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Feed Me: Using Color to Add Emotional Impact to a Photograph
Have you ever taken a picture that was good, but seemed to lack something. In this video tutorial Julieanne Kost discusses how the addition of color as well as supporting imagery can help reinforce the mood and message of a composite image that a single photograph may fail to do on it’s own.
Changing the Color of Elements
There are many ways to change the colors of your elements to match other items or even photos in your layouts, these are just a few of my personal first choices.
For Mono-colored Elements
So you have this wonderful translucent or semitransparent brushwork or mask you want to include in your layout, but the color is not what you want. I use two options depending on the element itself.
Option 1
1. Bring your objects into your layout so you can see them both.
2. Select the layer of the element you want to change the color.
3. From the top menu: EDIT>FILL (Shift F5)
4. From Contents use the drop down menu to Color.
5. Using the eyedropper that now pops up with the Choose a color dialog box, choose the color you want from your layout.
6. Make sure Preserve Transparency box is checked.
7. Opacity can be anything and will depend on the object being recolored. The higher the %, the more of the color will show.
8. Click OK in the Color dialog box.
9. Click OK in the Fill dialog box.
10. If you want to try a different color, Undo (Ctrl/Cmd Z) and repeat above steps.
NOTE: I highly suggest you play with the opacity setting to see how it reacts with the object you are recoloring. I normally choose between 50–100%.
For Mono-colored Elements with light and dark areas of color
If you notice, my original paint splatter has a lighter color of the paint with the darker of the color for the grid lines. I want to retain that look and not completely fill all one color shade as with the first option.
Option 2
1. Bring your objects into your layout so you can see them both.
2. Select the layer of the element you want to change the color.
3. Double click on the layer to open your Layer Style dialog box or click the Fx button at the bottom of the Layers Panel.
4. Click on and check the box for Color Overlay.
5. Make sure the Preview check box is checked so you can see your results as you adjust.
6. Click on the small colored box to change the color.
7. Choose your color with the eyedropper when the Select overlay color box pops up from your layout, Click OK.
8. Change the Blend mode with the pull down menu and click OK.
You will get many different looks with different blend modes and you can also change the opacity here too. The only way to learn these is to try different ones and note how they will react with your particular element. Most of the time I use Color as a blending mode, but when you have a very light color in your element, it can produce results I don’t like. I simply cycle through the Blend Modes to see which option I like the best for my layout.
As an additional option, you can also adjust the Layer’s Opacity and Fill.
Just a few of the Blend Mode options shown for example. I used the red from the paper in the layout to show how these react.
Changing the Layer’s Opacity or Fill adjustment examples. I used the color burn blending mode here.
Here is my final layout.
Credits:
All items from Beautiful Mess 8 and the Paint & Grid splatter from Beautiful Mess 7
Want to see a video showing how to recolor another way too?
You can find it on my blog here at “How to Recolor Multiple Colors on a Single Element.”
Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and can’t wait to see your layouts applying your new-found skills.
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Tutorial: Changing the Color of Elements
Eyedropper Color Sampling in Illustrator
A fellow artist introduced me to a blog called Design Seeds where visitors are treated to a steady stream of inspiring color palettes. Each palette is “packaged” beautifully by designer Jessica Colaluca with photography and a row of color chips.
When you find such inspiring color in your online travels, you want to bring it along with you into Adobe Illustrator and let it enliven your work. In Illustrator, though, you can hit a speed bump in the process. So, I have a simple tip for those who want to sample color from pixel based images like jpeg and png files. (more…)
Trend Watch: Summer 2011
Half of the United States may be in the grip of a heat wave, but here in the Pacific Northwest, summer has just arrived. Whether you’re sweltering through 100-degree days, finally enjoying some long-delayed sunshine, or in the midst of a Southern Hemisphere winter, you’ll be tempted by these easy, breezy, summery trends.