Colors, or Hue which is actually
the term used to name colors, are broken down into several categories. The
very first ones you want to start with, are the Primary Colors.There are three of them:
RED,
BLUE, and
YELLOW
They are called Primary colors, because
they cannot be made from any combination of colors or pigments.
Mixing any two of the primary colors together will give you
Secondary Colors.
Just out of curiosity, you should try
mixing all three primary colors and see what you get. Go ahead, you might
be surprised.
Secondary Colors
The Secondary
Colors are:
GREEN.
ORANGE and
PURPLE
The Basics
What are the basic rules to get
the colors you want? If you mix two primary colors, you get a
secondary color.
Mix red and blue and you get purple.
Mix red and yellow and you get orange.
Mix yellow and blue and you get green.
Now,
suddenly your three tubes of paint have become 6
colors.
Alter the shade of the Secondary Color
By varying the
amount of each primary color you use, you can alter the shade or
Hue of the secondary color.
On
this color wheel, which I strongly suggest you get, you can see that if
you use equal parts of blue and yellow, you get "pure" green.
If
you put more blue than yellow in, you get a blue green.
If you put
more yellow in than blue, you get yellow green. Sap green is an example of
a yellow green.
Here is an example of mixing a little blue into red
and some white to make permanent rose.
Make your Colors Darker or Lighter
If you look on the
other side of the wheel, you will see how black or white added to the
colors darken or lighten them. This is known as Changing it's
Value.
Using black or white with the Primary or Secondary
Colors gives you unlimited colors to choose from.
I personally do
not like using black if I don't have too, because I feel that it deadens
the color. What I prefer to use are complimentary colors.
So now
you want to know How to make black paintthat won't
deaden your colors?
The answer is: Use ultramarine
blue and burnt umber.
Usually it is about equal parts, but
your can adjust to your liking.
Here is an example of mixing a
little red into green to give you a darker shade of green. If I had added
a small amount of green to the red, it would have darkened the red
Complementary Colors
What are complementary colors?
If you look at the color wheel again, any color that is
directly across from another color, is the complementary
color.
Red and Green are
complementary. 3:1 ratio cadimium red to Phthalo green plus white
will give you a gray Changing the ratio will give you either a dark green
or a dark red.
Blue and Orange are
complementary. 3:1 ratio Ultra Marine blue to Cadmium orange plus
white will give you a gray. Changing the ratio will give you a dark blue
or a dark orange approaching a sienna.
Purple and yellow (violet) are complementary. 3:1
ratio deep violet to cadmium yellow plus white will give you a gray.
Changing the ratio will give you a dark violet or a dark yellow
approaching ochre
If you put only a
little purple into a lot of yellow, you get Ochre, because you are
essentially graying down the yellow.
The interesting thing about
Complementary colors is that, they complement each other even
though they are at the oposite sides of the color wheel.
In
these three cases, the ratio was 3:1 to get a neutral gray. Generally, the
3:1 ratio or very close to it will be right for most mixtures, as long as
they are truly complementary. You'll just have to experiment with the
colors you have on your pallet.
Changing the Value of the Colors
When mixed in unequal parts, you
can take advantage of them for creating a variety of darker values of the
dominant color without using black.
The perfect example is when
you have put down green for foliage. If you add some red to the green, it
will darken the green and give the appearance of shadowed areas. In my DVD, "Painting with Acrylics:
Sombrero Peak", you can see how I added permanent rose to
permanent sap green to get a darker shade of green for the shadowing and
background of the foreground foliage.
The key to using
complementary colors is that different ratios have different
effects.
The best thing for you to do is experiment with
the colors you have on your pallet to see what colors you get.
You
also change the value by adding white to the color like we did when
producing the grays.
This would be a good time to try mixing
complementary colors to see how each react, and how you can
alter their reaction by changing the ratio of the two
colors.
Don't limit yourself to just the primary and
secondary colors. Look at the color wheel. Blue-violet and yellow-orange,
for example, are complementary. Just remember, any two colors opposite
each other are complementary.
Tertiary Colors
What are Tertiary Colors?
These are
the colors on the color wheel that fall between the Primary Colors and the
Secondary Color.
In this picture, you can see that the blue-green and the
yellow-green would be the Tertiary colors.
The general rule of
thumb is that when you mix a Tertiary Color with the Primary Color that is
not a part of it all ready, you will get a variety of browns.
Try
it and see what colors you get.
Harmonious Colors
What are Harmonious Colors?
It is usually recommended that you use complementary colors in you
paintings. Sometimes you don't want to use complementary colors
because you are focusing on using all Harmonious Colors.
Colors
that are close to each other on the color wheel are call "Harmonious
colors". They are made up in part, by some of the same colors and work
very well together in a painting.
So, for instance. yellow-green,
yellow and yellow-orange would be harmonious colors, as would,
blue-violet, violet, and re-violet.
I'm sure you have seen
paintings made up of only Harmonious Colors. They can be quite beautiful.
Take some time now to use only Harmonious Colors to see how nicely
they work together and give painting a completely different
feel.
Analogous Colors
What are Analogous Colors?
These are three colors that are directly adjacent to each other on the color wheel. They relate to each other because they each contain one common color.
I
use it constantly and would have been lost without it when I was first
painting. It gives you all the Ratios for different colors. It also breaks
the book into three distinct areas:
Here's some
Tips
Some Reminiscing
About Learning How to Paint Landscapes
How are you at mixing colors?Do you ever get in the middle of a painting
and discover that you do not have the color you want? 
There are three of them:
The Secondary
Colors are:
If you put only a
little purple into a lot of yellow, you get Ochre, because you are
essentially graying down the yellow. 
