5 Places to Find Colour Inspiration
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Close your eyes. Think of your latest artwork idea. How clearly can you picture it? Is it like looking at:
a photo in front of you
it through a thick glass, which doesn't let you see the details
general outlines
If you chose the 1st answer, then congratulations, you're among the lucky few who have hyperphantasia. You can picture anything crystally clear in front of your mind's eye. Such clarity allows you to recreate your ideas perfectly.
If you answered 2 or 3, don't worry. That's common not to have all the details in place when a new idea comes.
As for me, 2 is the closest answer. I can picture my idea, but the details escape me, no matter how hard I try. That's why through the years, I learnt to rely on different supports to bring my ideas to life. One of them is colour inspiration.
It's always a surprise for me, which colours I'll end up using for my work. I tend to go through a discovery process to find the best combination.
As no approach works for everyone, I put together a list of different ways you can get inspired by colour and find the missing bit for your idea.
Where can you find colour inspiration?
1. Surroundings
You don't have to go far to find colour. We are surrounded by it. Every single object on your desk, in your flat and in the outside world, has its own colour. The only thing we have to do is to pay attention.
Because colour is so persistent, we learn to filter it out. So whenever something catches your eye, it has to be special in one way or another. Take a picture of it for later. Safe all your colour inspiration photos in one place to easily find them when you need a creativity boost.
2. Inspiration library
This brings me to my second approach – create an inspiration library.
It's handy to have all the exciting colours in one place. It can be a folder on your laptop or on Google Drive, notes in Evernote, Pinterest boards, etc. Find the way that works the best for you.
Your colour inspiration library doesn't have to be limited to your personal photos. Any image that inspires you can be there.
A part of my personal Inspiration library
3. Another field
As an artist and illustrator, I see lots of and lots of artworks on a daily basis. It's easy to get stuck in this whole artsy scene and rely only on it for colour inspiration. However, it's limiting. You leave so much behind!
It's great, from time to time, to step out of it and turn your attention to another field you don't work in. Food photography, interior design, movies, architecture – your colour inspiration awaits you everywhere. When you consciously choose to switch your focus to another field, you expand your possibilities.
Whenever you feel stuck, look into another area, and new ideas will come.
4. Masterpieces
On my blog, I talk a lot about paintings by old masters. Among other things, they show us beautiful colour schemes. Don't be afraid to use them as a source for colour inspiration. However, don't do it with contemporary artworks, as they are protected under copyright law.
You may want to only get inspired, but it's easy to get carried away, so look at those artworks that are more than 100 years old. Copyright protects works of art throughout the duration of creator life + 50 (in Canada, for example) or + 70 years (in EU) or even longer in some countries.
Fragments of paintings: Irises by Vincent van Gogh, Norham Castle, Sunrise by J. M. W. Turner, Water Lilies by Claude Monet.
5. Online sources
If you want to dive deep into colour, these are some of the sources you can enjoy.
Design Seeds
It must be the most well-known archive of colour schemes based on photos. You can browse their collection or search by colour to find your new colour palette for the project.
Caution: it's as addictive as Instagram. You can easily spend hours on end browsing through all the possible colour combinations. Design Seeds has a lot to offer, so it's no wonder.
Design Seeds screenshot
Color Palettes
Color Palettes has the same concept as Design Seeds. The main difference between the two is how their collections are organised. Colour Palettes divide colour schemes by colour temperature (warm and cool) as well as the level of contrast (pastel and contrasting). You can also use a colour filter to find what you need.
Color Palettes screenshot
Color Hunt
Color Hunt provides a collection of ready to use colour schemes. You can browse through it to find one that picks your interest and go from there.
Besides, you can filter by colour to find what you need.
Color Hunt screenshot
Coolors
Similar to Colour Hunt, Coolors allows you to browse through a large variety of different colour schemes. You can filter by the standard colours like blue, grey, and violet or search for a more specific colour name like lilac or marron. You can even search by the hex value. Colour Hunt doesn't have either of the last two search options.
Coolors screenshot
Colour Pod
Colour Pod is similar to the previous pair.
Give them a try to see which one is more up to your taste.
Colour Pod screenshot
Where do you look for colour inspiration?
P.S. Join ColourTamers to get more useful lists, every creative needs.
Keep creating!
Yours,
Tatiana
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Hello!
My name is Tatiana Kuvaldina.
I am a colour expert.
My purpose is to help creatives like you to build their confidence one colour exercise at a time.
Let’s talk more on Instagram
Find me @tkuva_illustrates
