How to Use Color Theory for Shading With Acrylic Paint

Shade areas of your painting with acrylic paint.

Color theory is the science of how colors work and interact. Additive color theory concerns lighting, as you are adding more light each time you add a color. Subtractive color theory is used for painting, as each time you add a color, more light is absorbed and taken away from the light you see bouncing off the painting. The way colors blend in each system is different. Use subtractive color theory for acrylic painting, and apply the theory to create shading and the illusion of volume based on the theoretical principles of color.

Things You'll Need

• Acrylic paint
• Acrylic paint brush, round, synthetic bristle
• Palette
• Palette knife
• Painting surface such as canvas, canvas board or heavy paper
• Water
• Cup or can for water
• Colored cylindrical object such as a vase
• Pencil

Instructions

1. Mix the base color of the vase with the acrylic paints. Avoid using black or white paint, and just capture the purest, brightest color of the vase. Mix up about 2 tablespoons of paint in the color of your choice.

2. Use a sweeping stroke of the flat edge of the palette knife to spread your mixed color across your palette.

3. Mix black and white paints together on the side of the palette to get a medium gray and a dark gray. Color theory dictates that as there is less light reflected off the object, the object not only appears darker, but also loses color information.

4. Mix in the medium gray paint into part of your base color, then the dark gray, and finish off by adding some black. The result will be a gradual darkening of your base color and a corresponding removal of hue, the most prominent color component (such as red or blue, as opposed to the value, meaning the lightness or darkness of the color).

5. Draw the vase lightly in pencil on your painting surface.

6. Apply the paint to the painting surface using an acrylic brush. Color theory demonstrates that the brightest color on the vase will be that of the highest chroma or intensity, and counter to expectation, it is not mixed by adding white. Use the pure, mixed color from Step 1 to apply a vertical band on drawing of the vase where the light is the brightest. Use a little water to thin the paint.

7. Apply increasingly darker bands, moving away from the lightest point on each side, starting with the medium gray and base color mixture and moving towards the dark gray and base color mixture, finishing with a band of the black mixed with the base color.

8. Blend the bands of color together using short horizontal strokes, followed by vertical strokes to smooth out the brushstrokes. You will finish with a painting that simulates the way light reflects off of a cylinder, gradually getting darker as the edge of the cylinder is farther from the light source.

References

• Color Matters: Color Theory
• Indiana University Southeast: Oil Painting