192: How to Create Beautiful Color Palettes

Today, I’m sharing how to create beautiful and cohesive color palettes—an essential skill for any surface pattern designer or creative. My favorite source of inspiration? Nature. Endless combinations await discovery all around us, from the hues in a sunrise to the intricate details of a flower.

Creating color palettes can be a joyful and intuitive process. I’ll guide you through my four-step method: observing colors in your environment, capturing inspiration through photography, extracting colors digitally, and refining your palette to ensure balance and harmony.

This approach brings depth and meaning to your work, transforming simple observations into palettes that feel authentic and connected to your creative voice. You’ll also learn tips for selecting tones, incorporating neutrals, and evoking emotion through color.

Finally, I’m excited to invite you to my free workshop, Your Pattern Design Playbook. This workshop, running through February 19th, will help you map out your first collection and explore ways to create income from your art.

Nature always has the perfect color palette—it’s our job to notice it.

Key Takeaways

• Nature provides endless inspiration for color palettes—simply observe and capture what catches your eye.
• Balance and harmony in a palette come from including a mix of light and dark tones, neutrals, and complementary colors.
• Digital tools like Adobe Capture, Procreate, and Illustrator make extracting and refining colors simple and fun.
• Designing from your own experiences and observations creates work with depth and meaning.
• Experimenting with color can be a calming and creative part of your design process.

Resources:

• Watch my free Illustrator tutorial on creating color palettes: Sign up for the Start Simple in Fabric Design class and watch Lesson 3: https://www.bonniechristine.com/startsimple 
• Explore Adobe Capture for extracting colors: Adobe Capture
• Join my free workshop, Your Pattern Design Playbook

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Review of the week: 

BONNIE IS THE BEST!!

I love hearing what Bonnie has to say, especially in her podcasts! Even though I'm a veteran in the design industry I learn so many new things from her. And she is so encouraging. When I feel discouraged, I listen to one of her podcasts and instantly feel energized and hopeful. She is so easy to listen to. I took her Immersion class last year and got tons out of it. In all the things she takes on, she does it with thoughtfulness, intention, and excellence. Go Bonnie!

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