Character Design TRACK: Lesson 4, Color Schemes

Prompt

Color one of your characters using 3 different color schemes. Consider your character, what colors will help tell your character’s story and background? Color is not just a visual experience, it is a story telling tool as well!

Jordan McCracken-Foster
Jordan McCracken-Foster

Tips

  • Traditional: place tracing paper over your drawing and draw the colors on the tracing paper.
  • Digital: duplicate/pixel lock your line layer and do the colors on another layer.
Jordan McCracken-Foster
Jordan McCracken-Foster

Inspiration

Mulan, Guardians of the Galaxy, Nicholas Kole, Andreas Rocha, Samurai Jack, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Monsters Inc., Toy Story 3

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Color Palettes for Characters

This video demonstrates how to create several different color palettes for one character design, exploring how color can be used to establish a specific mood or personality in a character and how to group colors to work effectively with each other.

Demo led by Teaching Artists Cat Huang and Jordan McCracken-Foster

Elements of Art: Color

Color is one of the Elements of Art that is essential to a work of art. Here is an overview of the various components of color to be considered: saturation, value, contrast, complementary color pairs, warm & cool colors, and more.

This video provide examples of contemporary art and images from art history where texture plays an integral role. Discussion led by Art Prof Clara Lieu and Teaching Artists Lauryn Welch and Jordan McCracken-Foster.

Show us what you make!

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