Japanese Colour Combinations

I found a small and beautiful Japanese book ‘dictionary of colour combinations’ in a small shop in Bristol.

Since then, I have been exploring making illustrations while being strict with sticking to the two, three or four tones in the colour combinations.

Bird Tower

colour combination no. 134
eosine pink, light mauve & red violet

Keeping the birds of the tower in good order and good health is hard but rewarding work for the bird guardian.

I plan to do a series of comics using this technique soon!

colour combination no. 255
calamine blue, black, pyrite yellow & raw sienna

The moths are benevolent, they’ll show the way.

See below for some of the other colour combinations I have been working with and the worlds created with each one.

Treetop Pond Lesson / colour combination no. 230, grenadine pink, turquoise green & cobalt green
Bird Tower / colour combination no. 134, eosine pink, light mauve & red violet
Moth Guardian / colour combination no. 255, calamine blue, black, pyrite yellow & raw sienna
Wolf Potion / colour combination no. 33, raw sienna & slate
Twilight Sea View / colour combination no. 227, cerulian blue, light glaucous blue & hermosa pink
Pallas Palace Cats / colour combination no. 35, carmine red & light brown drab
Dragon Forest / colour combination no. 155, benzol green, jasper red & deep indigo
Coffee Magic / colour combination no. 147, turquoise green, vandyke red & spinel red