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Description

Lately, I have been trolling Yahoo!Japan Auctions, the best place I’ve found to snag vintage used kimono for cheap, if you don’t happen to have a recycle shop near you.
Or, if you’re looking for inspiration.
Since I don’t know how long Yahoo holds on to images after auctions end, I figured I’d start grouping them and posting the bits I find inspiring. Hopefully, you find it inspiring, too!
I’ve gone in and pulled the most notable colors and created a kind of palette to work with, especially if you’re doing digital art.
The top set of these butterflies are some of my favorite. They have chrysanthemum motifs in the wings, which really like, but also,t here really isn’t a lot of black in the design – what looks like black is actually a really deep navy blue! The whites, also, aren’t really bright white, they’re more of an off white for the most part.
The lower butterflies are a really cool design in the wings, with the striking black and white details, or black centered dots. What I really like, though, are the honeycomb motifs behind them.

I hope this inspires you to play around with Japanese kimono color palettes a little, and motifs as well, for your character designs or other artwork! I know it's giving me so many ideas on things to make :3

Note: You can download the swatches built for Photoshop here and here , since I can't put them in without upgrading :\

Description

Lately, I have been trolling Yahoo!Japan Auctions, the best place I’ve found to snag vintage used kimono for cheap, if you don’t happen to have a recycle shop near you.
Or, if you’re looking for inspiration.
Since I don’t know how long Yahoo holds on to images after auctions end, I figured I’d start grouping them and posting the bits I find inspiring. Hopefully, you find it inspiring, too!
I’ve gone in and pulled the most notable colors and created a kind of palette to work with, especially if you’re doing digital art.
The top set of these butterflies are some of my favorite. They have chrysanthemum motifs in the wings, which really like, but also,t here really isn’t a lot of black in the design – what looks like black is actually a really deep navy blue! The whites, also, aren’t really bright white, they’re more of an off white for the most part.
The lower butterflies are a really cool design in the wings, with the striking black and white details, or black centered dots. What I really like, though, are the honeycomb motifs behind them.

I hope this inspires you to play around with Japanese kimono color palettes a little, and motifs as well, for your character designs or other artwork! I know it's giving me so many ideas on things to make :3

Note: You can download the swatches built for Photoshop here and here , since I can't put them in without upgrading :\