Red apple: burgundy to apricotShadows lean to purple, lights lean to orange. The hue turns 55 degrees from shadow to highlight.#411026 · #78172B · #B81C19 · #EA582A · #F5A966
Brown skin: dark red to tanShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 42 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Darkest brown skin: dark plum to tanShadows lean to purple, lights lean to orange. The hue turns 77 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Deep brown skin: dark maroon to tanShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 47 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Fair skin: dusty red to creamShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 39 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Golden skin: russet to butter yellowShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 46 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Olive skin: brown to pale yellowShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 44 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Pale skin: dusty red to ivoryShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 40 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Tan skin: maroon to sandShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 37 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Show all 48 palettes (40 more)
Hair 8
Auburn hair: burgundy to light orangeShadows lean to purple, lights lean to orange. The hue turns 52 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Black hair: black to dusty blueShadows lean to purple, lights lean to blue-green. The hue turns 59 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Blonde hair: brown to pale yellowShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 32 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Brunette hair: dark maroon to tanShadows lean to purple, lights lean to orange. The hue turns 50 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Chestnut hair: dark red to goldShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 51 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Ginger hair: chestnut to light yellowShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 45 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Gray hair: charcoal to silverShadows lean to purple, lights lean to blue-green. The hue turns 56 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Platinum hair: dusty purple to ivoryShadows lean to purple, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 131 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Leaves and grass 8
Autumn maple: burgundy to light goldShadows lean to purple, lights lean to orange. The hue turns 59 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Dried grass: dark brown to pale yellowShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 49 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Lawn grass: forest green to light limeShadows lean to blue-green, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 69 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Moss: dark green to light oliveShadows lean to blue-green, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 75 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Pine branch: dark teal to dusty greenShadows lean to blue-green, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 90 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Sage leaf: dusty teal to pale sageShadows lean to blue-green, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 95 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Spring leaf: forest green to pale limeShadows lean to blue-green, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 72 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Summer leaf: dark green to lime greenShadows lean to blue-green, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 83 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Reds and pinks 8
Brick: dark maroon to light brownShadows lean to purple, lights lean to orange. The hue turns 41 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Bubblegum: plum to salmonShadows lean to purple, lights lean to orange. The hue turns 78 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Cherry: dark plum to tomato redShadows lean to purple, lights lean to orange. The hue turns 48 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Crimson velvet: dark plum to redShadows lean to purple, lights lean to orange. The hue turns 58 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Pink flamingo: burgundy to peachShadows lean to purple, lights lean to orange. The hue turns 57 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Poppy petal: maroon to yellowShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 56 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Red apple: burgundy to apricotShadows lean to purple, lights lean to orange. The hue turns 55 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Rose petal: plum to peachShadows lean to purple, lights lean to orange. The hue turns 68 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Blues 8
Blue silk: dark violet to sky blueShadows lean to purple, lights lean to blue-green. The hue turns 57 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Clear sky: dark blue to pale sky blueShadows lean to purple, lights lean to blue-green. The hue turns 48 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Cornflower: deep violet to pale blueShadows lean to purple, lights lean to blue-green. The hue turns 50 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Denim: dark indigo to light blueShadows lean to purple, lights lean to blue-green. The hue turns 44 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Ice: dusty blue to pale aquaShadows lean to blue, lights lean to green. The hue turns 62 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Ocean depths: dark indigo to turquoiseShadows lean to purple, lights lean to blue-green. The hue turns 73 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Ripe blueberry: dark purple to dusty blueShadows lean to purple, lights lean to blue-green. The hue turns 62 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Turquoise pool: navy to seafoam greenShadows lean to blue, lights lean to green. The hue turns 56 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Stone and metal 8
Bronze: dark maroon to brassShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 52 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Copper pot: burgundy to buffShadows lean to purple, lights lean to orange. The hue turns 62 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Granite: charcoal to pale grayShadows lean to purple, lights lean to blue-green. The hue turns 69 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Polished gold: chestnut to butter yellowShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 48 degrees from shadow to highlight.
River pebble: charcoal to boneShadows lean to purple, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 110 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Sandstone: dark maroon to beigeShadows lean to red, lights lean to yellow. The hue turns 61 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Slate: dark purple to dusty blueShadows lean to purple, lights lean to blue-green. The hue turns 71 degrees from shadow to highlight.
Steel: dark violet to pale grayShadows lean to purple, lights lean to blue-green. The hue turns 79 degrees from shadow to highlight.
How this list was compiled: Own work, written for Draw This Next on 2026-10-09: shading ramps of five steps, from shadow to highlight, each for one thing of one color, in six groups (skin, hair, leaves and grass, reds and pinks, blues, stone and metal). The ramps are our own choices for a picture, not a rule of light, and the page claims no physics. How a ramp is made: from a shadow hue, a highlight hue, five saturations and five lightnesses, with the hue moved from the first to the second the short way around the wheel in four equal steps. The rule the page is named for, checked on the finished codes of every ramp: each step is lighter than the one before (WCAG relative luminance) and 8 or more from it in CIE Lab, and the hue moves the same way around the wheel at every step, by 7 to 34 degrees a step and 32 to 131 degrees over the whole ramp. Hue here is the HSL angle: red at 0 degrees, green at 120, blue at 240 and back to red at 360, checked on 2026-10-09 against English Wikipedia, HSL and HSV (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV). That a tint is a color mixed with white and a shade a color mixed with black is from Wikipedia, Tint, shade and tone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tint,_shade_and_tone), read the same day. The line under a name says which hue family each end is nearest to among red (0 degrees), orange (30), yellow (60), green (120), blue-green (180), blue (240) and purple (285); where an end is still nearest to the family of the ramp's middle step, the line names the next family in that direction. The two color words in a name are the shadow step and the highlight step. A name is a plain thing and its color; none is a product, a character or a published palette. Color names are plain English words with no paint maker, pencil brand or color-matching system. Checked on 2026-10-09: every code is #RRGGBB, each color word fits the hue and lightness of its code, no palette, name or line repeats, and no palette is on another palette list of this site or of its sister sites. The hex codes are for a screen; with paint or pencils, take the nearest color. Licence: own work
How it works
A hue shift palette shades one thing without only adding black or white: each step is lighter than the last and its hue moves further around the color wheel. The ramps are our choices, not a law of light.
Read the full guide
Use a ramp
The middle step is the thing's own color. The two before it are for shadow, darkest first, and the two after it for light.
Which way things lean
Most skin, blonde and ginger hair, gold and bronze lean to red in the shadows and to yellow in the lights. Green leaves lean to blue-green and yellow. Most blues lean to purple in the shadows and to blue-green in the lights. Platinum hair turns furthest, 131 degrees, and Blonde hair least, 32.
Questions and answers
What is hue shifting?
On this page it means changing a color's hue along with its lightness as you shade. Hue is the angle on the color wheel: red at 0 degrees, green at 120, blue at 240. A plain shade adds only black, a plain tint only white.
How much should you hue shift?
On this list a ramp turns 32 to 131 degrees from shadow to highlight, and most turn between 40 and 80. Each of the four steps moves 7 to 34 degrees. Those are our choices, not a rule.
Do shadows shift toward blue or purple?
Purple, most often: the shadows of most reds, pinks, blues and gray stones here lean that way. Green leaves lean to blue-green and most skin to red. No shadow on the list leans to yellow; yellow is for the lights.
What is a hue shift palette for skin?
The Skin group runs from pale to the darkest brown. Tan skin goes from maroon #5E2826 to sand #EAD2A4: its shadows lean to red and its lights to yellow. The darkest ramp turns further, from a dark plum shadow to a tan light.