Color Combinations for Animal Designs with Beads

Finding a bead pattern is the easy part when designing a bead animal. The real challenge lies with the colors. Beads that are well designed yet poorly color coordinated can appear two-dimensional. On the other hand a well-colored bead animal can turn a design that is mid-quality into something quite elegant. From owls to cats to butterflies to frogs a basic understanding of color schemes will lead to a more fulfilling experience when designing your bead animal.

Color Schemes for Frogs

To design a color scheme for a frog one green color is a big no-no. You can use greens in various shades such as: dark green medium green and light green. You can even put in some beads of brown or yellow. These create color variance as found in real frog. If you’re looking more for a cutesy bright design try bright green frogs with pastel yellow and white.

Color Schemes for Owls

To create the varying tones of an owl you should stick to earthy tones such as brown tan cream and amber with of course some black for the eyes. Compare this to the design of an owl made entirely of brown beads; the multi-toned owl is easily the more realistic of the two.

Cat Color Palettes

Cats have a great amount of variety. For something more realistic as far as a tabby goes try a mix of beads using gray charcoal cream and light brown. For black cats it’s best to mix black beads and dark gray beads as using just black can hide some details, If you’re going for a cute cartoon style you can add personality with pastel pink ears and bright blue eyes but don’t stray from recognizability.

Butterfly Color Palettes

Butterflies have a great amount of color variety so this is a fantastic place to play. For a design inspired by a Monarch try a mix of orange black and white and for some tropical butterflies go for a mix of blue purple turquoise and yellow. Butterfly wings need to be balanced and need symmetry so be careful about color placement.

Recommended Bead Brands

Miyuki Toho and Preciosa are some popular brands and for good reason. They create quality beads that are consistently sized and come in a ton of options. You don’t want to put all this effort into beads and have inconsistent shapes.

Create Your Own Color Chart

Making a printable color chart to keep your favorite bead combos can be a great addition to your workspace. You can even try organizing by animal to differentiate palettes quickly for when you need to take inspiration for your next project.

Realistic bead animals use a ton of colors and complementing shades and colors for shadowing and highlighting make your beads pop. This will make your beads go from frogs owls cats and butterflies to realistic masterpieces.