Colour Theory

A quick introduction to mixing (physical, not optical) colours. This was used at an introductory art workshop.

1. Colour Theory
2. Colour Theory With paint Which is different to light funnily enough.
3. Primaries The idea is, with three primaries, you can mix all the colours. —Red —Blue —Yellow
4. Build all the colours!
5. Secondaries —Purple = red + blue —Green = blue + yellow —Orange = yellow + red These, with the primaries, form the basics of a colour wheel
6. Complementary colours —Make each other stand out —Can be used to mix greys
7. Hue, Saturation, Brightness —Saturation = intensity of a colour —Brightness = tone of a colour —Hue = the colour family
8. Mixing Things to consider —How saturated do you want the colour to be? —How light or dark? (what is the value?) —What’s the undertone of your palette?
9. Saturation —All colours together = “black” —To desaturate your colour (turn it slightly grey), mix a bit of every primary (or its complementary) —Because the primaries can have undertones it can determine the saturation of your secondaries You can’t get more saturated than your primaries
10. Value / tone / brightness —White++ = chalkier/pastel colours —Black++ = darker/richer colours
11. Contrast —Things only look light because there’s dark —Things only look vivid, because there’s dull You can still have very rich colours that are technically “desaturated”
12. Our palette Primary yellow — blue Cadmium yellow — red (= mustard) Phtalo blue — yellow (= turquoise) Primary blue — red Cadmium red — yellow Primary yellow — blue (= magenta)
13. Funky additions —Neon shades —Metallic tones Mix them with the primaries for fun effects!
14. Colour wheel = friend <3.