Common Palette Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Even experienced pixel artists make palette mistakes. Learning to identify and fix these issues will dramatically improve your artwork. Here are the most common problems and their solutions.

Mistake #1: Insufficient Value Contrast

The most common beginner mistake is choosing colors that look different in hue but have similar brightness (value). A red and green might seem distinct, but if they're the same brightness, your artwork will look muddy and unclear.

How to Identify It

Convert your artwork to grayscale. If different elements blend together and become indistinguishable, you have a value contrast problem.

How to Fix It

For every color used for shading or depth, ensure there's a clear value difference. Shadows should be noticeably darker, highlights noticeably lighter. Use PixelPaletteSwap to adjust specific colors to brighter or darker variants while keeping the hue.

Mistake #2: Too Many Similar Colors

Having five slightly different shades of blue when two would suffice wastes palette space and makes your art harder to manage. This often happens when using the eyedropper to sample colors from photos.

How to Fix It

Consolidate similar colors. In PixelPaletteSwap, swap all those similar blues to a single chosen blue. You'll be surprised how often this simplification actually improves the artwork by creating cleaner shapes.

Mistake #3: Pure Black Outlines

Using #000000 pure black for all outlines creates harsh, unnatural-looking pixel art. It can make colors appear washed out by comparison and creates a "coloring book" feel.

How to Fix It

Use colored outlines instead. Dark blue for cool-toned subjects, dark brown for warm-toned subjects. Or use a very dark version of the object's main color. This technique is called "selective outlining" and creates much more sophisticated artwork.

Mistake #4: Random Saturation Levels

Mixing highly saturated colors with very desaturated ones without purpose creates visual discord. Your bright neon character looks out of place against muted background colors.

How to Fix It

Establish a saturation range for your project and stick to it. If your backgrounds are muted, keep characters slightly more saturated to pop, but not absurdly so. Use PixelPaletteSwap to adjust colors toward consistent saturation levels.

Mistake #5: No Hue Shifting

Making shadows by simply darkening a color, or highlights by simply brightening it, creates flat, lifeless artwork. Real light doesn't work this way—shadows typically shift cool and highlights shift warm.

How to Fix It

When creating shading ramps, shift hue as you shift value. A green leaf's shadow might shift toward blue-green, while its highlight shifts toward yellow-green. This creates vibrant, living colors rather than muddy darkness.

Mistake #6: Ignoring Color Temperature

Mixing warm and cool colors without considering how they interact can create visual confusion. A character with warm skin, cool clothes, and neutral accessories looks incoherent.

How to Fix It

Establish a dominant temperature for your artwork. If it's a sunny beach scene, lean warm overall. If it's a snowy mountain, lean cool. Accent with the opposite temperature strategically—a warm campfire in a cold scene, for example.

Mistake #7: Colors That Don't Exist in Your Palette

This usually happens with anti-aliasing or when importing photos. You think you have 16 colors, but actually have 200 because of in-between shades at edges.

How to Identify It

PixelPaletteSwap shows your total color count when you upload an image. If it's much higher than expected, you have extra colors.

How to Fix It

Either work with intentionally clean pixel art from the start, or use PixelPaletteSwap to manually consolidate those extra colors into your intended palette.

Mistake #8: Using Colors That Clash

Certain color combinations vibrate unpleasantly when placed next to each other—like saturated red against saturated cyan. They literally hurt to look at.

How to Fix It

Either desaturate one of the clashing colors, add a neutral buffer between them, or swap one to a more harmonious hue. Study established palettes like PICO-8 to see how they avoid these clashes.

Prevention: Use Established Palettes

The easiest way to avoid most palette mistakes is to start with a curated palette like PICO-8, Endesga 32, or DawnBringer 16. These palettes are designed to work harmoniously, with proper value ranges and hue shifting built in.