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This makes sense, right? If you mix red and yellow you get orange, and so on. If you combine two primary colors together you get a secondary color. The primary colors are yellow, blue, and red. Primary colors are at the top of the structure because in theory you can mix any other color you like using primaries. First come primary colors, then secondary, and sometimes you also here people talk about tertiary colors.

​The hues on a color wheel are structured into groups. If you’re not yet ready to paint your own color wheel you can find an excellent and easy to use ready-made color wheel here ( check the reviews on Amazon ). A color wheel will help you design color schemes and also get a better understanding of paint mixing. The hues are organized according to the colors of the light spectrum (just like you see in a rainbow). It’s a way of classifying colors in an easy to read format. This is a tool that most artists use to help them with color. A color wheel is probably one of the most useful things you can paint and stick on your wall ! Now that you’re familiar with the terms used to discuss color, let’s take a look at the artists favorite color tool. ​Using the color wheel as an artist’s tool (A complementary color is any color on the opposite side of the color wheel – see below). Or you can add gray paint to the mixture or add a colors complementary color, which creates a more dull, muted color appearance. You can add more water to increase the amount of white paper showing through. In watercolors you change the saturation in a few different ways. Unsaturated color looks closer to black, gray or white. A bright color is highly saturated whereas a dull color has lower color saturation. ​ Intensity is what artists often refer to as saturation. Painters often use a gray scale ranging from light to dark (white to black) to help them judge values. Good use of values in a painting helps to produce a realistic perception of three-dimensional form and light.

​ Value is a way of referring to the lightness of a color. These are pure hues with the most intense color. Hue names correspond to the colors of the spectrum: red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Hue is just another word for what we commonly call “color”. These are the hue, the value and the intensity. As you can see, there are numerous ways to put color theory ideas to work for you.īut first, to help you get a better understanding of color theory we need a bit of artist’s vocabulary… Understanding color theoryĪny color can be described by using three distinct characteristics. Alternatively, contrasting colors can produce lively, uplifting artwork. Too many dull colors may become boring so a few intense colors can help to balance a composition. On the other hand, muted colors can produce a calm, dreamlike quality. For example, you can use bright colors to draw attention to the main subject of your artwork. Color theory and color design will help you do exactly that.īright vivid colors can be used to attract the eye and create focal points in a painting. Ideally, you should be controlling your choice of color rather than randomly picking what “looks nice” from your palette. I think you’ll find a little theory goes a long way… Watercolor Color TheoryĬolors are at the heart of any painting. The colors you choose don’t need to be a lifelike copy of the subject you’re painting, and simple tricks such as limiting your color palette or combining specific colors together can go a long way to creating more attractive, harmonious artwork. It took me a while to realize that you can “design” the colors of your paintings to produce better results. And in my early days as an artist, I’m sure this had a lot to do with poorly chosen color schemes. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve abandoned a painting because the colors weren’t working. Understanding colors and how they interact with each other can go a long way to making you a better artist! Color plays a huge role in successful painting, which is why color theory in watercolor art is a valuable thing to grasp. ​Don’t you think it’s curious? The way certain watercolors provoke emotion, but others fall short of your expectations.