The Making of Kooky Pets book. Chapter 6

One of the most important elements of consideration in picture books design are colors. Working with a color palette beforehand is one of the most practical things to do in any project where design is involved. On the contrary, half-way through the process, you might find a thread of annoying color clashes that will make your work inconsistent.

In this particular project, I already had a color range for all the main drawings since they were produced before I started working on the book. So I needed to set a concrete color palette for the pages and visual elements in a compromise with the work that was already produced.

When it comes to create color palettes the most important is always this: GO TO THE BASICS. Don’t add unnecessary color ranges and use what you have. I always start up by using the basic elements and materials that I already have in my hands in order to build up a chromatic range from there. In this particular case, the basic elements are paper and ink. As simple as that.

The background cream color that I’m using comes from the background paper texture that I’m using for all the pages of the book. I scanned this paper texture from old books of mine that I did myself many years ago when I learned how to make paper and bind books. Today, 20 years later, they have acquired a really nice color, kind of old, which kind of reminds me that I might be getting older too…

Anyway, as I have said in former posts, I don’t use visual elements from other people in my works. I like to produce all the elements myself and to use things that surround me in my personal life. Sometimes, I use objects that I pick up from my walks in the woods and photographs of textures that I take. This makes my work a real extension of my life and I’m sure that you can tell the difference when you see it. Some people has told me at seeing my work: “This smells just like Koldo”. And I wonder if I should be wearing a better deodorant…

The black ink color is the one that I’m using for all of the ornaments and text of the book. Now, there’s something important that I want to say about the use of black: There’s no such thing as “black”. It’s an illusion. BLACK DOESN’T EXIST.

Black is nothing but lack of light. It’s not possible for human people to perceive “total darkness” or “total black”. Hopefully! So, ever since I started oil painting as a kid, the Ivory Black tube was always unopened. I always had the feeling artificial black color adds an unnatural color vibration to the human eye just because we can’t find it in nature. In this case, the black color that I’m using for the book it’s a sample from the mixtures of the graphite pencil lines and colors in my Kooky Pets drawings. It was already there.

Now, you might think this sounds a little exaggerated but, from my experience, THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS. I’m not talking about little elements that you can hardly see, such as drawings and details. I’m talking about slight nuances that people may not spot but they’re definitely there and they change our perception of things. Important nuances can make things feel natural. When things look natural, it rolls. There is a friendly harmony in there, a feeling of authenticity. So when it comes to show yourself, don’t be afraid of giving out your true self and “avoid imitations”.

Now that we have the main colors, cream and black, I use a color scheme manager software to find complementary colors. Basically, I expand the palette range with harmonies. I usually play around with different suggestions from the software, then I build up my palette from there. Later, I always do some adjustments with the bare eye because I don’t like to work with 100% harmony. And here is the trick…

Just like Schönberg pioneered in music and Kandinsky did in art, working with dissonances is a way to tune in with the universe. It’s the same about symmetry. All the ornaments that I’m producing for the book look symmetric, don’t they? Well, they’re not. Complete symmetry feels awful and unnatural to me. I feel sick to my stomach when I see full symmetry. So I don’t mirror my geometric images so they look symmetrical. They’re all slightly different. When you look at it you might not notice it, but something inside of you does because it’s natural to your senses. And you just can’t fool your feelings, can you?

This week, the members of the Kooky Pets Team will receive a surprise from me. It has to do with an important step on the making of the book, so I’ll keep you all updated.