Nature and Material Palettes, With a Prompt Each

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Nature and material

Palettes taken from landscapes and materials, with the words for each.

A natural palette is already agreed. Nobody has to be told what a desert looks like, so the colours arrive with their own weather, their own light and their own temperature, and a picture built on one of them reads as a place rather than as a colour choice. These twelve are taken from things that exist: six landscapes and six materials. Each one lists the colours the real thing has, and the wording that gets those colours out of a model without getting a photograph of the thing itself.

Landscape

6

Six places, and the colours the light in them produces. Each one carries its own temperature, so the palette sets the weather before anything is drawn.

Desert Sand: Pale sand and warm clay, held down by grey green scrub and a bleached sky.
Desert Sand
Pale sand and warm clay, held down by grey green scrub and a bleached sky.
Deep Ocean: Near black to teal in one long climb, with a single pale foam note at the top.
Deep Ocean
Near black to teal in one long climb, with a single pale foam note at the top.
Autumn Woodland: Dark bark under russet, amber and gold, with one olive green left over from summer.
Autumn Woodland
Dark bark under russet, amber and gold, with one olive green left over from summer.
Spring Meadow: Four greens climbing from pale to deep, with a buttercup yellow and a clover pink in them.
Spring Meadow
Four greens climbing from pale to deep, with a buttercup yellow and a clover pink in them.
Alpine Snow: White to slate in five cool steps, with the weight held at the light end.
Alpine Snow
White to slate in five cool steps, with the weight held at the light end.
Volcanic Basalt: Four steps of black rock and ash, lit by one ember red and one sulphur gold.
Volcanic Basalt
Four steps of black rock and ash, lit by one ember red and one sulphur gold.

Material

6

Six substances, and the colours they have before anybody paints them. A material palette carries an age and a surface as well as a set of colours.

Concrete and Moss: Four warm greys with two greens growing out of the damp ones.
Concrete and Moss
Four warm greys with two greens growing out of the damp ones.
Terracotta: One clay colour at six depths, from raw slip to a hard fired brown.
Terracotta
One clay colour at six depths, from raw slip to a hard fired brown.
Sea Glass: Frosted greens and a soft blue, with one amber and a chalky off white.
Sea Glass
Frosted greens and a soft blue, with one amber and a chalky off white.
Verdigris: Four patina greens over the bare bronze and brass they came from.
Verdigris
Four patina greens over the bare bronze and brass they came from.
Raw Linen: Six undyed fibre tones, from bleached flax to a dark unwashed brown.
Raw Linen
Six undyed fibre tones, from bleached flax to a dark unwashed brown.
Brass and Walnut: Dark wood climbing into warm metal, with one cream to lift it.
Brass and Walnut
Dark wood climbing into warm metal, with one cream to lift it.

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Other palette groups

Colour harmonyThe ways to choose a set of colours, and the wording that gets each one.10 harmony schemesPeriod palettesThe sets of colours that date a picture, and the wording for each one.15 period palettesScreen palettesThe palettes from film and television, and the wording for each one.12 screen palettesFunctional palettesPalettes chosen to do a job, with the real numbers behind them.10 functional palettes
Print stylesDesigning the whole poster rather than choosing its colours? The same reference, for ink on paper.

A set of colours taken from a real place or a real material, rather than from a rule on the colour wheel. Everybody already agrees what a desert or a piece of concrete looks like, so the palette arrives with its own light and its own temperature.