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Someone told me my colors were too safe and it clicked
I posted a fantasy landscape here last month and a comment said my palette looked like 'default Photoshop swatches'. Ouch, but they were right. I was using the same 6 colors for everything. For my last piece, I forced myself to pick a main color from a photo of a sunset in Tucson, then built the whole scheme from that. It took 3 tries to get it feeling right, but the final image has way more mood. Has anyone else gotten a piece of feedback that made you change a basic habit?
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milestaylor2d agoTop Commenter
That "default Photoshop swatches" line is brutal but useful. It's not about having a limited palette, it's about having a predictable one. You can master six colors, but if they're the same six blues and browns everyone uses for fantasy, it just blends in. The Tucson sunset thing works because it forces a new starting point, a different kind of limited set. It's the difference between choosing "forest green" and choosing the weird yellow-green from a specific moss photo.
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the_pat3d ago
Disagree about safe colors being a problem. A limited palette can be a strong style choice, not a lack of skill. Some of the best work comes from mastering a few colors really well.
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