🎨 Pattern Play Colour Scheme Cards — Inspiration Hub

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Quick Takeaway

Colour cards are a simple way to spark creativity and inspire group art. In this post, you’ll discover how to use Pattern Play Colour Scheme Cards to guide students and groups in creating fun, colourful artworks. I’ve facilitated over 60 community and school-based collaborative art projects with more than 2,000 participants, and I want to help you do the same with my helpful digital resources using my Pattern Play Collaborative Art framework.

Creative ideas, project inspiration, and updates for the Pattern Play Collaborative Art Colour Scheme Cards: Pattern Play Colour Cards

Whether you’re exploring colour in group art projects for the first time or already using the cards in your projects, this page is your hub for inspiration.

Pattern Play Colour Cards – all 21 group art colour schemes with how-to cards as portable collaborative art resources

Here you’ll discover:

  • Artworks inspired by each colour scheme
  • Sneak peeks of future palettes and inspirations
  • Exciting extras coming in upcoming volumes of my 7 Group Art Colour Schemes resources

Scroll down to explore the galleries and see how each colour scheme comes alive in real collaborative art projects with regular people just like you, your kids, students or friends!

Colour Scheme Project Galleries

Explore how each colour scheme (or ‘palette’) has been used in collaborative artworks. These galleries showcase a mix of projects and ideas to spark your own creative experiments.

From 7 Group Art Colour Schemes Vol 1:

✨ Forest – Tranquil, rich, and deeply connected to nature.

Final Bling stage of a Pattern Play Collaborative Art piece in cool Forest colours, adding detailed accents and contrast.
Peer Support community art project with cool colours by 16 people of all ages and abilities
Cool-coloured collaborative painting made by 30 children in one day using the Pattern Play Collaborative Art method.

✨ Mermaid – Ocean blues with warm tropical hues, flowing and serene.

Cool pastel A6 artwork made by a family group for a charity exhibition, using the Pattern Play method.
Incognito Mermaid collaborative artwork created by a family for an inclusive art exhibition

✨Utopia – Energetic, futuristic, bold, and richly dynamic.

In-progress collaborative artwork during the Exploring stage, showing layered marks and patterns in aqua, burgundy, yellow, green, and purple
Collaborative family painting in bold colours, early messy stage of Pattern Play Collaborative Art.
Collaborative painting in its final Bling stage with highlights and accents in the Utopia palette, created over multiple sessions by a family group.

✨ Mirage – Bold and expressive feel with striking contrasts.

Myriad In Harmony collaborative artwork with warm colours over blue, created at an art exhibition
Margarita collaborative art showing the Exploring stage with warm colours over blue

✨Galaxy – Dreamy, cosmic, and evocative of infinite mysteries.

Community Mural Projects image showing a close-up of the Find Your Courage mural, created by 20 teenage girls from an Adelaide high school using a limited galaxy-themed colour scheme.
Galaxy-themed mural with finishing details by 20 teenage girls using Pattern Play Collaborative Art.
Social painting examples featuring "Find Your Courage" mural created by teenaged girls

✨ Vibrant – Bright, cheerful, vivid, and energetic.

Detail of a mobile ‘Find Your Courage’ mural in pinks, oranges, reds and yellow, with accents of burgundy – the school’s brand colour.
“Find Your Confidence” mural showing bold pink, red, orange, and yellow patterns layered over aqua and green backgrounds, created collaboratively by teenagers over five sessions using the Pattern Play Collaborative Art Process.
Team Artwork Ideas showing an artwork called the "Find Your Confidence Mural" in vibrant pinks, oranges, yellows and pops of burgundy over a cool aqua background.

✨ Lava – Fiery, intense, and bursting with dynamic heat.

Bold A6 panel artworks created by a family group using collaborative art for disability advocacy.
In action photo creating a warm-coloured collaborative painting titled 'Lava Incognito,' created by a family group of all ages and abilities.

7 Group Art Colour Schemes Volume 2: In Development

Volume 2 will feature Niko, Cyberpunk, Nebula, Serenity, Uzumaki, Rainforest, and Bushland.

Each scheme will include:

  • Example projects showing the palette in use
  • Unique ways to explore the scheme with Pattern Play
  • Colour Scheme Cards for easy print and carry
  • BONUS: A themed Pattern Play Page for each colour scheme

What’s the inspiration behind these schemes?

  • Bushland: Stark Australian outback tones, using primary colours in a simple, striking way.
  • Cyberpunk: Neon, high-tech boldness from the anime Cyberpunk Edgerunners — intense, futuristic, and full of energy.
  • Nebula: Colours of the Heart Nebula — cosmic, ethereal, and perfect for sparking wonder.
  • Niko: Inspired by the indie game OneShot, a dark and moody adventure capturing the charm of a tiny 2D world.
  • Rainforest: Rich, vibrant colours of the jungle, alive with birds and plant life.
  • Serenity: Soft, dreamy pastels designed to create a calm, tranquil feel.
  • Uzumaki: Spirals and tension inspired by Junji Ito’s haunting manga Uzumaki.

7 Group Art Colour Schemes Volume 3: In Development

Volume 3 will feature Aura, Butterfly, Glacier, Meadow, Midnight, Nexus, Zesty.

Each colour scheme will include:

  • Example projects showing the palette in use
  • Suggested ways to explore the scheme with real-life projects
  • Colour Scheme Cards for easy print and carry
  • A themed Pattern Play Page for each colour scheme
  • BONUS: Three creative challenges per colour scheme — different ways to use the colours, plus layout and composition ideas to inspire your collaborative art

Stay tuned — these new palettes are still in development, and I can’t wait to share them with you soon!

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