Color theory tutorial

Color theory tutorial

Intro

It's safe to say that art and colors go hand in hand, and obviously art wouldn't be the same without all those wonderful colors. And colors it what this tutorial is all about. Even though color theory can be a lifetime study the basics are actually quite easy to learn, so lets get going and dive right into the matter at hand.

Color System Basics

You might have heard of RGB which is used to display colors on computer screens such as the one you are looking at right now. RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue and depending on how they are 'mixed' they display all the different colors on your computer screen. You might have heard of CMYK also which is used for color printing processes. But for now we will focus on the traditional basic colors which are red, yellow and blue. With these three basic colors you can create any color you desire.

Info: Before we continue here are some facts about the color wheel. The color wheel shown below is a classic RYB (red, yellow, blue) color wheel. It consists of a primary, secondary and tertiary part. Colors on the opposite sides of each other in the outer circle are called complementary colors. Mixing these creates what are called neutrals as they 'cancel' each other out.

The Wheel Construction

You have most likely come across a color wheel before. There are many versions of the wheel but they all serve the same purpose which is to show us what colors we get by mixing the three basic colors. Take a look at the picture below. In the center we have a triangle containing the three basic colors (red, yellow, blue). Mixing these we get to the colors of the secondary part; the hexagon. Continuing we get to the colors of the outer circle, the tertiary part.

How To Use The Color Wheel

Here is an example of how it works: By mixing the pure red and pure blue (shown in the inner triangle) say 50/50, you get the purple color shown at 6 o'clock in the outer circle. By mixing these two with a little more red than blue, the red becomes more dominant and you will end up with the color shown at 5 o'clock. If you make the blue more dominant than the red, you will end up with a color close to the one shown at 7 o'clock. The same principle applies when mixing red and yellow, or blue and yellow.

Once you have mixed your desired color you can then add black or white (or any color you wish) to make the color darker or lighter. For example, if you add a little black to an orange color it will get brownish, and if you add some white to a red color you'll end up with a pinkish color. A word of advise regarding the use of black; be careful with it if you wish to create a darkish color. Black is very dominant, and you might end up with a 'dead' color if you overdo it.

A Few More Words

As you can probably imagine the amount of different colors you can make is almost infinite. I suggest that you start experimenting with some inexpensive artists colors to get a more practical sense of how it works.

Wait, there's more!

If you wish to know even more about color theory you can visit wikipedia and read their color theory article, but before we end this art tutorial I have supplied a link to a high quality color wheel free for you to print and use. Download the color wheel right here.

Enjoy!