Fleet of Space Ships
Picture Frame
Using a Single Colour to Create Posters
Sometimes less is more and a small palette of well chosen colors can often be very effective.
Too many colours can often make a picture look busy or cluttered, particularly if they are strong or clash with one another.
The canvas on the left was completed using only a single additional colour, orange.
This was used sparingly together with lots of areas of black and white to give a balanced look and feel to the final result.
The orange contrasts nicely with both the black and the white areas in the picture and the final picture is interesting without being cluttered.
The picture on the right was made in the same way but by using dark green rather than orange as the single colour.
As you can see, you don't necessarily need to use lots of bright, bold, colours to make a picture stand out.
This technique works best with images that have large areas of black and white to complement your chosen colour. If you want to try it for yourself, it's best to try to ensure that you have roughly equal proportions of black and white together with your main colour so that the final result looks balanced.
Taking Things a Step Further
Of course, you don't have to stop there.
You could easily add one or two more colours to take things a stage further. Remember to keep the number of colours to a minimum, though, for this technique to work best.
The picture on the left was made using only three colours, light blue, brown and purple.
As you can see, these colours complement each other nicely and also work well against both the black and the white areas.
Try to make sure that you have roughly equal proportions of each colour so that your picture doesn't look unbalanced and also try to select combinations of colours that work well, both together, and with the black and white canvas.
