HELL'S COLORING BOOK

By mixing colors with other words and/or doubling-up similar shades, you can quickly come up with powerful descriptions, such as “the October sky was ghoul-gray” or “the starless night was steeped in shadow.”

 

BLACK

Anthracite, black pearl, blue-black, coal, crow, dark, dead, ebony, ink, jet, midnight, moonless, night, obsidian, onyx, pitch, raven, sable, shadow, starless, Stygian, subterranean, tenebrous, void, unlit

 

BLUE

Air Force, azure, baby, cerulean, cobalt, cornflower, electric blue, delft, federal, ice, indigo, lapis lazuli, marine, midnight blue, navy, neon, ocean, peacock, periwinkle, powder, Prussian, robin's egg, royal, sapphire, sea-blue, sky, slate blue, sorrowful, steel, teal, turquoise, ultramarine, wedgewood

 

BROWN/BEIGE

Bay, brick, bronze, brunette, buckskin, café au lait, caramel, chestnut, chocolate, cinnamon, cocoa, coffee, copper, drab, dun, earth, ecru, fawn, foxy, ginger, hazel, henna, khaki, mahogany, maple, mocha, mud, mushroom, nut brown, nutmeg, pecan, raisin, roan, rosewood, saddle, sepia, tan, tanned, taupe, tawny, toffee, tortoise shell, umber, walnut

 

GRAY

Ashen, bleak, charcoal, cloudy, dismal, dove, drab, dreary, dull, gloomy, grizzled, gunmetal, hoary, iron, murky, overcast, pearl, sickly, silver, slate gray, smoky, sooty, somber, stone, sunless, tattletale, tombstone

 

GREEN

Aqua, aquamarine, bluish-green, celadon, chartreuse, emerald, envy, forest, grassy, hunter, jade, jealous, kelly, leaf, lime, malachite, mist, mold, moss, olive, pea, pine, sea-green, verdant

 

ORANGE

Amber-orange, apricot, atomic tangerine, bittersweet, burnt orange, carrot, champagne, coral, deep carrot, flame, lion, orange peel, orange-red, peach, pumpkin, safety orange, sunset, tangelo, tangerine

 

PURPLE

Açai, amaranth, amethyst, aubergine, azurite, blackberry, bluebell, crocus, eggplant, electric purple, frostbite, fuchsia, heliotrope, hibiscus, imperial, indigo, lavender, lilac, lotus, magenta, mauve, orchid, pinot noir, plum, psychedelic, royal, thistle, Tyrian, violet, wisteria

 

RED/PINK

Apple, auburn, beet, blood, brass, brick, burgundy, candy apple, cardinal, carmine, cerise, cherry, cinnamon, cinnabar, claret, cochineal, crimson, currant, dusky rose, fire, fire engine, fulvous, garnet, hellish, lobster, maroon, ox-blood, raspberry, red amber, rose, rosy, rubescent, rubicund, ruddy, ruby, russet, rust, salmon, sanguine, scarlet, shrimp, strawberry, terra cotta, Titian, Tyrian, tomato, vermeil, vermilion, wine

 

WHITE/OFF-WHITE

Alabaster, anemic, bleached, bloodless, chalk, colorless, cream, deathly, drained, drawn, ecru, eggshell, ghostly, ivory, lily, magnolia, milky, milky quartz, moon, moonstone, oatmeal, opal, oyster, pale, pallid, parchment, pasty, peaked, pinched, salt-and-pepper, snow, vanilla, virgin, wan, washed out, waxen, white jade

 

YELLOW/GOLD

Amber, ash blonde, blonde, brass, burnished, buff, cadmium, daffodil, flaxen, fool's gold, fulvous, golden, honey, lemon, jaundiced, jonquil, mustard, palomino, platinum, primrose, sallow, sandy, silver-blonde, straw, tawny, wheat, white-gold

 

‌— COLORS WRITING EXERCISE ‌—‌

Experiment with your own word/color combinations and use them in a descriptive tag. Come up with at least five for each color and feel free to mix-and-match colors (e.g., yellow and brown could be combined as “Her wheat-colored hair fell in waves over slim, tanned shoulders”).