As an artist, or if you want to get started with art, being able to have a unique color palette or to understand color mixing can be overwhelming. Don’t lose hope. There are some things you can do to get better and improve. To understand color and to know what colors to use is important and will reduce a lot of frustration.
In this article, we are going to talk about color exercise and resources on how to get started in order to improve the colors in your artwork.
Why are Color Studies so important?
Color mixing and color studies such as tone and value is a crucial thing for artists to work because it is the pillar to create good artwork. Color contrast, value contrast , knowing primaries, tertiary colors, complementary colors make all the difference to captivate the viewer and to express your feelings and your goals in your painting.
If you just want to paint as a hobby or create art journal pages that make you feel satisfied, knowing colors can help you create art journal pages that light up your soul.
Stuff that is necessary
The color wheel
When people want to paint and create unique pieces in most excellent classes, teachers will talk about colors and the color wheel.
Immediately, you see how people grunge and feel almost like: why should I mix colors if we have all these colors available?
It’s important above to understand the color wheel to know what color compliments what color, which color creates contrast, what is the complementary color of the color you are using so your page or paint have a cohesive look. It’s a hard process and requires a lot of work, but at the end will create a unique look to our work as artists.
Custom colors combos
Getting to understand the color wheel can also help you create your own color combos and combinations.
Get to know the color wheel you won’t regret!
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Fix Your Color Problems
I was not happy with my work with acrylics because I paint in oils which are more vibrant than oils I had difficulties to get the vibrance and the color combinations that were with the vivid look I wanted to give to my floral work or abstracts.
There is also the typical issue: how not to turn things brown?
A common mistake when we don’t understand the color wheel is not to mix colors that end up brown, because we maybe don’t understand primary, secondary and tertiary colors.
Solution
I wanted to work also not just with color tones but also color values. Value contrast is something that is my goal to start to study more to use more in my work.
I got to know my materials better and did colors mixing with palettes from colors that I enjoyed from my stash.
If you’re not familiar with values, they are how light and how dark a particular color can get on the entire spectrum of those colors.
Creating exercises with secondary colors and tertiary colors.
As you can see in the image, this palette gives me many options for work. I can just paint from the primary colors or from mixing them.
The great thing about this work is that colors that are mixed from the palette become complementary colors.
How to Start Learning ?
One of the simple things is to get your paints and create mixing and discover palettes you enjoy ,
Create sketches from 2 complimentary, 1 secondary and 1 complementary, 2 secondaries, 1 color different values. Possibilities to study are endless!
Resource
Very comprehensive study about color studies, she explains about primaries, complementary colors and so on.
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I like this color wheel a lot! The reason is not just it has mixing tips and helps you to know complimentary, tertiaries and so on, but also has a small value chart.
These two resources are already a great resource for you to get started and more comfortable with the results of your work.
For sure, I’ll be talking way more about colors. They are a big part of creating happy paintings!
Let me know if you struggle with colors?
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