1. Color Theory

2. Color Theory
Color Wheel
Color Values
Color Schemes

3. The Color Wheel
The color wheel fits together like a puzzle - each color in a specific place. Being familiar with the
color wheel not only helps you mix colors
when painting, but in adding color to all your art creations.

4. Primary Colors
Primary colors are not mixed from other elements and they generate all other colors.
Red
Yellow
Blue

5. Secondary Colors
By mixing two primary colors, a secondary color is created.
Red + Yellow = Orange
Yellow + Blue = Green
Blue + Red = Purple

6. Tertiary Colors
Intermediate, or Tertiary, colors are created by mixing a primary and a secondary.
blue-green
blue-purple
red-purple
red-orange
yellow-orange
yellow-green

7. Neutral Colors
The principles of color mixing let us describe a variety of colors, but there are still many colors to explore. Black, white, gray and sometimes brown are considered "neutral”. The neutral brown is made by combining the three primary colors or two complimentary colors.

8. Color Values
Color values are the lights and darks of a color you create by using black and white (‘neutrals”) with a color. This makes hundreds of more colors from the basic 12 colors of the wheel.
white + color = tint
color + black = shade

9. Tints
Tints are lightened colors. Always begin with white and add a bit of color to the white until the desired tint is obtained. This is an example of a value scale for the tints of blue.

10. Shades
Shades are darkened colors. Always begin with the color and add just a bit of black at a time to get the desired shade of a color. This is an example of a value scale for the shades of blue.

11. monochromatic, complementary, analogous, warm and cool.
Color Schemes
Color Schemes are a systematic way of using the color wheel to put colors together… in your art work, putting together the clothes you wear, deciding what colors to paint your room…..
monochromatic, complementary, analogous, warm and cool.

12. Monochromatic
“Mono” means “one”, “chroma” means “color”… monochromatic color schemes have only one color and its values. The following slide shows a painting done in a monochromatic color scheme.

13. This non-objective painting has a monochromatic color scheme - green and the values (tints and shades) of green.

14. Complementary
Complementary colors are opposite on the color wheel provided a high contrast - if you want to be noticed wear complementary colors!
What Louisiana sports team uses complementary colors?

15. This painting has complementary colors and their values - blues and oranges.
Yellows and violets.

16. Movie posters LOVE the orange and blue color scheme… too much.

17. Analogous
The analogous color scheme is 3-5 colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel. This combination of colors provides very little contrast.

18. Analogous colors are illustrated here: yellow-orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, and blue-green.

19. Warm
Warm colors are found on the right side of the color wheel. They are colors found in fire and the sun. Warm colors make objects look closer in a painting or drawing.

20. This is an illustration of the use of warm colors - reds, oranges and yellows.

21. Cool
Cool colors are found on the left side of the color wheel. They are the colors found in snow and ice and tend to recede in a composition.

22. Note the cool color scheme in this painting (greens, purples and blues).

23. Artists known for
their color use

24. Claude Monet ( )
A French Impressionist, he’s known for his lilipads and other flower-dominant landscapes.
Impressionists created art through “optical mixing” – aka a lot of Monet’s colors are not mixed on the canvas, but the viewer’s own eyes mix those colors when they look at the painting from a distance!

25. Vincent Van Gogh ( )
This Dutch Post-Impressionist painter is known for his vibrant paintings that show his brushstrokes and also for his mental illness. (Yeah, he’s the “ear guy.”)
Most of his paintings are in the analogous scheme running from yellow to blue.

26. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)
Also a Post-Impressionist, Toulouse-Lautrec tended to paint the night life, like can-can clubs. He often made posters for their shows.
His night life art tends to take on an eerie green tint.
He suffered from a genetic abnormality similar to dwarfism.

27. Wayne Thiebaud (1920-___)
An American guy who just sort of took up commercial advertising design and eventually ended up painting classic 1950s “Americana”. (mostly foods and landscapes)
His paintings tend to use the entire color wheel. He does numerous colored outlines that make his paintings pop!

28. What color pencils to use
Yellow – “Yellow”
Yellow-Orange – Mix “Yellow” and “Orange”
Orange – “Orange”
Orange-Red – “Red-Orange”
Red – “Red”
Red-Purple – Mix “Red” and “Purple”
Purple – “Purple”
Purple-Blue – Mix “Purple” and “Blue”
Blue – “Blue”
Blue-Green – Mix “Light Blue” and “Green”
Green – “Green”
Yellow-Green – “Yellow-Green”

29. Value Scale Hold your paper in “landscape” – aka horizontally
Write on the top: “VALUE SCALE” NEATLY!
Make a box that is 1.5” tall and 10.5” wide.
Divide it up into seven 1.5” x 1.5” squares
*White on the first square – pure hue in the 4th square – black in the last square… then mix white or black with the color to get the colors in between.*