Lately, I’ve had color studies on the brain. In the long run, I know that doing them before setting to work on a piece is a necessary step to take, especially when working in traditional media. But I always worry that over-thinking a piece, (which includes over-thinking the color study) leeches life and energy from my work. As a safe compromise, what I usually end up doing is just one quick color study, before setting to work. This can often tell me just as much about where I don’t want to go with the color, as where I do want to go with it.

One quick scribble can inform a lot. In terms of the color study part of the process, I don’t generally over-think them, because they’re not my favorite part. Quick color studies are, for me, like ‘eating your vegetables’ (although in real life, I do like vegetables… but the equivalent as a figure of speech!) I enjoy the immediacy of choosing colors on-the-fly, the thrill of having to ‘make it work’ if I need to quickly switch gears and revise a color choice that may not be working with the rest of the piece. Fun stuff! That is part of what I love about being an artist — that immediacy, the unknown, the ‘make it work’ aspect (sometimes against all odds)! But that’s the “color-rebel thrill-seeker” in me talking, and these days, that ‘thrill-seeker color rebel” only comes out to play when I’m working on non-client work. So, I still like to walk the tightrope, but I don’t do it without a net!

At the end of the day, one 5-minute color study can save hours of illustration “first aid”!