How to use color harmony and color palettes

[ollamehyo]

Helloooo,

so I just watched one of Marc Brunet's Videos about how to pic colors and there is something that confuses me.

I have a problem when using color harmony. I take this drawing in the video as an example. We have yellow, red and blue as our color harmony and sure those colors suit each other. But to stick to the harmonies do I really have to use just yellow tones for that one girl? What if in the original design she wears blue underwears, her skintone is actually more red and she has purple shoes? What if the red girl has blond hair instead of red hair like her skin, it will collide with the yellow tone of the yellow girl.
So my problem is always how can I keep the original different colors but still maintain the color harmony so they won't mess everything up and the whole picture is still harmonic?

I had that problem in my own drawing. I also used the triad color harmony red, blue and yellow.
Therefore to keep the color harmony I was just allowed to use red tones for my girl and blue for the villain and the background was just yellow. But I wanted my OC to have blue hair or different colors on her clothes. I wanted to use more colors for the background. But If I use to many colors the color harmony will collapse.

If someone can help me I would really appreciate it.
Thank you in advance :DDD

[zegalur]

So my problem is always how can I keep the original different colors but still maintain the color harmony so they won't mess everything up and the whole picture is still harmonic?

Color has three components: value, hue, and saturation. Of these three, value is the most important one. Jiggle left-and-right from the color harmony of your choice, as long as values are not messed up. Color loves change. So slight saturation and hues variations are good things.

Therefore to keep the color harmony I was just allowed to use red tones for my girl and blue for the villain and the background was just yellow. But I wanted my OC to have blue hair or different colors on her clothes. I wanted to use more colors for the background.

No, no. Use any color you want, but keep overall color logic consistent. F.e. far objects are less saturated, shadows are colder/warmer etc. (maintaining good value structure is the main logic)

But If I use to many colors the color harmony will collapse.

If values are organized, it will never collapse. Also, keep in mind that the color harmony of the picture can be different from the character's color harmony from the character sheet.

[ollamehyo]

Wow that was really fast, thank you for answering me!
So I can use any color I want but I just have to keep the values and saturation stable, right?

I tried to decide the values for the picture. The foreground (my OC) is dark, the middle ground (villain) is mid value and the background is light.
Then I added the base color and set the layer to Overlay. In the picture, the Overlay layers are 100%. Here I added to every individual their personal color harmony.

Now I don't know how to go on...

• How can regulate or check the base color overlay layers, so that the values (dark, mid, light) stay the same? The villain is very bright, but I was unsure how much I should lower the opacity, is there a rule or a trick I can follow?

• How can I add the color harmony of the whole picture red, blue, yellow? Should I use a red color soft light layer on top of my OC?

Thank you in advance for anyone helping me ><

[zegalur]

So I can use any color I want but I just have to keep the values and saturation stable, right?

Yep. in general, this is what you should keep in mind in the first place. Although, in reality, it is trickier. Clean color is an emergent property. Color is perceived as clean, or not muddy, if drawing, values, temperature, texture and variety are all correct.

I tried to decide the values for the picture.

First of all, find some references!

Now I don't know how to go on...

It depends. Different artists have different approaches. Once you have established a good overall color, you can merge the layers (except lineart) for each big object in the image and start rendering.

[ollamehyo]

thank you very much for your advices, it helped me alot. I try to use more references