Understanding Complimentary Colors

Series Summary

Think of color theory as a dinner party. When you are planning your seating chart/painting, you don’t want to seat colors next to each other that don’t get along or all of the other guests will be miserable as well. Seat a Bold Blue next to certain members of the Green family, and they will quietly discuss their shared interests. But seat that same Bold Blue next to Pink and they will be shouting at each other the entire meal. And if you seat another more introspective Green family member next to Purple, they will most likely make the other diners uncomfortable and unable to digest their food. Also keep in mind the intended mood of the dinner party. If you are commemorating a somber occasion, you might not want to invite Red and Yellow at all. And Dark Blue and Black can really bring down the proceedings if you’re hoping for a happy gathering. So plan carefully, then sit back and enjoy your feast, be it for the belly or the eyes!

In this series of art instruction videos, our expert painter shows you how to mix primary and secondary colors as well as how to effectively use these colors in your own work of art. Start with six colors and quickly turn those six into twenty four using tips from our experienced artist. Begin with a solid grasp of the basics from Expert Village, then let your imagination do the rest. You will be creating your own masterpieces in no time!

Video Transcript

"Hi! I'm Sue Rose with Expert Village and today we are going to talk about using color in your paintings. The book that I consider my bible of painting is this Itten's book, The Elements of Color and you can see a picture of the color wheel. I spent many years in school when I was getting my degree doing little squares of color like this because color can set the mood or the feeling can be warm or cool. Today we are going to start with the very basic elements of color which are your primary and secondary colors. Stay tuned for that segment on your primary and secondary colors. "