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Introduction

You want to see your favorite characters in all sorts of outfits, don't you? Especially Halloween costumes lately!

However, even if you put a cute costume on your favorite, it sometimes feels like the character's colors and the Halloween colors don't quite match. Like the colors are fighting each other...

 

In this article, to solve such problems, we'll introduce recommended color palettes that make your character's colors pop! We will explain them along with examples actually used in illustrations.

Also, for those with specific preferences like "I want to put a purple x orange costume on my blue character," we'll introduce color scheme concepts and hints!

 

Once you know how to choose colors, you won't be afraid to have your favorite character wear any costume!

 

Well then, let's get started.

Recommended Color Palettes: Favorite Character Color × Halloween Colors

There are various character colors, but here we will introduce recommended color palettes (color combinations) for major colors along with brief explanations. Each combination consists of a total of 3 colors: 1 main color + 2 colors chosen to give it a Halloween feel.

 

For the Halloween colors, we are assuming common choices like orange, purple, and black.

The three major Halloween colors

Also, these color palettes are meant to show "roughly this balance," and it doesn't mean it "absolutely must be this color scheme or these RGB values." Please use colors that fit your own art style, using the balance of "this much red" or "this much green" as a reference.

Of course, it's perfectly okay to pick colors from the palettes in this article with the eyedropper to draw your illustrations! It's also okay to adjust the picked colors to make them easier for you to use!

 

Regarding the examples, shadow colors were created on Multiply layers and highlights on Screen layers.

When the Character's Color is Red

Color Palette:

To make the main red stand out, I've paired it with a high-saturation, low-brightness purple and a slightly dull green.

 

Red × Green is a color scheme often seen in horror-themed designs like Halloween, and it might suit costumes like zombies or witches.

Example:

This is an example of actually applying the color scheme to an illustration.

 

Assuming a character with red hair and eyes, I've also scattered red on the inside of the hat brim, socks, and chest buttons. I also used red for highlights and line art. The background is mainly green and black, but I used an airbrush to dab on some red so the colors don't become monotonous.

 

On the other hand, green is used for the background, the pumpkin's eyes and mouth, and part of the clothing. The color scheme uses red for the main parts of the costume, with green for the background and accessories.

 

As for the purplish black, it is used for the background and most of the costume to tighten the colors of the drawing.

 

Rather than making the entire costume red just because the main color is red, you can make the red look more impressive by using other colors and applying red as an accent color.

When the Character's Color is Blue

Color Palette:

Since Halloween colors often consist of warm tones, combining them with blue seems to require a little ingenuity.

 

This time, I used pumpkin colors as accents and combined the main blue with a blueish navy to create a Halloween-like color scheme.

Example:

This is a similar color scheme pattern to the "Red" example, but this time I changed the highlights to yellow instead of the character's color. Because yellow was cuter... (If the highlights were blue, it might increase the horror/eerie feeling).

 

Since yellow highlights (Screen layer) are placed on top of the blue inside the hat brim, the colors blend to look like a light pink. I personally kept it because it was cute, but if you turn off the Screen layer here, the impression of blue would become stronger.

 

The background also looks greenish as the blue and yellow blend. Colors mixed from the two main colors often don't interfere with the illustration, so I left them as is. (Please read the TIPS section later for details)

Example 2:

An example where red is applied to the main lines. This also tightens the image and looks stylish.

Even if it's not a main color, using just a tiny bit of a vibrant color not in the palette can sometimes yield good effects.

 

In the case of this red, I think using it for the color of the staff or mushrooms would make the impression cluttered. When using colors outside the palette, especially vibrant ones, use them with the mindset of adding "a pinch of salt."

When the Character's Color is Yellow

Color Palette:

Yellow goes well with orange, a Halloween color. Bright, energetic, and cute color schemes suit it even for Halloween!

It's a combination of two vitamin colors and a low-brightness purple. I think it's well-balanced if the purple isn't too dark, leaving enough presence for it to be recognized as purple.

Example:

Since yellow and orange are in the same color family, combining them with a dark purple creates a bright illustration that looks like lights shining in the dark. It's a simple and easy-to-use color palette.

When the Character's Color is Green

Color Palette:

Speaking of green for Halloween, it's the zombie color. So, it's a green × purple color scheme. For the costume itself, besides zombies, cute designs like witches would also suit it. In any case, it's a color palette with a bit of a "villainous" image.

Example:

Just by making the highlights green, it created a suspicious atmosphere. Like they might be doing some slightly scary experiments. The background basically consists of black trees and green light, but as with the "Red" example, I applied purple with an airbrush.

When the Character's Color is Purple

Color Palette:

The ultimate classic Halloween colors! Purple is already part of the Halloween color set, so let's just combine it with black and orange! This color scheme might also work if the favorite character is orange.

Example:

While I say it's a classic, the ease of use of this color palette might be inferior to the "Yellow" palette.

When using this palette, it's good to adjust the amount of color used depending on whether the character's color is orange or purple. Since this was intended for a purple character, I used a lot of purple.

When the Character's Color is Pink

Color Palette:

Pink × Halloween colors might be unexpectedly difficult...

 

It's a slightly monotone combination of pink, light pink, and blueish black. It adds black to a Dreamcore or "Yume-kawa" (dreamy cute) impression.

Example:

In the example, I decided to go with a white costume. White isn't in the color palette, but colors like white, gray, and black that don't lean toward any specific hue are called achromatic colors. Because they are easy to combine with various colors, I used it to adjust the contrast (light and dark) of the illustration.

(Achromatic colors generally blend well when added to various other palettes, not just this pink one. If it doesn't seem to blend, try mixing in a little bit of the main color.)

 

Pure white felt a bit lonely, so besides black decorations, I used a white → pink → black gradient on the tip of the pointed hat as an accent.

 

I made the light on the ground and background a strong pink. Meanwhile, the outer edges use a gentle light pink to tone down the overall feel.

When the Character's Color is Orange

Color Palette:

Orange is the king of Halloween colors! Since I already introduced the classic purple × orange × black scheme in the "Purple" section, I added green because I wanted to create a bit more variation.

 

A scheme of orange × dull green × purplish black. Both orange and green are colors that can be used for pumpkins.

Example:

Gradients from orange to purplish black, and orange to green, are both stylish!

 

These are also autumn colors. This scheme has a stronger sense of autumn nature than the "Yellow" palette. It seems to suit illustrations where they are eating delicious natural blessings like roasted sweet potatoes.

When the Character's Color is Light Blue

Color Palette:

As expected, the combination of blue tones and Halloween colors is difficult...

It's a scheme of orange, light blue, and blueish black (blue tones). Since orange is inherently a vibrant color, the trick to making them blend might be to dull the light blue a little...

Example:

The orange × light blue gives a slightly sporty impression. I used orange for both the highlights (Screen) and shadows (Multiply). As light blue is quite strong, I tried to reduce the area of light blue while maintaining its essence (e.g., by putting orange shadows over light blue with Multiply to make it look greenish).

Example 2:

Since light blue goes well with brown, it might be cute to use brown instead of black. It's a chocolate mint color scheme.

When the Character's Color is Brown

Color Palette:

There are many mature characters with brown colors (personal bias).

 

By adding black to brown and orange of the same color family, it becomes a mature color scheme. The thinking behind the combination is similar to the pink color palette. However, it's much easier to handle than the pink palette.

Example:

Brown × Orange looks very autumn-like and cute. It's a color that suits both child and adult characters equally.

Being brown, it's great that it also goes well with depictions of typical Halloween chocolate treats and the like.

When the Character's Color is White or Black

Color Palette:

White and black are called achromatic colors and are convenient colors that are easy to combine with various other colors.

So, this time, to avoid spoiling the elegance of white and black, I combined orange based on white × black. The trick is to wrap everything in white and black and use orange just a little bit.

 

If the character's image color is black, as mentioned before, black is used in various color palettes, so any of the palettes introduced in this article are OK (*)! Above all, it's the most versatile color that's easiest to combine with various other colors among the Halloween colors.

 

*... Even if your character's color isn't black, feel free to use your favorite color palette in any situation. This note is just to emphasize that "black is easy to combine with any color," and it doesn't mean you can only use a specific color palette for characters of other colors. Just to be sure...

Example:

When painted in black and white, it gives a bit of a "strong character" vibe.

When using white and black as the main colors, lowering the saturation of the skin makes the orange stand out nicely.

Color Scheme Thinking TIPS & FAQ

How do I come up with color schemes myself?

For Beginners

In fact, there are pretty solid "better" combinations for colors. Like "this combination for an elegant image," "this combination for a pop image," etc.

Since candy packaging sold for Halloween uses Halloween-specific designs, it's also recommended to refer to those color schemes. The candy corner is the best place where you can easily and fully enjoy not just sweets, but package designs made by professionals.

For Intermediate Users and Above

If you want to think of color combinations yourself, the key is to choose colors while considering the following rules. (This is just one way of thinking when choosing colors; there are many other methods in the world.)

 

This time, I adopted a color selection method called a Triad.

Let's take a look at the color scheme for the character color: Red as a reference.

From a diagram called a color wheel like this...

I am choosing colors so that they form a triangle like this.

In the case above, the colors indicated are different from those on the color wheel, but this is the result of further changing the brightness from the colors on the color wheel.

It looks like this when you adjust only the brightness of each color on the color wheel.

In my case, I chose three colors with this balance:

• The first is the most prominent color, with high brightness and saturation.

• The second is a dull color with medium brightness and saturation.

• The third is a color with low brightness. I think it's better if the saturation is a little high.

There are also color schemes that don't follow this rule, like the black-and-white scheme at the end of the color palette introduction. Also, besides Triads, there are other methods like Tetrads, which involve choosing colors in a square instead of the triangle shown above.

The color scheme is fine, but what about skin tone?

In many cases, if a color falls within the Triad triangle described earlier, you can place it without interfering with each color. For skin tones, try to adjust the saturation and brightness so they fit within the triangle of the set color scheme.

 

However, sometimes you might run into a situation where "there is no skin tone inside the triangle I set!"

The color scheme for Character Color: Green does not include red or orange tones.

In such cases, keep the Tetrad in mind and turn the triangle into a square by adding a low-saturation red to the diagram.

In the color circle on Clip Studio Paint, I think if you create a skin tone within the range of the upper-left section (the part surrounded by the yellow dashed line) of the four divisions, it will harmonize well without interfering with other colors. (It might not work depending on the color palette... try your best to adjust it. This is where you show your skill!)

In fact, the example for the green color uses reddish colors.

 

In digital illustrations where gradients, color mixing, and layer effects are frequently used, I think it's more fun to draw by being flexible and adding colors based on what you feel is cute or cool, while still keeping techniques like Triads and Tetrads in mind.

I tried the color scheme, but it's too dark or too bright

When creating shadows with Multiply layers, black areas can sometimes become too dark.

 

As mentioned at the beginning, the color palettes introduced above are examples showing approximate hue, saturation, and brightness. I would appreciate it if you could adjust them to your liking, such as by increasing the brightness to make it lighter, depending on your art style and preference.

 

In particular, some people might have a specific color they are "not good at using," like black. In such cases, don't force yourself to use a color you're uncomfortable with; it's perfectly fine to replace it with another color that has a similar feel.

My favorite is blue, but I want orange to stand out – How to push the Halloween colors forward while keeping the character color subtle –

• The character's main color is blue, but I want to finish the illustration with orange or purple as the main colors.

• I want to fit multiple characters in the frame. There are characters with various main colors in the illustration.

In these cases, try to fit the color within the triangle (or square if it's difficult) created on the color wheel by lowering the saturation of each character's main color.

A Triad and Tetrad designed so that Halloween colors like orange, purple, and green stand out.

If you don't want to lower the saturation of blue-toned characters, the Tetrad on the left of the diagram might be good.

 

You might be able to guess from looking at the diagram, but if you try to make the three Halloween colors stand out, it's hard to make blue or pink tones the main focus. Especially in the triangular diagram, most of the blue and pink, except for those around purple, fall outside the triangle.

But don't worry. Black, a versatile color that goes with anything, is also frequently used in Halloween colors, so if you want to use highly saturated blue or pink, definitely make use of black. Even if you can't use orange, purple, or green well, as long as you have black, you can create a Halloween feel through pumpkin decorations and other elements on the screen.

Dark illustrations go perfectly with the Glow effect!

Themes like Halloween suit drawings with clear contrast between light and dark, so they work well with the Glow effect.

The Glow effect, which makes bright parts shine softly in the dark, was included as a new filter in Clip Studio Paint Ver. 3.0. Yay!

 

Even for those using the one-time purchase version or similar, many auto-actions that apply the Glow effect are distributed on the Assets store. It might be interesting to look for one that suits you.

Closing

I wrote this article because I thought the most troublesome part of drawing Halloween costume illustrations might be how to combine your favorite character's color with Halloween colors.

 

Triads and Tetrads in particular are techniques that can be applied to various situations beyond just Halloween, so if you didn't know them, please try to remember at least these terms.

 

Adobe, the developer of Photoshop and other software, has published a site that is perfect for the theme of this article. If you're lost on color selection, check it out.

https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel

 

Learning to narrow down your colors will make drawing even more fun. Yes, just like a puzzle...

Let's enjoy drawing. Thank you for reading until the end!

Assets used this time, etc.

The image materials of the self-made color wheel used in these TIPS are available on the Assets store.

The characters drawn as examples in this article appear in an original 4-panel manga series. It is currently available for free on Kindle.