Looking for some art inspiration? Take the #birthdayCOLORchallenge. For this creative challenge, you will use your birthday to generate a random color scheme with 5 colors and a setting for your artwork. In this tutorial, I will show you some tips, tricks, and a video tutorial of how I accomplish my own birthday prompt (a haunted house) using digital drawing tools. However, you can choose to use a different medium- like paint, markers, etc. to explore your own birthday prompt.
The prompt:
Monthly color scheme files:
Here is a closer look at the color schemes for each month with the color hex codes. You can download your image to use as your own reference. If you are working digitally, you can add your scheme as a layer and use the eyedropper tool to sample it.
Below is a free PDF presentation of all the 12 color schemes above.
Tips for getting started
Start by sketching some thumbnail sketches to plan out your composition. Thumbnail sketches are basically an artist’s version of a rough draft. Explore a few different compositions. Get some inspiration by looking at some landscape photography, and sketch away. Whether your random prompt is a beach or amusement park, a solid approach to begin is to define a FOREGROUND, MID GROUND and BACKGROUND. You may also want to include a focal point in your composition, like a creature or a character.
Here is my teacher sample. My birthday is March 30th and my prompt was ‘haunted house’ with a really cool color scheme of blue’s, bright yellow and gray. I created it using a free web-based digital drawing program, Kleki. I highly recommend this program for any beginner. However, any other program with layer capabilities would be great for this project.
Video tutorial showing my process:
Here are some tips on developing your limited color scheme artwork:
#1-Consider contrast
Analyze your color scheme and consider which colors are light and which are dark. Consider how you can employ CONTRAST in your composition by intentionally putting the lighter colors next to the darker colors.
#2- Color dominance
You may want to consider how you MUCH of each color will be used in your composition. Perhaps one color is more dominant and the other colors are just accents.
#3- Organize your layers
I’m a huge fan of organizing and naming layers as you work. I recommend using this basic set up below. You can add additional layers that suit you.
#4- If working digital, use the eyedropper tool!
The eye dropper tool is a tool every digital artist should employ. I promise it will make your life easier! Simply upload the color scheme into your digital canvas as a layer. I usually place this in a non-discreet corner. You can use it as a little palette to grab your colors as you go.
#5-Consider omitting black and white
I highly recommend ONLY using the 5 colors given. Many artists are tempted to include white and black because we are kind of trained to use these colors for outlines. However, creating outlines with one of your 5 colors instead can do wonders for making your work more visually interesting.
I hope you feel inspired and ready to create. I would love to see your finished work! Feel free to post on instagram at #birthdayCOLORchallenge or send me a picture of your work at makeamarkstudios@gmail.com if you’d like to have it featured here.
-Stephanie Villiotis