Learn all About the Basic Color Wheel!

Knowing about the basic color wheel is important to your growth as choosing paint colors that fits the mood is a vital part of being successful artist!

In most digital art programs, you deal with a range of color options. To start off, the main option that we are using is the RGB (red, green, and blue) format.

However, there is another useful mode, where few are familiar with, is the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and key [black]) mode of painting. In CMYK format, you basically paint with the colors used by modern day printers.

There are advantages to each of them that your digital program can use. If you decide to use CMYK, it is printer friendly so you know exactly how the printed digital painting will look like! For human eyes, it's best to just use RGB. The colors will be slightly off, but will not make a huge difference at all!

Don't worry about the CMYK format as your digital program can switch between colors with a few clicks!

1. Triadic colors

The basic color wheel consists of three primary colors and three secondary colors. Primary colors are colors that exist without the mixing of any other colors. Secondary colors, on the other hand, need to be mixed with two primary colors to be produced!

The primary colors are blue, red, and yellow, while the secondary colors are purple, green, and orange respectively. Of course, just move around the wheel to get other combinations of triadic colors that you know are correct!

The advantage of having three colors is that it creates harmony (as one color is complements with another color beside it) with a touch of contrast. For example, look at a sunrise! There is a nice combination of reds (sun), blues (sky), and yellows (rocks and land features).

The blues are from the cool night of the sky while the red is from the sun illuminating the picture as it rises up to warm up all that cool atmosphere!

2. Complementary colors

The mixing of colors really ties into the idea of color harmony and color contrast very well. Let's look at complementary colors first!

For color contrasts, any colors on the opposite side of the basic color wheel you want to use are called complementary colors. For example, the complementary color of blue is orange (not red)! The complementary color of red is green, not blue. Not only that, but the complementary color of yellow is purple and not green.

In terms of art composition, complementary colors are used to separate one element from another effectively! In other words, you need to have a central subject in the foreground that contrasts sharply with the background.

In turn, the viewer's attention is focused on main element rather than the background. For example, think of a violet flower in a background of green leaves! The flower is there as the main focus while the leaves are there for supporting the flower!

3. Analogous colors

As you learn the basic color wheel, you will discover that certain colors exist because other colors exist. For instance, red and blue does not exist in a painting if there is no purple to link these two primary colors.

The reverse is true when thinking about any secondary colors in that orange or green can't exist without some value of yellow, red, or blue in your digital painting. This is where color harmony of analogous colors comes along!

As you may have guessed, any color that is part of a group of colors beside one another on the color wheel are considered analogous. These colors are excellent for composition in that you can create color harmony in a painting where the entire painting, not just one part of it, is the main focus!

Obviously, this type of color coordination is not so good when you want one single element to stand out. However, if you are looking for a unifying painting like a cool seascape, look no further than analogous colors!

4. Monochromatic colors

The last type of color is the simplest to work with: monochromatic colors. No, it's not just about black and white! Rather, it's about the range of one particular color hue.

Think about just one color. What happens to contrast? What about light and temperature? What will happen when these colors are in a dark area or light area? These things will surely impact your monochromatic color selection!

In painting, these colors are used to create very dull or isolated environments. Think about deserts, winter backgrounds, and spooky atmospheres. You can see just how these colors can serve the purpose of creating barren settings!

Once you know all about the different types of color combinations, see if you can create these examples on your digital art software! This will help you out with learning about various color management tools available in your digital art program.

I hope you enjoyed this lesson as learning the basic color wheel is artistic knowledge that will last a lifetime! As always, practice and experiment to improve your artistic foundation to be able to paint anything you want!

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