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!
Enjoy!