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Nancy OShea
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 26, 2025
Question

TIP: Harmonizing Colors in Artwork

  • June 26, 2025
  • 0 replies
  • 94 views

When you need a pleasing color pallet and don't know where to begin, this old painter's trick can come to your rescue. It's a simple method for creating color harmony that works equally well in digital or tangible artwork.  Here's how it works: 

  • Pick any random paint colors and combine in swatch layers to form a 'mother' base color.
  • I layered 3 color swatches each at 33% opacity. For 5 colors swatches, use 20% opacity, and so on... 
  • The value in the middle where all swatches overlap is the 'mother' of all your colors. 
  • When 'mother' is added to primary colors, voila!  Instant color harmony.

 

It's a foolproof way to create harmonizing colors without a lot of tedious guesswork.  I hope you'll give it a try.