Color theory
In the
arts of
painting, and photography,
color theory is a set of basic rules for mixing color to achieve a desired result. As
pigment and
light are different in terms of how they combine to create colors, so too are the rules for dealing with each. White light is composed of the three primary hues, while combining these same hues in pigment will produce a black color.
In painting the well-known "color wheel", is a tool to teach beginners the essential relationships between color hues: The primary colors:(red, blue, yellow) are combined to form the three secondary colors (purple, green, orange) in a hexagon. A primary color (R,B,Y) will have a secondary color for its opposite —ergo red's complement is green, blue's is orange, and yellow's is purple. Adding a complementary color to a color on the canvas is the traditional technique for making shadows, as well as for choosing a balance of color overall, that the eye does not tire from an overuse of red, for example.
1.Red
2.Purple 2.Orange
*
1.Blue 1.Yellow
2.Green
Shadows
In shadows, "color theory" generally refers to a general choice between adding black pigment, or using a complementary color to contrast a color, thereby making it darker by mixture or by optical illusion. The reason is that adding black to make a shadow tends to flatten the painting —neutralizing any dynamic color interactions that would otherwise occur. Adding a complement, accomplishes the task of defining the darker area, and at the same time, adds another color, creating a more realistic and dimensional look.
Pigment
Depending on the quality of the paint, the balance between colors varies greatly with pigment. One way to test the quality of oil paints is to make a sample of black by mixing the primary hues. To produce black, blue and red are mixed to a dark purple, which is gradually bent toward a colorless black by adding smaller amounts of yellow. Testing the balance of the mixture simply requires separating a small portion and adding white spreading the grey out on the palette. If the grey is colorless, then the black is pure. Poor pigment quality makes a muddy, purplish/greenish glob, while better paints will blend to black or very close to it.
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