Is color theory something that seems vague, not giving you enough information to create successful color mixing?

How would you like to reliably create recipes for continued success in your paintings?

I have to admit that color mixing was semi-easy for me. I have always loved color and have mostly painted brilliantly colored subjects. I took some color theory courses in college where we were mixing lots of charts.  One thing which always confused me……was the working with warm and cool colors. 

The temperature in color theory was described as being warm or cool. This doesn’t tell me how to mix a color. Warm for me, means biscuits fresh out of the oven. Cool means a glass of lemonade on a hot summer’s day. So how do these terms help me mix colors? Honestly….. for me it doesn’t work.

I was also taught there are 3 primary colors; red, yellow, and blue. Those 3 colors were supposed to be the ingredients for mixing all the colors. NOT TRUE!

What I learned is there are NO true/pure reds, yellow, or blues. If you go to a hardware store where they have paint chips there are thousands of colors available to paint you house, especially the interior. If you had 20 people go into the store and ask them to pick the “perfect or true” red, you probably would have 20 different types of red. 

So what is missing?

I have found that the best way to start understanding how to work with color is to start with a 6 color system, 2 reds, 2 yellows and 2 blues. Looking at color swatches you can see that a red can be categorized as an orange red or a violet red, yellows can be either an orange yellow or a green yellow, blues are either a green blue or a violet blue. Starting with this basic analysis it eliminate the 2 principles I learned about color temperature and primary colors. 

These are the 6 basic colors I use to create most of my paintings.

I now describe my colors by distinguishing what kind of a red is it? An orange red or a violet red? This description is telling me what to expect from the color instead of just sayin it is a warm or cool primary red. This is a much easier way to start learning how to mix colors successfully.

Does this make sense to you? Have you experienced this type of color mixing? Would you like to learn more????  Successful color mixing does not have to be complicated. In my watercolor and colored pencil online classes I break down color. I explain clearly why I use what I use and give the knowledge so you can create your own successful color recipes.

Are you ready to try  your hand in creating glorious color??? Join me in an online class to capture the color you have always wanted in either my colored pencil or watercolor class.