Starting with over-saturated colors and pulling back is more reliable than building up from grey

IQ’s workflow for shader art: push all colors to extreme saturation on day 1 of development, then desaturate on day 2 with fresh eyes. Starting grey and adding color tends to produce timid, under-saturated results because the eye adapts to the grey and small additions seem sufficient. Starting saturated forces you to notice color relationships, complementary contrasts, and value separation early. The ‘pull back’ phase is easier than the ‘push forward’ phase. This principle applies across visual media.

Examples

IQ intentionally makes the sky hyper-blue, the monster orange, and the ground vivid green in his first coding session, then tones down on the second day.

Assessment

Apply this principle to a fog-of-grey abstract shader. Describe the sequence of steps you would follow to arrive at a final palette, including when you would reference a real photograph.