Muted Color Palette Collection

Download the set

A muted color palette is the fastest way to make a painting look considered: low saturation colors sit together without fighting and leave room for one accent at the focal point. This collection is the color half of the free brushes and resources library, twenty palettes built for value first painting. The download bundle is still being finalized; every palette is documented below.

What it is for

Muted color is easier to control than saturated color, and it flatters almost any subject. Each palette here is arranged from light to dark so you can see its value range at a glance, which makes it easy to build a painting value first and choose hues at the right value. Save your brightest, most saturated accent for the focal point and let these ranges carry the rest.

Tate's glossary defines a palette as both the mixing surface and the chosen range of colors for a work. This collection is the second sense, a restricted range decided before painting starts. A picture built from one eight swatch palette holds together in a way one built from a full color picker rarely does.

What is inside

The twenty palettes by family, their saturation and value character, and the subject each suits.

Palette family	Character	Use it for
Skin Warm Light, Mid, Deep	Peach to umber, saturation 15 to 35 percent	Warm undertone skin
Skin Cool Light, Mid, Deep	Rose to violet brown, saturation 12 to 30 percent	Cool undertone skin
Fabric Linen, Wool, Denim, Silk	Greyed hues, one cleaner mid	Clothing and drapery
Material Stone, Wood, Metal	Near neutral	Props, architecture, armor
Atmosphere Dawn, Dusk, Overcast, Night	Cool light end, warm or violet dark end	Backgrounds, depth
Neutral Grey Warm, Grey Cool	Saturation under 8 percent	Grounding, shadow mixing
Earth Ochre, Earth Umber	Yellow brown to red brown	Ground, hair, underpainting

Six skin, four fabric, three material, four atmospheric, two neutral and two earth make twenty. Every palette is eight value ordered swatches covering at least seven of ten greyscale steps, so a form turns fully inside one palette.

Settings that matter

A muted palette is defined by its saturation ceiling and its value spread; those two numbers matter more than hue. Digital color does not mix like paint, as the Krita Manual's page on mixing colors explains, so these palettes are built to be picked from, in-between values included.

How the palette families are built, in HSB terms, and how to keep them muted while you paint.

Family	Saturation ceiling	Value spread (0 to 100)	Hue drift light to dark	Keep it muted by
Skin	35 percent	25 to 92	Orange in light, red or violet in shadow	Never darkening with black
Fabric and material	25 percent	15 to 85	Toward the complement in shadow	Cleaner mid swatch on lit folds only
Atmosphere	30 percent	20 to 95	Warm to cool	Distance painted with the cool light end
Neutral and earth	8 to 20 percent	10 to 90	Almost none	Mixing shadows from these

A short workflow with this set

A character bust in an hour, in the order values before color.

Tips for getting the most from it

• Desaturate the palette to check its value spread before you paint with it.
• Pick one palette per piece and resist adding outside colors until the end.
• Use the cool swatches in shadows and the warm ones in light for instant unity.
• Add a single saturated accent by hand, placed where you want the eye to land.
• Pair a warm skin palette with a cool atmosphere palette, or the reverse; Tate's note on complementary colours explains why opposed pairs read as light and shadow.

Pairs well with

The palettes are value ordered so they drop straight into blocking with the painterly brush set, and they make calm flat fills behind line work from the ink and lineart brushes.

Common problems and fixes

Where muted palettes go wrong and the fix.

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
Painting looks dull and lifeless	No accent, or values too close	Widen the value range, then add one accent
Skin looks grey or dead	Shadows darkened with black	Pick shadows from the palette's deep end
Everything the same temperature	One palette for figure and setting	Warm skin, cool atmosphere, or the reverse
Wrong on a dark canvas	Started from the lightest swatch	Block from the mid

Muted color palette, in short

Choose one eight swatch palette, block the values in grey, replace each grey with the swatch at the same value, unify figure and setting with a warm and cool pair, and place one saturated accent by hand. That is how a muted color palette carries a whole painting without the colors fighting. For the layer stack above, see layer blend modes for shading.

How to install it

New to installing resource sets? The getting started guide to the brush sets walks through importing a set and choosing the right one for the job. For where these fit in a painting, see the digital painting fundamentals pillar, and browse the rest of the free brushes and resources library.

Sources and further reading

Primary references for the facts and definitions in this piece, all from independent publishers:

• Tate: Palette: the palette as both a surface and a chosen range of colors.
• Tate: Complementary colours: warm and cool pairs used for unity in light and shadow.
• Krita Manual: Mixing colors: how digital color mixing differs from paint.

Common questions

What is a muted color palette?

A set of colors with saturation typically under 35 percent in HSB terms, so no hue shouts. Muted colors are made by greying a hue toward its complement rather than adding black, and it still needs a full value range.

What skin tones work with muted colors?

All of them, because a muted skin palette is built from the undertone. Warm undertones use peach to umber; cool undertones use rose to violet brown. The six skin palettes cover both at three depths, shadows leaning red or violet.

What colors go well with muted tones?

Other muted tones from the complementary family, plus one saturated accent. Warm muted skin against a cool muted background reads as light and shadow; one clean red or teal on the focal point carries the picture.

Are these desaturated color palettes for digital painting only?

They are built for digital work, where colors are picked rather than mixed, but the value ordered swatches work as mixing targets in gouache too. The files are being finalized for release.