Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1831
Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave)
Cream paper, three blues, and one imported chemical that changed Japanese printmaking.
Multiple impressions; Metropolitan Museum of Art and others
Tap any swatch to copy. Ground colours are the three largest areas of the canvas; accent colours are chosen for intensity and may cover very little — which is exactly why they carry the painting. Percentages are each colour's share of the whole canvas, so these six will not add up to 100%: they are six of the 26 distinct colour regions measured, not a division of the surface. How these were sampled
The palette is startlingly economical: the warm cream of the paper carries most of the surface, and the entire drama comes from a narrow band of blues. There is no green, no red, no yellow accent. A designer copying this scheme gets a lesson in how far a single hue family plus a warm neutral can go.
The blue itself is the historical event. Prussian blue was a European laboratory accident from around 1704–06 in Berlin, and it reached Japan through Dutch traders at Nagasaki. It was far too expensive for print runs until Chinese production made it affordable in the late 1820s — which is precisely when this series appeared.
What the artist actually used
- Prussian blue (bero-ai / ベロ藍)
- The dominant blue. Named for Berlin, its city of origin, shortened in Japanese from 'Berlin indigo'.
- Traditional indigo and plant colourants
- Used alongside the imported blue in ukiyo-e printing of this period.
Has the colour changed?
This is a woodblock print, not a painting, so surviving impressions differ from one another as much as from the original — inking varied between pulls, and many sheets have faded unevenly with light exposure. Treat these values as one impression's reading rather than a single definitive palette.
Sources
Accessibility
WCAG contrast ratios between every color pair. Use the strongest combinations for text; the weakest ones make good decorative backgrounds.
Strongest pair: #F6EFD9 on #223F63 — 9.32:1 (AAA)
- #F6EFD9·#F8EAC7
- #F6EFD9·#DCE7D9
- #F6EFD9·#E5B696
- #F6EFD9·#2C638C
- #F6EFD9·#223F63
- #F8EAC7·#DCE7D9
- #F8EAC7·#E5B696
- #F8EAC7·#2C638C
- #F8EAC7·#223F63
- #DCE7D9·#E5B696
- #DCE7D9·#2C638C
- #DCE7D9·#223F63
- #E5B696·#2C638C
- #E5B696·#223F63
- #2C638C·#223F63
How to read this
- AAA
- Passes WCAG 2.1 AAA for normal text — the highest accessibility bar.
- AA
- Passes WCAG 2.1 AA for normal text. Standard production requirement.
- AA Large
- Passes WCAG 2.1 AA for large text only (18pt+ or 14pt+ bold). Avoid for body copy.
- Fail
- Below WCAG 2.1 AA. Fine for decorative use — not for text.
Export
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Studio
Paint this palette
These are the materials a colour study actually gets made with.
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Kuretake
Gansai Tambi 24 — Art Nouveau
Gansai are traditional Japanese watercolour pans — dense, matte and easy to mix, the closest everyday medium to the flat printed colour Wada's plates were made in. This is the Art Nouveau-themed 'II' edition, a different 24 to the standard set.
Listed on Amazon as Kuretake GANSAI TAMBI Watercolor Paint Set 24 Colors II - Art Nouveau
View on Amazon -
Kuretake
Gansai Tambi 36
The larger pan set. More range means mixing toward a specific plate rather than approximating it from six colours.
Listed on Amazon as Kuretake GANSAI TAMBI Watercolor Paint Set 36 Colors
View on Amazon -
140 lb cold press is the weight that takes a wet wash without buckling — the paper most colour studies end up on.
Listed on Amazon as Strathmore 300 Series Tape Bound Watercolor Pad, 140 lb. Cold Press, 11 X 15 inches, White, 12 Sheets (360-111)
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Pentel
Fude Touch brush sign pen
A felt brush tip for the labelling and linework around a swatch study — the annotation half of a colour notebook.
Listed on Amazon as Pentel Fude Touch Sign Pen, Black, Felt Pen Like Brush Stroke (SES15C-A) 3 Pieces
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When a palette leaves the screen, this is the shared vocabulary between you and the press. Coated and uncoated because the same ink is not the same colour on both.
Listed on Amazon as Pantone Formula Guide – Coated & Uncoated | Professional PMS Color Matching System for Print, Packaging & Graphic Design | GP1601B
View on Amazon -
This site hands you hex codes. Color Bridge is the deck that shows what an RGB or HTML value becomes as CMYK ink, and which Pantone spot sits nearest it — the translation step between a screen palette and a printed one. Coated and uncoated because the same ink is not the same colour on both stocks.
Listed on Amazon as Pantone GP6102B Color Bridge Guide Set Coated & Uncoated, Multi-Colour
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Pantone
Color Bridge Guide — coated
The coated half on its own — Pantone to CMYK, RGB and HTML in a single fan. The smaller entry point if your work only ever goes onto coated stock.
Listed on Amazon as Pantone Color Bridge Guide Coated | Pantone to CMYK, RGB & HTML Color Matching Fan Deck for Graphic Design, Branding & Print | GG6103B
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Calibrite
ColorChecker Studio spectrophotometer
A spectrophotometer profiles the whole chain — display, printer, projector, scanner — so the colour you picked is the colour that comes out the other end. The full-fidelity option for work that ends up printed.
Listed on Amazon as Calibrite ColorChecker Studio Spectrophotometer for Complete Color Management for Display, Projector, Printer and Scanner Profiling
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Calibrite
Display Plus HL colorimeter kit
A colorimeter calibrates the monitor itself. Worth saying plainly: an uncalibrated screen is the most common reason a palette that looked right on your desk looks wrong everywhere else.
Listed on Amazon as Calibrite Video Photo Kit with Display Plus HL Colorimeter and ColorChecker Passport Video 2, 10,000 Nit Monitor Calibration, Camera Color Matching
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Calibrite
ColorChecker Passport Photo 2
A pocket target for fixing white balance and exposure at the moment of capture — the step before any colour correction, if your palette starts from a photograph rather than a screen.
Listed on Amazon as Calibrite ColorChecker Passport Photo 2 Portable Color Calibration Kit for Photo and Video, 4 Target Set for White Balance, Exposure and Creative Look
View on Amazon
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Library
Further reading
Torn between the two Wada dictionaries? Vol 1 vs Vol 2, compared plate by plate →
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