How to paint a watercolor: COLOR VALUES

Over the years, students have had such difficulty understanding how a percentage of value relates to a percentage of color, that I decided to re-invent the color wheel for them.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Watercolor paints
• Water
• Brush

1. This color wheel is designed to show 100% of a color along its outside edge.
   The colors decrease in value, ending in a white circle.
   The proportions of color ( after being mixed with water) have been divided as follows: 100, 85 ,70, 50, 35, and 15%.
   Six or seven values are all that is ever needed to complete a fresh, bright, watercolor painting.
2. The values of color on the wheel relate directly to the values of gray shown at the bottom of the illustration. Thereby, allowing the artist to transpose a value of gray (in a black and white copy) to a value of color. Also the reverse.
   Values, are also known as: tones, hues, shades and intensities, but if you stick to the word “value” and “value scale” you’ll save yourself a lot of confusion over this important aspect of painting.
3. The primary colors are: RED, YELLOW and BLUE.
   The secondary colors are: ORANGE, GREEN and PURPLE.
   Both Primary and Secondary colors can be either WARM or COOL depending on the color ( next to them on the wheel) that they are mixed with.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember: Only the value of the color changes, not the color itself.
• Hopefully, this is some valuable information for your next painting session!