here's something i've been meaning to make a post about for, oh, like five years now:
QUANTUM BREAK COLOR PALETTES!
specifically, i wanna talk about how i associate color palettes with characters and their narratives, and what better example is there than quantum break? (i've drawn these character so much, lmao)
first, let's talk about MONARCH.
(look, i even made some fun little graphics!)
anyway, as you can see here, monarch has actual color branding. according to The Secret History Of Time Travel (the behind-the-scenes, making-of book about quantum break), remedy hired a company that designs branding for actual irl companies to do this. the color hexes i have listed in that first group of four squares are taken straight from the book.
the main color that i focus on when picking colors for characters from monarch is the yellowy orange. even if i don't use that color, i want monarch characters to have colors that contrast nicely with it. the bluish grey from the official branding contrasts with it in a very subtle way, but because monarch is very modern and sleek and futuristic, i prefer to pick greys that are even cooler toned than the official ones, and thus increase that contrast. I have some examples in the second set of squares, with greys that are slightly more in the range of deep blues and purples.
(when drawing paul specifically, i tend to lean pretty heavy on the purpley greys, because i like the way they contrast with the warmer blues i use for jack, hehe. i also just think that bluish purples work well with the way i draw paul: usually quite pale and unwell-looking.)
hatch's colors are also very cool-toned, so if you wanted to play around with color symbolism, you could yoink some deeper purpley greys from the same range as his colors and use those as your contrast grey against the monarch yellow. i feel like this would work especially well the further along in the story you get, as paul falls apart and hatch's influence on monarch becomes more apparent.
so, let's start with beth. beth's colors are influenced by monarch's, for obvious reasons (her uniform being only one of them), but i prefer to skew her colors warmer than those i use for characters that are more directly affiliated with monarch. i make her blues warmer and more saturated, usually, and add reddish and orangeish tones, both because of her hair and skin tone and because i like the way the orange ties her palette to jack, who i also use a rusty orange for sometimes.
will's colors are primarily greens, and quite warm ones at that. i usually pull these from the places associated with will, such as the machine at bradbury hall (which has quite greenish lighting in some scenes) and his chalkboard setup at ground zero. these also lean nicely into the washed-out greenish teals that are often found in scenes where time is stopped, which is a clever way of tying will (and jack, obviously) to the fracture visually.
jack, as the main character, is the hardest to pin down a palette for, in my opinion. i tend to use teals and blues for him, and pull from the color palette of the stutters quite a bit, like i just mentioned. his shirt is also a shade of warm bluish teal, so it works out nicely. he also has a kind of rusty reddish lining in his jacket, which i associate with him quite a bit. i find it very narratively satisfying to make jack's colors the closest of all the characters to those of stutters and the fracture itself, as he is the one who has to navigate and ultimately fix them.
anyway, i hope that all made sense! i can elaborate or explain further if anyone has questions, but mostly i just wanted to make a little post about color palettes in quantum break because i like color symbolism!
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