Very recently I’ve taken up a couple of projects that require my full attention and dedication when it comes to combining colors in order to create depth and harmony. Whether you are a digital painter, traditional, or simply seek to redecorate a space, understanding color theory can improve your work quite dramatically.  

So what is color theory by definition?

Color theory is the study of colors. It represents a body of principles that shows us how colors work, how they interact with each other and how we perceive them. 

Artists, designers, photographers and filmmakers use color theory to create compositions that are visually appealing and in some cases provoke emotion. 

At the center of color theory stands the color wheel, which you most likely have heard of before. 

The color wheel consists of primary colors, secondary colors and tertiary colors. 

• The primary colors are red, blue and yellow. These colors are used as the basis for mixing many other colors.

• The secondary colors are orange, green and purple. These colors are created by mixing primary colors.

Red + yellow = orange

Yellow + blue = green

Blue + red = purple

• The tertiary colors are obtained by mixing a primary color with a secondary color in order to create shades such as:

Blue - green

Red - orange

Yellow - green

         Let’s talk a bit about color temperature. Tackling it results in one of the easiest ways to improve your art. 

We’ve got warm colors and cool colors.

The warm colors include: reds, oranges and yellows.

When we look at these colors, they emanate energy, coziness. They feel passionate and dramatic, whereas the cool colors feel calm, peaceful or mysterious. 

The cool colors include: blues, greens and purples. 

In a beautiful, impressive artwork, usually we could find a perfect balance between the warm and cool tones. They are used to create contrast and accentuate the visual interest. 

Tip:

If you ever feel like your artwork feels a little flat and needs more depth, try adding a little change in temperatures. Add warm highlights to cool scenes and vice-versa, cool shadows to warm scenes. The result might surprise you.

Are you wondering why black and white are not appearing on the color wheel?

Well, black and white do not appear on the color wheel, because they are not considered hues. White represents the lightest value of a color, while black represents the darkest value of a color, which makes them neutral values.

Hues are the colors found on the color wheel. So, when we refer to a color as “this is a red” or “this is a purple”, that color we name represents a hue.

Neutral values are black, white and gray. They represent a color’s value. 

If you would mix a little white with red, you would make that red’s value appear lighter. This is called a ‘tint’.

And if you were to mix a little black with red, you would make that red’s value appear darker. This is called a ‘shade’. 

This is available for every color you would be mixing with black or white. So once again:

White - makes the value lighter (a tint)

Black - makes the value darker (a shade)

Saturation represents the intensity or dullness of a color.

A highly saturated color is vivid and strong, pure, just like adding a bright red straight from the tube. 

A low saturated color is muted, faded or ‘gray-ish’. This is also known as desaturation.

So how do we make a color appear desaturated?

One way is to mix a little gray into our color (this is called a tone). Another way to lower the saturation, and most commonly, is to mix the color with a complementary color (ex. Mix a little bit of green with red to obtain a muted red, or  mix a little bit of orange with blue to create a duller blue). Also, adding black or white to a color, other than changing its value, it also can make the color feel less saturated.  

Simply put: saturation is how pure/ vibrant or mixed/ muted a color feels. The more other pigments you mix into your color, the less saturated it becomes.

Understanding Color Harmony

Color harmony refers to combinations of colors that look pleasing together and it is what most of us artists strive to obtain in our works.

Here are some of the most useful color harmony combinations you could create with: 

• Monochromatic color schemes. A monochromatic color scheme consists of different tints, shades, and tones of a single color (hue). For example: light blue, blue, and dark blue. This sort of combination will bring calm and elegance to your painting.

It’s also really helpful when you’re just starting out, because working with one hue makes it easier to focus on values (light and shadow) without worrying about color mixing too much. It helps the painting feel more unified and cohesive. 

• Complementary colors. They are the colors that sit opposite each other on the color wheel. Blue and orange,  red and green, purple and yellow are the most commonly used harmonious combinations. They create strong contrasts and make the colors seem more vibrant. 

• Analogous colors. These are the colors that sit right next to each other on the color wheel. 

Blue, blue-green, green, 

Red, red-orange, orange,

Purple, purple-red, red.

These are schemes that feel more natural and you could find the best use for them when creating atmospheric paintings or going for a soft-mood aesthetic. 

• Triadic colors. These color palettes use three evenly spaced colors on the wheel. The best way to identify them is to form a triangle on top of the wheel (see image below). 

Red, yellow, blue,

Purple, orange, green

These are the combinations that create energetic, but balanced compositions. Therefore, they make an excellent ally for stylized art and vibrant illustrations.

          After learning color theory, I jumped right into painting using more complementaries or triadic colors, straight out of the tube. I was so excited to add color to my canvas and see all the colors pop. Little did I know my painting was about to turn into something nobody could make any sense of from a chromatic point of view. So if you would like to avoid that, here are some pieces of advice I could give based on my experience as an artist:

• Limit your palette. Using fewer colors will make your artwork feel harmonious and controlled, keeping the viewer’s attention. Try starting with one dominant color, one supporting color and one accent color. 

For example: 

Dominant color: warm orange (that could be the sky)

Supporting color: soft purple (to be used for shadows and to add depth to clouds)

Accent color: bright yellow (functioning as small highlights where the sun hits)

• Save your brightest or your pure colors for your focal point (visual interest). The mistake I made was painting with every fully saturated color. But when everything I painted was intense, nothing was standing out. So keep saturation and values in mind. It will guide the viewer’s eye naturally.

• Value matters A LOT. Many times it matters more than the actual hue. Why? Because a painting with balanced values can work in grayscale too. If you don’t add enough value to your painting, even if you’d choose the most beautiful colors, it would look confusing. Nobody would understand where the light is coming from or where the shadows are. It would look unnatural. Practice this now and then. Take a picture of your painting and turn it to grayscale to check: contrasts, coherence and visual interests. It will save your artwork.

• Avoid pure black. Yes, I know some artists use it to darken their subjects, but it doesn’t look natural. If you were to look at a shadow right now, you’d notice that it contains color. Use deep blue for shadows, purples, dark reds or desaturated greens. Your painting will look so much richer this way and more natural.

• Avoid painting in bad lighting conditions. If you sit indoors and paint without a strong outside light source, you probably turn on the light, which often makes colors look yellow or blue. So it is very important to use natural light. You could of course invest in a specialized lighting for your studio, but a cheaper and more pleasant experience is to actually observe real environments in real lighting. This will improve your color intuition.

          Color theory isn’t about following strict rules, even though it might seem that way in the beginning and I understand perfectly how intimidating it could be. But the more you experiment, observe and practice, the color choices will come to you naturally.

Remember to paint often, study light, experiment with no fear and even make mistakes intentionally. Your eye for color will turn out to be one of your best artist tools! 🙂

Thank you for reading, I hope this information has proven to be useful and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. Go here and complete the form or simply email me at contact@canvastrails.studio 

Have a good one!

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