Design Basics
Simple Grids for Posters and One-Page Layouts
How to set a simple column grid, align type and images to it, and stop a one-page layout drifting.
Design Basics
The Rule of Thirds, and When to Break It
How the rule of thirds places a subject calmly, and the pictures and pages that are stronger when you ignore it.
Colour Theory
A Checklist for Judging a Colour Study
A short checklist for looking at a colour study honestly, from value and temperature to the mixes you cannot explain.
Colour Theory
Earth Pigments: Ochre, Umber and Sienna
How yellow ochre, the siennas and the umbers behave in mixtures, and where they help a palette stay calm.
Colour Theory
Primaries on the Palette, Not the Wheel
Why the primaries in a paint box lean warm or cool, and how that bias decides which mixtures stay clean.
Colour Theory
Tints, Shades and Tones: Three Different Changes
The difference between a tint, a shade and a tone, and how each change alters a colour in a different way.
Colour Theory
Mixing Skin Tones from a Small Palette
How to mix observed skin colour from a few tubes, without a single recipe that pretends every person is the same.
Colour Theory
Shadow Colour: Studio Temperature Mistakes
Common shadow-colour habits that flatten a picture, and a calmer way to judge temperature, value and bounce light.
Colour Theory
Analogous Colours: Harmony in a Narrow Band
How neighbouring hues make a calm picture, and how value plus one small accent keep that harmony from going flat.
Colour Theory
Value First: Why a Grey Study Saves the Painting
Why a small grey study reveals the drawing before hue gets involved, and how to carry those tones into colour.
Colour Theory
A Three-Colour Palette You Can Finish
How to choose three parent colours, mix a full small picture from them, and resist the tube that would break the set.
Colour Theory
Split Complements: Contrast with Less Noise
How split complements give you contrast with less glare, and how to keep the three hues from cancelling out.