OC Colour Palette Generator
A colour for the hair, eyes, skin, main outfit, second outfit and accent of your character, each with the shadow and highlight to paint beside it. There is no AI here, nothing to sign up for, and nothing leaves your browser. Save the lot as a .gpl palette file for Krita, GIMP, Inkscape or Aseprite.
- No sign-up
- Runs in your browser
- No AI, no waiting
Neighbours on the colour wheel, so the character looks calm and put together.
- Hair
Amber
#ae9041
- Shadow
- #795029
- Highlight
- #cac780
- Eyes
Soft olive
#ccde8d
- Shadow
- #84c833
- Highlight
- #e9e9bb
- Skin
Very light ivory
#fbe7da
- Shadow
- #f16f57
- Highlight
- #fdf9f2
- Main outfit
Orange
#cb8571
- Shadow
- #a33637
- Highlight
- #dbbea6
- Second outfit
Soft gold
#dbdab2
- Shadow
- #b9a15b
- Highlight
- #e9e9d3
- Accent
Soft olive
#a8d773
- Shadow
- #56b52e
- Highlight
- #d5e3a8
The shadow is darker and moved towards blue; the highlight is lighter and moved towards yellow. Paint them beside the colour, not over it.
The same name always gives the same palette. A name stays on this page: links, files and images never include it.
How it works
- Pick a harmony (how the hues relate on the colour wheel) and a mood (how light and strong the colours are). Press New palette, or R, for a fresh set.
- Lock the swatches you want to keep, such as the hair, and roll again. Changing the harmony or the mood keeps whatever is locked. The circular arrow on a swatch rerolls just that one.
- Read the shadow and highlight under each colour: a darker, cooler shade and a lighter, warmer one to paint the form of the hair, the cloth or the face.
- Choose the skin range: natural tones from very light to very deep, any hue for a fantasy character, or leave skin out. Or type a name for a palette that is the same every time.
- Copy the hex codes, save a card as an image, download the .gpl file, copy a link or save the palette to your favourites.
A colour for each part, and its shading
Most palette sites give five colours with no idea what they are for. Here every colour has a job (hair, eyes, skin, two outfit colours and an accent) and brings a shadow and a highlight with it, so the sheet you take away is the one you paint from.
Choosing colours for a character
A character is easier to draw, and to recognise from across a page, when their colours are chosen as a set. Most good designs have one dominant colour, a second that supports it, and a small accent that the eye finds last. Here the hair and the main outfit tend to carry the weight, the second outfit is lighter and quieter, and the accent is the brightest thing in the picture.
Hair and eyes are the colours readers remember, so the generator treats them as a pair that follows the harmony you choose. Skin comes from a separate list, because skin does not follow the colour wheel the way a coat does, and the other colours are chosen without reference to it.
What the harmonies do
Analogous colours sit side by side on the wheel, such as teal, green and yellow-green. They blend easily and suit a character who should look calm or at home in their world. Complementary colours sit opposite each other, such as blue and orange, and give the strongest contrast: hair and eyes in opposing hues are noticed at once.
A triad spaces three hues evenly, which is lively and hard to make dull. Split complementary takes one hue and the two beside its opposite, so you keep the contrast and lose some of the clash. Monochrome holds one hue and varies only how light and strong it is, which gives a restrained, very consistent character, and a good place to add a single bright accent yourself.
What the moods do
Mood sets how strong and how light the colours are, whatever the harmony. Soft sits in the middle with gentle saturation. Bold turns the strength up for a poster-bright character. Dark pulls everything towards the shadows, which suits a villain, a night scene or a quiet rogue.
Earthy keeps the base hue to the warm end of the wheel, among browns, ambers, olives and greens, and mutes the strength. Pastel is pale and light, and works well for a gentle character or a light-hearted comic. Try the same harmony in two moods: it is often the quickest way to see what a design needs.
Shadow and highlight, and why the hue shifts
If you shade a colour by only making it darker, it goes grey and flat. Painters have long moved the hue as well: shadows drift towards blue and violet, and lit areas towards yellow and orange. It mimics how light behaves in a room, where the light is warm and the shadow picks up the cooler colour of the sky.
Every swatch here comes with both. The shadow is darker with its hue nudged towards blue; the highlight is lighter with its hue nudged towards yellow. The nudge is small and always takes the short way round the wheel, so a red shadow turns towards magenta rather than passing through green. Use them as your second and third tones for each part, and add a darker one of your own for the deepest folds.
Skin: a range, not a default
Natural skin comes from ten tones, from very light to very deep, each named plainly: very light ivory, golden brown, deep brown. The generator picks one of the ten with equal chance, so no tone is the usual one and the page does not treat any as the default.
The skin row can be turned off if your character is not a person or you want to choose it yourself. Switch it to any hue for a fantasy character, such as a green orc, a blue spirit or a lilac fairy, and the colour is then drawn from the mood like the rest. Hair, eyes and clothes do not depend on the skin, so changing it leaves them as they are.
A palette from a name
Type a name and the palette is made from it: the same name gives the same palette every time, on any device. Capitals, extra spaces and emoji make no difference, so “Mira” and “ mira ” agree. It is a handy way to give each character in a cast a colour set that stays the same without saving anything.
The name stays in the box on this page and nowhere else. It is not put in a link, in a .gpl file, in an image or in your browser's storage. If you change the harmony or the mood the name still gives one palette for that choice, and locks do not apply while a name is in use.
Taking the palette into your art program
A .gpl file is a plain text palette that GIMP, Krita, Inkscape and Aseprite all open. It holds the six colours with their parts named, ready to use as swatches while you draw. In Krita, open the palette docker and import the file as a resource; in GIMP, put it in your palettes folder, and in Aseprite choose the option to load a palette from a file.
The hex list is what you paste into a document or a chat, and the image is a card of swatches with names and codes for a reference board. The shadow and highlight codes are in the list and on the card, so a collaborator can paint the same shading.
Links that hold the colours themselves
A palette link contains the colours as hex codes, with the harmony and the mood, and nothing else. Because it holds the colours rather than a seed, it opens the same swatches even if we change how palettes are made. The Random OC Generator uses the same kind of link for its “Shade this palette” button, so a colour scheme from a drawing prompt can be turned into a full palette.
Favourites are kept the same way, as colours only, in this browser. Clear removes them.
Example palettes
AnalogousSoft
- Hairblue #5388b8
- Eyesindigo #5b5ece
- Skinlight beige #ecc3a1
- Main outfitturquoise #7dbebc
- Second outfitpale blue #bbc3d8
- Accentsoft indigo #9481d5
Neighbours on the colour wheel, so the character looks calm and put together.
ComplementaryBold
- Hairdark green #509714
- Eyesviolet #8a02ff
- Skinlight beige #ecc3a1
- Main outfitgreen #44d91b
- Second outfitviolet #ba1ee5
- Accentolive #b0ed19
Hair and eyes on opposite sides of the wheel, for a strong, clear contrast.
TriadPastel
- Hairsoft plum #e370c2
- Eyespale olive #dff4ad
- Skindeep brown #6e442b
- Main outfitpale turquoise #bedbe7
- Second outfitpale rose #f5d8e5
- Accentpale green #d3f1b8
Three hues spaced evenly round the wheel: lively, and hard to make look dull.
Split complementaryEarthy
- Hairdark green #2e6a29
- Eyesdark violet #452d64
- Skingolden brown #c28a5e
- Main outfitdark rose #6e3a58
- Second outfitstone grey #9b82a7
- Accentgreen #34bd6f
One hue against the two beside its opposite: contrast with less clash.
MonochromeDark
- Hairdeep red #381d19
- Eyesdeep red #4d1811
- Skinwarm tan #d29d73
- Main outfitdeep red #3b1a15
- Second outfitdark red #75423c
- Accentdeep red #68261d
One hue in many strengths and lightnesses: a quiet, very consistent character.
The skin range
These are the ten natural tones the generator chooses from, each as likely as the others. Turn the skin row to any hue for a fantasy character, or leave it out.
- very light ivory#fbe7da
- light peach#f3d3bd
- light beige#ecc3a1
- light olive#dfb28a
- warm tan#d29d73
- golden brown#c28a5e
- medium brown#a8744c
- warm brown#8f5d3c
- deep brown#6e442b
- very deep brown#4a2c1d
Questions
- Is the OC Colour Palette Generator free, and does it use AI?
- It costs nothing and no AI is involved. The colours are worked out in your browser from colour theory, so there is no account to make and nothing you type or make is sent to us.
- What are the shadow and highlight colours?
- For each colour, a darker one with its hue moved towards blue, and a lighter one with its hue moved towards yellow. Painters use them to shade a form so that it looks lit, rather than just dimmed.
- Which programs open the .gpl file?
- GIMP, Krita, Inkscape and Aseprite read it, and many other editors do too. It is a small text file with the six colours and their part names, one per line.
- How is the skin colour chosen?
- From ten tones, from very light to very deep, each with an equal chance. Switch to any hue for a fantasy character, or leave skin out of the palette.
- Can the same name give the same palette again?
- Yes. A name always gives the same palette for the same harmony, mood and skin setting, however it is typed. The name itself is never put in a link, a file or an image.
- Can I use the palettes for my characters, comics or games?
- Yes. Colours cannot be owned, and you can use, change and publish anything you make here without crediting us.
- What is kept in my browser?
- Only the palettes you save to your favourites, under one name in your browser's local storage, as colours. Clear removes them. The cookie policy lists it.
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