The color palette decision process I use has evolved into a system that consistently produces harmonious results, so I want to share it.

I start by picking a dominant mid-tone color — the most common color in the scene. For a forest environment this might be a desaturated green-grey. For a sunset cityscape, a warm amber.

Then I pick the key light color. This is almost always a higher-chroma, slightly warmer version of the scene light source. Direct sunlight gets warm yellow-orange. Overcast gets cool blue-grey.

Then I pick the shadow fill color. This is almost always on the complementary side of the dominant tone. Warm light scenes get cool blue-purple shadows. Cool light scenes get warm amber-brown shadows.

Finally, I pick one accent color that appears sparingly — usually on the focal point or character. This is the only 'surprising' color in the palette. Everything else is predictable from the logic above.

Four color decisions, all logically connected. The paintings look unified because the palette was unified before I started.