How to Start a Painting (Part II)

For abstract art, colors and composition are the two most important elements, in my opinion. Without realistic shapes, artists have to rely on colors and composition to express themselves.

What Colors to Choose?

There are many ways to pick colors for a painting. I have developed a simple way for my digital art painting that is easy to use, and the finished painting has a cohesive color scheme.

I start with a digital reference photo, described in my last post, I then load the picture into a blank Procreate canvas using the “Input a Photo” method.

Next, I create a blank color palette in Procreate. Using the color picker, I build a palette of the colors in the picture. Usually, I pick two colors in dark tones, two colors in middle tones, and one color in a light tone. I always include white as well. I start the painting using colors from this palette. 

During the painting, I would use the color picker to pick colors from the canvas. It gives me colors that are mixtures of colors in the palette, and they are compatible with the other colors in the painting.

If I need contrast I would use black or white. However I rarely use black directly, instead, I pick the darkest dark in the canvas and use that as my black color.

How do you decide what colors to use? Please let me know in the comment section below.