Color Theory

Color Mix - Yellow - Violet

 



Color Match



Color Theory - This week in class we studied color theory.  While I've always had a color wheel in all my art boxes whether I'm painting in pastel, acrylic or watercolor, I have to admit it just hasn't been a tool I've used a lot.   I know my primary colors don't get me wrong and I know how to mix the basic secondary colors; but this was my first time to have someone walk me through the entire color wheel and explain relationships.   Not sure I remember them all but I am beginning to understand mixing colors.

I love pastels but one of the drawbacks to pastel is "color mixing".   I've had lots of teachers spend lots of time talking and demonstrating choosing the perfect value but I never really "got it".   I think having been a beginner in retrospect, I would advise any instructor to take the "true" beginner through the process of experiencing the color wheel and mixing and matching colors.   It might take a couple of hours and maybe even a couple of class sessions to get the basics explained but it's worth it.   What was really valuable was mixing and matching the colors myself.     We used a good acrylic paint to create our colors.  

The projects above were the results of a couple of those mix and match experiences.   The first was taking Yellow(primary) and Violet (secondary) and mixing variations by adding white in 5 different quanities and then adding black in 2 different quanities to create tints and tones.  The second project was taking a photo from a magazine and circling 5-6 colors and then mixing colors to match the colors in the photo.

Definitely a process I need to repeat over and over to get it right and to beginning to identify the same values in various colors.   Hopefully this experience will generalize to my pastel painting over time.