What Are Popular Ticci Toby Fanart Color Palettes?

I can't get enough of the colorways artists pick for 'Ticci Toby' fanart — they can push the mood from creepy and clinical to neon-demented in a heartbeat. Over the years I've noticed some go-to palettes that always pop up in feeds, plus a few creative twists that really make a piece sing. Below I break down the popular choices, throw in hex suggestions you can eyeball or paste into a palette tool, and share little tips I use when I paint or color a Toby piece for myself.

The classic grim palette: muted charcoal, sickly green, and blood accents. This one leans into the horror roots — think near-black background (#0B0B0B), ashen gray (#6D6D6D), rotten green desaturation (#7BA57B), and a striking blood red (#B3001B) as your eye or knife highlight. I love adding a subtle yellow-green (#CFCB7C) to give skin a jaundiced feel. Use grainy brushes and layer multiply shadows to get that grim, dirty texture — it sells the creepiness without needing much detail.

Icy/clinical palette: cool blues, steel whites, and pale skin tones. Swap terror for clinical detachment with navy (#0F3556), icy blue (#A9D6E5), sterile white (#F4F7F9), and a faint cyan highlight (#79E0F1). This is great when you want 'Ticci Toby' to feel cold and isolated. I often throw in a tiny neon orange (#FF8A00) or rusty brown (#7A4B2A) for contrast — one warm dot makes the whole piece read more cinematic.

Neon glitch palette: saturated cyan, magenta, and deep purple. For a modern, stylized spin go loud with #00E5FF (cyan), #FF00E6 (magenta), #6A00FF (violet) against a nearly black canvas. This is perfect for glitch art takes, split-lighting the face with cyan on one side and magenta on the other. Add scanline overlays, chromatic aberration, and a little bloom on reflective surfaces to sell the neon vibe.

Warm grunge/autumn palette: burnt orange, muddy browns, and deep olive. If you want a more grounded, almost tragic feel use #8B4A2F (rust), #5D3B2E (mud brown), #3E4B2B (olive), and a warm bone tone (#E6D4C3). It works beautifully for wood/indoor scenes, or when Toby is shown in more intimate moments. Subtle rim lighting in pale cream or yellow keeps him readable without losing the grunge.

Tips I swear by: limit your palette to 3–5 dominant colors for maximum mood control, then add one accent color that draws the eye to the face or weapon. Always think about lighting first — a single colored light source changes your whole palette. For texture, add overlays like dust, blood splatter, or film grain at low opacity instead of introducing extra colors. And don’t be afraid to desaturate the background to let those accent hues pop.

I keep bouncing between the teal-blood combo and the neon glitch look because they each tell a different story — the first feels raw and visceral, the second screams modern menace — and both are ridiculously fun to experiment with.

Honestly? I just pick colors that feel right in the moment. Sometimes I start with the standard scheme and get bored, so I hue-shift the entire piece until it clicks. Other times I have a specific emotion in mind and google 'color palette for loneliness' or 'color palette for rage' and build from there. It's less about what's popular and more about what serves the specific story I'm trying to tell in that one image.

This is making me realize I mostly just stick to the standard colors because I'm scared of messing up the recognizable look. Maybe I should be braver with my next piece. Does anyone else feel like they're just copying the most popular palette to stay 'on model'?

A less common but striking approach is using a palette of deep sea colors. The blacks are replaced by abyssal blues and purples, the white shirt is a pale bioluminescent green, and the red is a vivid, warning-sign orange like from a deep-sea creature. It makes him look like a predator from a lightless environment. The horror becomes more primordial and alien, which is a fresh take compared to the usual urban or digital settings.