If you are engaged in painting or just use paints in your work or creativity, then you should definitely find out what additional colors are, what shades they are, how to get and use them. This will come in handy both in mixing paints with a brush, and when working on modern graphic tablets.
We study the range: primary and secondary colors
Each of you has at least once seen in books an image of a rainbow strip or circle, where one color smoothly changes into another in the sequence in which they are located in a natural phenomenon - the rainbow. These are not invented color schemes, but a real display of the distribution of shades when dividing a white light beam into its components. Each color corresponds to a specific wavelength.
Such a color wheel is called a spectrum. It is used by artists, designers in the selection of tones and their beautiful combinations for their work. There are three primary colors - red, blue and yellow. You can still hear the term - primary. These colors cannot be obtained by mixing any paints or colored rays. The remaining shades are considered compound, since they are derivatives of the main. Usually, in contrast to the main ones, additional colors are indicated that are obtained by mixing the first among themselves: orange, composed of yellow and red, green - from yellow and blue, and purple - from red and blue. If you mechanically mix the three primary colors, you get black. In the case of optical overlay, white appears.
Pairs of complementary colors
So, complementary colors are those that are located at opposite ends of the lines drawn through the center of the spectral circle. To make it easier for you to navigate in practice, you need to remember the three main pairs: yellow and purple, red and green, orange and blue. The remaining shades are easy to determine by shifting the line corresponding to the diameter of the color spectrum by the desired angle.
How to get extra colors in painting
The pigments of paints in modern sets are usually diverse, so when working with a palette, you can use many ready-made colors, making up the necessary shades from them. If at the initial stage you doubt what needs to be added to the existing color, then you can always use the spectrum as a hint, diagram.
In fact, it is not at all necessary to buy a set of paints with a large number of ready-made shades. It is easy to get all possible gamut yourself, having only the basic colors (blue, red, yellow). To change the saturation of an additional composite hue, black and white colors are required. A problem can only arise if, instead of a pure spectral color, a shade appears in the box, for example, blue-green, violet, burgundy. When choosing a set of paints, be sure to see that it contains pure primary colors, then preparing additional ones will not be difficult for you.
Digital Painting
In the world of modern technology, even artists go beyond monitor screens and electronic input devices for graphic information. Working on a tablet, you create your picture not on paper, but on the display screen, actually mixing out not colors, but outgoing rays of light.
The term "color space" is usually used in computer programs for working with graphics and implies a model for displaying shades in digital form. Each color is characterized by numerical parameters in the selected coordinate system. It can be three-dimensional or multidimensional, depending on the number of axes used, that is, color parameters. The simplest and most understandable color models are RGB, CMYK. The first is used to visualize images on the screen (TV, monitor), and the second - when printing on a four-color device, for example, a regular office printer.
Thus, when drawing on a tablet, you will choose shades of colors, each of which has its own numerical characteristic, consisting of three values.
How to choose a color scheme for a picture
Whatever way you create your work, with a brush on canvas or with a stylus on a graphics tablet, all the colors of the paints must be selected so that they harmonize. This is easy to do using the spectrum.
There are several ways:
- Use only the warm part of the shades (those in which the yellow component is present).
- Take exceptionally cool colors based on blue.
- Try the contrasting option - a combination of one primary color and an additional composite to it, as well as their shades.
- Experiment with achromatic tones (black - gray - white), adding any spectral hue.
These are just the easiest ways to get harmonious, vibrant combinations in your work.
So, the colors of paints are in close relationship. The whole variety of shades can not only be systematized, but also used strictly in accordance with the theoretical knowledge of color science. It is in this case that your work, both man-made and digital, will be the most interesting and spectacular.