Limited Colour Palettes are one of my favourite ways to bring balance and harmony into a design. If you’re anything like me and just a little bit obsessed with colour palettes, you’re going to love this tutorial!
In this post, I’ll show you how I take my big Procreate colour palettes and use Adobe Illustrator’s Recolour Artwork tool to create fun, limited colour combinations. It’s a quick and inspiring way to discover fresh new palettes from colours you already love.
Step 1: Collecting Colours
I kind of collect colours wherever I go! When I stumble across a colour I love, I add it to a palette in Procreate — but you could do this in any app that lets you save or sample colours.
Most of my Procreate palettes end up with the full 30 colours, which is way more than I’d ever use in a single design. Personally, I find that my favourite patterns work best with around 4–6 main colours, which is where creating limited colour palettes comes in handy!
Step 2: Bringing Your Colours Into Illustrator
Start by exporting a JPG or PNG image of your Procreate palette. This could be a simple screenshot or even just scribbles of colour on a blank canvas.
Open the image in Adobe Illustrator and go to the Image Trace panel.
Here’s what to do:
- Set the Mode to Colour
- Change the Palette to Limited
- Set the Number of Colours to however many are in your image (for example, 30)
- Optional: Open Advanced and check Ignore White if your image has a white background
Then hit Trace.
💡 Tip: Image Trace isn’t perfect — sometimes colours that are very close in tone will merge together. If that happens, bring your original image back in and use the eyedropper tool to pick your exact colours manually. But most of the time, Image Trace is a quick and easy shortcut!
Step 3: Making a Colour Group
Once you’re happy with the trace, click Expand.
Double-click into the group and delete any leftover white shapes and any other colours that you don’t want to include. Then double click out of the group again, select your traced artwork, and add it as a New Colour Group in your Swatches panel.
Now you’ve got all your favourite hues neatly stored and ready to remix into limited colour palettes.
Step 4: Using Recolour Artwork to Generate New Palettes
Now for the fun part!
Draw a few rectangles — one for each colour in your limited palette. I usually go with five, but you can choose however many you like.
Fill them with any random colours (they must all be different), group them, and click the Recolour Artwork tool.
In the Recolour Artwork panel:
- Click Advanced Options
- Select your big colour group
- Make sure Recolour Art is checked
- Click the little shuffle icon to shuffle through random combinations! (see the video for more info!)
You’ll instantly see brand new limitedpalettes appear — all made from your own colours.
When you find a combination you love, take a screenshot! This method is such a fun and inspiring way to discover new limited colour palettes that feel cohesive and unique.
Not every mix will be perfect (some will be… useless 😅), but you’ll definitely stumble upon some beautiful surprises!
Step 5: Bringing It Back to Procreate
Once you’ve found your favourites, open your screenshots in Procreate and use the Colour Picker to add each new palette to your swatches for using in future patterns.
That’s it! You now have a whole collection of curated, limited colour palettes — all built from colours you already love.
Want More Colour Inspiration?
If you’re as obsessed with colour palettes as I am, you’ll love exploring my other colour-related tutorials and resources.
✨ Check out my colour palette videos on YouTube, and if you’d like to get seasonal Procreate palettes delivered straight to your inbox every month, you’ll love The Pattern Maker’s Toolkit — it’s full of creative tools and resources for surface pattern designers.
Happy colouring! 🎨🌸
