannot share them in newsletters. More trouble with the law, I suspect.
Now how do we get this philosophy all the way to the top so “brighter colors!” is no longer allowed as feedback without a compelling story reason 🤔 🧐
Thoroughly enjoyed this read, thank you :) and I think I can feel a Hate-Paint-Mixing Club coming on!