- The primary pigment colors are the essential building blocks for the creation of every other color. Red (magenta), yellow and blue (cyan), are mixed together in different combinations to create the secondary colors, orange, green and purple. Tertiary are the colors created by mixing the primary colors into secondary colors such as yellow orange.
- Creating a color wheel is the easiest way to fully understand the primary, secondary and tertiary colors. Use a large sheet of paper and red, yellow, and blue watercolor or tempera paint. Start by painting a red, yellow and blue circle of paint in a triangle formation with the color circle at each point of the triangle. In the space between the circles, mix one primary color with the next primary on the triangle to create the secondary color. Continue mixing colors to create the tertiary colors. When finished, label the colors created.
- Along with the primary, secondary and tertiary colors, the warm, cool and neutral colors are part of color theory. Red, yellow and orange are warm colors and thought to create feelings of warmth, excitement or anger by reminding us of something warm or hot. Blue, green and purple are considered the cool colors and make us think of cold things, serenity or calm. Neutral colors are gray and brown and are not part of the color wheel. They are plain and do not contrast with any colors.
- Understanding the use of warm, cool and neutral colors can be accomplished by creating a painting using one set to evoke an emotion. Select a set of colors to work with and an emotion or feeling associated with them, such as the feeling of calm and the cool colors. Create a sketch of a self-portrait showing your face expressing the emotion selected. Using only the set of colors correlating with your emotion, paint the self-portrait. Use white and black as accent colors by adding outlines or highlights to finish the painting.
- Complementary colors are located directly across from each other on the color wheel. They are red and green, yellow and purple, and blue and orange. Analogous colors are two colors located right next to each other on the color wheel such as yellow and orange. Complementary colors contrast each other making the colors seem more vibrant when placed next to each other. Analogous colors seem to blend into each other when next to each other, creating a smooth and serene contrast.
- White and black are used to create different value or brightness to a color. By adding black to a color, the value or darkness of the color is changed. Mixing white with a color changes the brightness of a color.
- Select a set of either complementary colors or analogous colors. Choose an object to draw such as a flower or an animal. Sketch out the object on a large piece of white paper. Try to have the objects touch each side of the paper in your sketch. With the two colors selected along with black and white, paint the object. Experiment mixing different values and brightness of each color along with mixing the two colors selected together. Use all the colors created in your painting.
