5/8/2020 What You Need to Know About Color Theory for Painting

What You Need to Know About Color Theory for

Painting
Written by Marion Boddy-Evans
Updated 02/08/20

In color mixing for painting, the fundamental rule is that three colors cannot be made by mixing other
colors. These three (red, blue, and yellow) are known as the primary colors.

Mixing Primary Colors

If you mix two primaries, you create what is called a secondary color. Mixing blue and red creates
purple, red and yellow make orange, and yellow and blue make green. The exact hue of the secondary
color you've mixed depends on which red, blue, or yellow you use and the proportions in which you mix
them. If you mix three primary colors, you get a tertiary color.

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What About Black and White?

Black and white can also not be made by mixing other colors, but as they aren't used in color mixing to
create colors, they get excluded from color mixing theory. If you add white to a color you lighten it and
if you add black you darken it (though some painters don't use black at all).

Different Blues, Reds, and Yellows

Yes, you can buy various blues, reds, and yellows. For example, blues include cobalt blue, cerulean
blue, ultramarine, monestial blue, and Prussian blue. Reds include alizarin crimson or cadmium red, and
yellows have cadmium yellow medium, cadmium yellow light, or lemon yellow. These are all primary
colors, just different versions.

Which Specific Primary Colors You Should Use

It's not a question of there being a right or wrong primary to use, but rather that each blue, red, and
yellow is different and produces a different result when mixed. Each pair of primaries will produce
something different, sometimes only subtly different.

Get Started with the Color Theory Triangle

Print out Color Mixing Triangle Worksheet and paint it in. It's color mixing at its most basic, the first
step on a journey with color.

01 Warm and Cool Colors

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Carolyn Hebbard / Getty Images

Every color has a certain bias toward what's called warm and cool. It's not something that's
overwhelming; it's subtle. But it's an important element in color mixing as it influences the results.

As a group, reds and yellows are considered warm colors and blue a cool color. But if you compare
different reds (or yellows or blues), you'll see that there are warm and cool versions of each of these
colors (relative to each other only). For example, cadmium red is definitely warmer than alizarin
crimson (though alizarin crimson will always be warmer than, say, a blue).

Importance of Warm and Cool Colors

It's important to recognize that individual colors have a bias toward cool or warm for color mixing. If
you mix two warms together, you'll get a warm secondary color and, conversely, if you mix two cools
together you'll get a cool secondary.

For example, mixing cadmium yellow and cadmium red light creates a warm orange. If you mix lemon
yellow with alizarin crimson, you get a cooler, more gray orange. Mixing secondary colors is not only
about the proportions in which you mix two primary colors, but also knowing what different reds,
yellows, and blues produce.

02 Secondary Colors
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Guido Mieth / Getty Images

Secondary colors are made by mixing two primary colors: red and yellow to get orange, yellow and
blue to get green, or red and blue to get purple. The secondary color you get depends on the proportions
in which you mix the two primaries. If you mix three primary colors, you get a tertiary color. Secondary
colors are made by mixing two primary colors. Red and yellow make orange, red and blue make purple,
and yellow and blue make green.

What Colors My Primaries Will Produce

Red and yellow always make some kind of orange, yellow and blue a green, and blue and red a purple.
The actual color you get depends on which primary you're using (for example whether it's Prussian blue
or ultramarine you're mixing with cadmium red) and the proportions in which you mix the two
primaries. Paint a color chart where you record which two colors you mixed and the (approximate)
proportions of each. This will provide you with a ready reference until you get to the stage when you
instinctively know what you'll get.

Using Primary Colors

The proportions in which you mix the two primaries are important. If you add more of one than the
other, the secondary color will reflect this. For example, if you add more red than yellow, you end up

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with a strong, reddish-orange; if you add more yellow than red, you produce a yellowish-orange.
Experiment with all the colors you have—and keep a record of what you've done.

03 Mixing vs. Buying Ready-Made Colors

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Michael Blann / Getty Images

Color mixing gives you a range of colors with a minimum number of tubes of paint (very useful when
painting outside your studio). If you're using a lot of a certain color, you'll probably decide it's easier to
buy it in a tube rather than mix it up again and again.

But you'll find that there'll always be an instance when the color you want simply doesn't come ready-
made, such as a particular green in a landscape. Your knowledge of color mixing will enable you to
adapt a ready-made green to the shade you require.

The advantage of buying a premixed color is that you are assured of getting the identical hue each time.
And some single-pigment secondary colors, such as cadmium orange, have an intensity that's hard to
match from mixed colors.

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04 Tertiary Colors
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Guido Mieth / Getty Images

Browns and grays contain all three primary colors. They're created by mixing either all three primary
colors or a primary and secondary color (secondary colors being made from two primaries). By varying
the proportions of the colors you're mixing, you create the different tertiary colors.

Easiest Way to Mix a Brown

Mix a primary color with its complementary color. So add orange to blue, purple to yellow, or green to
red. Each of these makes a different brown, so once again make up a color chart to give you a quick
reference to refer to.

Easiest Way to Mix a Gray

Mix some orange (or yellow and red) with a blue then add some white. You'll always want more blue
than orange but experiment with the amount of white you use. You can also mix blue with an earth
color, such as raw umber or burnt sienna. With watercolor you don't have white paint; to lighten a gray
you add more water instead of white, but remember the gray will be lighter when it dries.

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Why Your Tertiary Colors Keep Turning out Muddy

If you mix too many colors, you'll get mud. If your gray or brown isn't coming out the way you want it
to, rather start again than add more color in the hope it'll work.

05 Complementary Colors
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Dimitri Otis / Getty Images

The complementary color of a primary color (red, blue, or yellow) is the color you get by mixing the
other two primary colors. So the complementary color of red is green, blue is orange, and yellow is
purple.

Secondary Colors

The complementary of a secondary color is the primary color that wasn't used to make it. So the
complementary color of green is red, orange is blue, and purple is yellow.

Complementary Colors and Color Theory

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When placed next to each other, complementary colors make each other appear brighter, more intense.
The shadow of an object will also contain its complementary color, for example, the shadow of a green
apple will contain some red.

How to Remember This

The color triangle makes it easy to remember: the three primary colors are in the corners. The color you
get by mixing two primaries is between them (red and yellow make orange, red and blue make purple,
and yellow and blue make green). The complementary color of a primary color is the color opposite it
(green is the complementary of red, orange for blue, and purple for yellow).

Print out Color Mixing Triangle Worksheet and paint it in. It may seem like a simple exercise, hardly
worth spending time on, but it's the first step in a fundamental painting skill—successful color mixing.
Put it up on the wall where you can see it at a glance until you've internalized which colors are
primaries, secondaries, tertiaries, and complementaries.

Mixing Complementary Colors

If you mix complementary colors, you get a tertiary color, particularly browns (rather than grays).

06 Color Theory Lesson: Using Black and White

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