Tried a 64 color palette for my latest piece, ended up stripping it to 6

I was working on a fantasy landscape last month in Procreate and went crazy with a 64 color palette I found online. After 4 hours of layering, the whole thing looked muddy and flat, not vibrant like I wanted. So I deleted everything, picked 6 colors from the original sketch, and rebuilt it in about 90 minutes. The final version actually got more likes than anything I've done in 6 months. Has anyone else had better luck with super limited palettes over big ones?

2 comments

2 Comments

fox.derek1mo ago

Yeah I've had that happen too. Started a piece with like 30 colors and it was a mess, cut it down to 5 and suddenly everything popped. Less colors usually means more impact.

maryt621mo ago

Saw a video from a color theory guy once where he talked about why too many colors just turn into visual noise. Apparently the human brain can only really track 3-5 dominant colors at a time before it just gives up. fox.derek's experience totally matches that. Think about old movie posters or retro game covers. They used a tiny palette and those things are iconic. That 30 color piece probably looked like a clown threw up on it before the edit.