Tips for Beginners: Primary and Secondary Colors

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

If you are painting or just using paint in your work or creativity, then you should definitely find out what complementary colors are, what shades they are, how to get and use them. This will come in handy for both mixing paint with a brush and working on modern graphics tablets.

Exploring the spectrum: primary and secondary colors

Each of you at least once met in books the image of a rainbow strip or circle, where one color smoothly turns into another in the sequence in which they are arranged in a natural phenomenon - a rainbow. These are not invented color schemes, but a real display of the distribution of shades when a beam of white light is divided into components. Each color corresponds to a specific wavelength.

This 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 also hear the term - primary. These colors can't be obtainedmixing any paints or colored rays. The remaining shades are considered composite, as they are derivatives of the main ones. Usually, in opposition to the main ones, additional colors are indicated, which are obtained by mixing the first with each other: orange, made up 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 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 to the desired angle.

How to get additional colors in painting

Pigments of paints in modern sets are usually diverse, therefore, when working with a palette, you can use many ready-made colors, making up the desired shades from them. If at the initial stage you doubt what needs to be added to the existing color, you can always use the spectrum as a hint, scheme.

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 the whole possible gamut on your own, having only the primary colors (blue, red, yellow). To change saturationan additional composite shade will require black and white colors. The problem can arise only if in the box instead of a pure spectral color there is some shade of it, for example, blue-green, purple, burgundy. When choosing a set of paints, be sure to see that it contains pure primary colors, then it will not be difficult for you to prepare additional ones.

Digital Painting

In the world of modern technology, even artists are moving 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 not paints, but outgoing rays of light.

The term "color space" is commonly used in computer graphics programs and refers to a model for displaying tints in digital form. Each color is characterized by numerical parameters in the selected coordinate system. It can be 3D or multidimensional, depending on the number of axes used, i.e. color options. The simplest and most understandable color models are RGB, CMYK. The first is used to render images on the screen (TV, monitor), and the second - when printing on a four-color device, such as a regular office printer.

Thus, drawing on the tablet, you will choose shades of colors, each of which has its own numerical characteristic, consisting of three values.

How to choose colors for a painting

Whatever waywhether you created your work with a brush on canvas or a stylus on a graphics tablet, all colors of paints must be selected so that they harmonize. This is easily done using the spectrum.

There are several ways:

1. Use only the warm part of the shades (those with a yellow component).
2. Use exclusively cool colors based on blue.
3. Try a contrasting option - a combination of one primary color and an additional composite color, as well as their shades.
4. Experiment with achromatic tones (black - gray - white) by adding any spectral hue.

These are just the simplest ways to get harmonious, bright combinations in your work.

So, the colors of paints are closely related. The whole variety of shades can not only be systematized, but also used strictly in accordance with theoretical knowledge of color science. It is in this case that your works, both man-made and digital, will be the most interesting and spectacular.