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Do You Want To Take Your Paintings To The Next Level?
Would you like to make your artwork stand out but don’t know where to begin? The answer to this question is color theory. Understanding color theory will dramatically change your paintings for the better. Color is very important in our everyday life. Color can cause people to feel certain emotions, to communicate a thought, and to capture attention. But how do you determine what colors look good together and which ones do not? Color theory will answer all of your questions.
Color
Primary Colors
You probably remember learning about primary colors when you were in elementary school. There are three primary colors — red, blue, and yellow.
Secondary Colors
Secondary colors are a mixture of primary colors. (i.e. red + blue = purple), (blue + yellow = green), (red + yellow = orange).
Tertiary Colors
Tertiary colors are combinations of secondary colors.
Properties of Color
Hue is the easiest term; it is basically another word for color.
Saturation refers to the intensity of a color. A high level of saturation means the color is bright in value. If a color is low in saturation it is a more muted in tone.
Value refers to the lightness or the darkness of a color. The value tells us how much light is hitting the color, giving us different shades.
But how can we apply this?
The Color Wheel
The color wheel will help us create harmony when we use colors in our paintings. It is so eye-opening when you understand how the color wheel works! You can truly let yourself go and confidently know you are using colors that won’t clash with each other and will be pleasing to the eye.
Color Combination Terms
When you use the color wheel there are five different ways you can combine colors that will look good together. We will talk about monochromatic, complementary, triadic, and tetradic. These different combinations will all give a painting a unique feel or effect.
Monochromatic is when you use the same color in one painting. This technique, in my opinion, is a lot of fun to do when layering watercolors.
Complementary colors are across from one another on the color wheel. A classic example of complementary colors is red and green, our classic Christmas colors.
Analogous colors are right next to each other on the color wheel. an example would be blue and blue-greens.
Triadic colors are found when you draw a triangle connecting the colors. An example would be purple, orange, and green.
Tetradic colors are when you draw a rectangle connecting four colors. When you use this combination it is recommended to use one color as your primary focus and the other three colors as slight accents. An example of these colors is blue, purple, orange, and yellow.
If you would like to learn how to create your own color wheel as you see in the picture, click HERE.
Color Temperature
Colors are either warm or cool in their tone. Understanding color temperature is very important in a painting. Color temperature will affect the way someone feels when looking at your painting. But how can you know which to use? I’m glad you asked. Let’s talk about what each of these terms means so you can use them in a way that will give your paintings the effect you are wanting.
Warm Colors
The colors red through yellow on the color wheel are considered to be warm colors, this includes browns and tans. Warm colors will make something feel cozy and large areas seem smaller. Warm colors make you think of warm things, for example, a fire or the sun. If you are going to paint a cozy fall scene you will want to use warm colors to create that effect.
Cool Colors
The colors blue-green to violet are considered to be the cool colors, including most greys. These colors will make you feel calm or relaxed. They often make us think of water, the sky, or snow and ice. If you wanted to paint a snowy landscape, you would use cool colors.
Create Balance
Now that we understand the differences between cool and warm colors, let’s talk about how to balance the two. It is very important, whether your painting a picture or decorating your room, that you have a balance of cool and warm colors. This is a guideline, not a strict rule. You will often see paintings without balance, but for the most part, it is a good practice to use.
But how do you balance warm and cool colors? It’s pretty easy. All you have to do is choose your dominant temperature and then sprinkle in accents of the opposite. For example, if you are painting a winter scene made of dominantly cool colors, your warm accents would be brown trees. This creates a nice balance.
Put It All Together
We’ve gone over all the basics of color — the color wheel and color temperature. As you sit down to create your next masterpiece think about which colors you want to use and ask yourself, “Would this be an attractive combination on the color wheel?”. Then look over your colors to see if you are using primarily cool or warm tones and if there is a proper balance of the two. After you check all of these questions off, you’re good to go. Before you know it, this will all become automatic and you won’t have to ask yourself these questions or even look at a color wheel.
That’s It!
I hope you enjoyed learning about color theory today. If you’d like a FREE color theory cheat sheet, sign up for our FREE newsletter today, and you will receive your FREE cheat sheet directly in your inbox. If you want some painting ideas, check out all of my tutorials HERE. If you enjoyed this post or have any questions please comment below. Hope to see you soon.
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