Color Picker

Some of you know a little about color schemes. You may know that choosing colors that go well together, and compliment each other can go a long way toward giving your work a professional look and feel. This is because of the way we subconsciously percieve things. You may not outwardly realize it, but if colors don't go together, this can have a very negative impact on your art. Therefore, picking the right palette is very important in making your imagery look good. Ask any art or photography major.

Today, I set out to create something that would enable me to quickly choose colors that go well together. The result is a PSD file I can call up from within photoshop, and quickly get two complimentary colors, each in several different shades. I just have to change the color of one fill layer, and bam! I have a nice base palette to work with. Then all I have to do is pick a color, and go.

Here are some results so you can see what I'm talking about:

• Click here for the .psd. [PhotoShop 7 and CS Image: 142kb]

Also, this site has a very good web-based version which may help you all to understand the concept a little bit more.

Basically, any color directly across from (opposite) another color will compliment it. Shades within those colors will also go well together. It gets more complicated than this, but basically, that's the underlying principal. I hope you find this information useful.

If you're going to use my psd file, all you have to do is change the color of the second fill layer. The first merely exists for the purpose of negating that color, so leave it set to white.

Have fun!

February 21, 2005
Last Updated: March 6, 2005