A wild color palette is all about daring—picture
punk rock. Though any palette must work aesthetically,
this palette attempts to gain attention with
unique combinations that shout, “Try to ignore
me!” Illustrator Andy Ward knows how to draw
attention; shift into high gear with his Beach Buggy
Devil featured below. His flaming red and violent
violet combination accented with powerful black
boldly burns up the page.
“I think escapism is a theme I use a lot in my
work,” says Ward, “whether it’s a character finding a
sense of freedom through physically escaping from
a situation on a motorbike, beach buggy, car, plane,
etc. or a form of escapism through music, dance or
self-expression.”
“My technique is essentially line flooded with
color. The palettes can be quite limited, focusing
on two or three dominant colors,” explains Ward.
“Color is the major part of my work; the lines just
help it behave. I tend to work to a knocked back or
muted, neutral background and use two or three colors
to enforce the narrative, composition or dynamic
of a piece. I rely a lot on how colors contrast, clash
and complement each other and help form a sense of
space in an image.”
Ward works almost entirely in Photoshop. “The
only elements I introduce that are not created in
Photoshop are the scanned textures I use for backgrounds,
post production or for brushes,” says Ward.
“If a job allows more time and budget, I still try to
hand paint or airbrush some elements that I can scan
and drop in.”
Ward’s wild work is varied—it’s featured on
clothing for Spanish fashion label Custo Barcelona,
and his animated short film La Vuelta del Super
Barrio was released on Warp Records (June 2006).
Call of the wild
Enter the sanitarium
with Wacko (crazy) at
www.1001freefonts.com. Romp with
Wild Monkeys (fun)
at www.fontface.com. And release
Wild Thing (free) and
Schizoid (Turbulent)
from their cages at
www.fonts.com.
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Pthhhhh
Lurking under that
angel with a tie image
is Dennis the Menace’s
duplicate incarnate.
Ornery is Wild’s
younger sibling—let
him out to play. Image
23590442, Brand X
Pictures
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Cut loose
Experience a free
or natural state of
existence for some
high-flying inspiration.
Image 23326214,
Brand X Pictures
(Free images at www.dynamicgraphics.com/downloads.)
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Silly season
Marked by outlandish
or illogical activity,
silly season fits right
in with outrageous
themes. Make some
real news with atypical
images. Image
22414151, Thinkstock
Images
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PALETTE: Wild
PALETTE: Combinations
