The Great Wave Color Palette

After years of admiring this print by the legendary Japanese artist, Hokusai, I’ve realized the colors are just as dramatic as the composition. So I decided to extract a few hues and create a color palette.

I chose colors from the boats, the sky and, of course, the waves.

• #c1a06e – dark tan
• #d9d1ba – light tan
• #82b0b2 – light blue
• #346b84 – medium blue
• #1a3657 – dark blue

As with all my color palettes you can find this one on ColorLovers.com.

Haunted by a legend

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Hokusai is probably my favorite piece of fine art. I caught glimpses of it growing up in American culture, but didn’t know anything about the work until I studied it in art school.

Turns out the iconic scene is actually a woodblock print and not a painting, and its part of a series based on that little mountain you can see in the background. For some reason I fell in love with the piece and when I found a huge poster print for sale I couldn’t resist.

I proudly displayed it in my room during college. Then I hung it over my desk when I got an office job. A coworker and good friend even bought me a sketchbook with the painting printed on the front.

After getting married I brought it home and managed to hang it over our bed… briefly. Something about the imminent death of those sailors didn’t sit well with the wife as a pre-bedtime meditation.

Until I get my home office situated the historic image sulks in my closet. Nevertheless, it lives on as my current desktop background.

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