I bet that everyone had lessons about colors in their elementary school. Maybe sooner, maybe later but the basic theory should be covered during art lessons. When it comes to painting miniatures this knowledge is crucial but it should be expanded a lot.
Color types
Just a quick reminder:
- Primary colors – three primary colors that cannot be created by mixing other colors:
- red,
- yellow,
- blue.
- Secondary colors – they are created by mixing primary colors in ratio 1:1:
- red + yellow = orange,
- red + blue = violet,
- yellow + blue = green.
- Tertiary (intermediate) colors – they are created by mixing a primary color with a secondary color. When it comes to naming them you should use the primary color name first. For example:
- Red-orange,
- Red-violet.
- Warm (aggressive) colors – as the name suggests, these are colors associated with warmth.
- Cool (receding) colors – similarly, these are colors associated with cold.
However, there are many more breakdowns:
- Basic (chromatic) colors – colors of the rainbow (all colors except white, gray and black).
- Neutral (achromatic) colors – black, white and all shades of grey.
- Neutral grey – a mix of black and white only.
- Earthy colors – a huge variety of browns and colors connected with earth or minerals.
- Pure colors – six colors (three primary and three secondary) creating the most basic color wheel.
- Complementary colors – opposite color (on the color wheel).
- Dirty colors – they are created by mixing a primary or secondary color with the complementary color or with black.
Color properties
When we think about color we can separate two properties:
- Hue – basically it is another name for color and it refers to pure colors created without black, white or grey.
- Saturation (chroma) – intensity of the color. If you want to desaturate color just add white or black. The more white or black you add, the more desaturated color you receive. If you look at the whole range of one color, from its greyest form to lighter version, something in the middle is the most saturated and vivid version of color.
There are few terms describing the saturation that we can use:
- Tint = color + white
- Tone = color + gray
- Shade = color + black
- Luminance (value) – in simple words it describes if the color is bright or dark. For example, yellow is brighter than blue or brown. When it comes to painting, if you want to:
- reduce luminance, add more blue to color that contains blue.
- gain luminance, add more yellow to color that contains yellow.
Color mixing
By mixing three basic colors you can create any color and the final result depends on how much of each color you use. It is important to remember that if you add more color with yellow tones, you will receive a warm color. On the other hand, if you add color with blue tones, you will have a cold color. For example, if you mix 70% of red with 30% of blue you will receive a warm violet. If you keep the same ratio but swap colors, you will have cold violet. You should remember that if you mix a cold secondary/tertiary color with warm color which was used to create this cold one, you will receive warm color. For example, if you mix pure green (blue and yellow in 1:1 ratio) with yellow, there will be more warm tones and the final result will be warmer.
Examples:
- navy blue = blue + orange,
- brown = red + green or orange + black,
- khaki = purple + yellow,
- different kinds of white:
- cold white = white + blue,
- dirty white = white + grey,
- ivory = white + yellow.
- black = blue + yellow + red.
When it comes to color mixing, it is important to add another color in small steps and mix them immediately. If you don’t use a wet pallet and you want to recreate color and use it later, make notes in the meantime. Probably you won’t achieve the same result but it will be way closer than if you wouldn’t note anything. You should also remember about one more thing, that the final result depends on light – in darker rooms colors will be more intense and darker and the same color in lighter rooms will be more vivid and lighter. Same if you will put light color next to dark, in this way the light color will be lighter and the dark color darker. It will be described in detail in an article about color combination.
How to create a mood – temperature matters
If you will use pure colors the whole scene will be connected with joy, fun and happiness. On the other hand, if you use “dirty” colors, the scene will be more dramatic, nostalgic, old or even sad. It is important to remember that the more blue you add, the more cool colors you receive and the colder mood you achieve.
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