We are starting a video guide series for Creating on COLOURlovers. It will include tutorials, community tips and the overall in and out of being a member here in the community. I look forward to emphasizing the creation tools we have available to us and am adding many tips and tricks to each tutorial to get the best out of these controls.
The community itself has gathered together to create an Un-Official FAQ Group: Sharing the Love. This is a highly organized section of FAQ’s, tips and Q&A for all things COLOURloving here on the site. Keep in mind, it was opened and has been managed since 2007, so some information might be a tad out of date, but overall, it looks to be fairly on track with the current tools.
COMING SOON! In addition to the video tutorials I am working hard to compile the Unofficial FAQ Group in to a downloadable PDF (and I will publish it with iBooks). I do not have an ETA at this point in time.
It is my hope that this downloadable guide will broaden the creative skills some of the members want and need and open up doors for quicker creating when we get new members. The FAQ Group was really well put together by some very dedicated COLOURlovers Members and highly organized, giving me a great base to work with. I am working to add extra visuals, diagrams, a linkable chapter head and index and the PDF will also allow searchable content. All sources and authors will be attributed in the final copy. The cover art is not final.
Please enjoy this first Creating on COLOURlovers video covering the BASIC PALETTE MAKER. Click the link and follow along!
In the video, I go over in detail, how exactly each part is essential to Color Mixing:
- HEX code (not only what this is, but how to use it to gauge your color purity)
- What is RGB (Red, Green and Blue)?
- What is HSV (Hue, Saturation and Value) – This will be your most impactful piece of color mixing, get some basic tips on using these!
- The Large Color Mixer (big square) – How to control your use with picking colors.
Learning about these essential features and how to control your use with them will ideally make your palettes more beautiful, and you should feel more confident about this. While perusing the palettes on COLOURlovers you will definitely notice a dramatic difference in those who create really outstanding palettes versus those who don’t seem to have a rhyme or reason to it.
Get some great Palette Inspiration from some COLOURlovers Members:
I want to first highlight COLOURlover’s member, ellona (Color lovin’ since December 14, 2013) for some excellent palettes using the Basic Palette Maker. Here is a small selection of fabulous work. Once you understand the Color Mixer, you can create like this:
More terrific palette makers:
- Praxicalidocious
- WinterLover
- WordofMouse
- Sife
- Any Palacios
- Seahorse Girl
- Skyblue2u
- katpark211
- Tabitha Moon
- sec9586
- faith4faith
- soniapbgomes
- kotomi-chan
- impossible–
- Eleonorezi
- PalettePrince
Get some inspiration on style and color usage through their palette galleries. Some have been here a long time, some only a couple years down to a couple months. I simply chose a variety of members with a broad sense of palette making skill.
If you want more information on Hex (hexadecimal) HTML code, go here.
A quick diagram: The Basic Palette Maker on COLOURlovers is made up of three sections: The Art Board, The Color Mixers (aka the Laboratory) and the Palette Details.
I think the biggest misconception to using the Basic Palette Maker is that you might feel limited to making beautiful content, however, listen and watch through the section of the video on the Color Mixers and learn how to be more advanced in using these tools. Using this tool is like taking a preliminary art class, while you might want to rush through it, it is essential to understanding the color mixing panel.
Remember, you can currently rely on much more information on this section here in the Un-Official FAQ Group: Sharing the Love. Please bear in mind, this groups was opened up in the year, 2007. This means that some of the FAQ and tutorial items may not be 100% up-to-date with the creation tool you’re looking at. While I will be updating the PDF Guide to reflect what is current here in 2015, this is a great starting point. Many members have been very happy to help with detailed questions as well.
Remember this COLOURlovers Community Book?
A Book of Color Inspirations: 3,000 Innovative Palettes from the COLOURlovers Community