Color Theory Week 1
Warm & Cool Colors and Our Watercolor Color Wheel
This week, we explored warm and cool colors and discovered how many different colors we can create using just three primary colors! Our color wheel is a great reference to keep nearby as we continue painting and experimenting with watercolor.
1. Understanding Warm and Cool Colors
We often think of reds, oranges, and yellows as warm colors, and blues, greens, and purples as cool colors. But did you know that every color family can have both warm and cool colors?
A helpful way to tell the difference is to look at what color a paint leans toward.
Warm red: Leans toward orange.
Cool red: Leans toward purple.
Warm yellow: Leans toward orange.
Cool yellow: Leans toward green.
Warm blue: Leans toward purple.
Cool blue: Leans toward green.
It can be tricky to tell at first, especially when comparing two colors that look very similar. Try placing them next to each other and looking closely at their undertones.
2. Creating Our Color Wheel
For my color wheel, I used three primary colors:
Lemon yellow
Light red
Cerulean blue
Step 1: Start with your primary colors.
Paint your yellow, red, and blue in their designated sections of the wheel.
Step 2: Mix your secondary colors.
Mix yellow and blue to create green, yellow and red to create orange, and red and blue to create purple.
Step 3: Fill in the colors between.
Continue around the wheel, mixing neighboring colors to create transitions. For example, mixing yellow with green creates yellow-green, while mixing yellow with orange creates yellow-orange.
You can mix your colors on your palette before painting, or mix them directly on the paper as you work. Choose whichever approach feels comfortable to you.
Step 4: Explore value.
Each color section has three areas to explore how light or dark a color can be.
Top section: A lighter value, created by adding more water.
Middle section: The color at its regular strength.
Bottom section: The darkest, most concentrated version of the color you can achieve.
Value simply means how light or dark a color is. Learning to control value is an important watercolor skill that will help you create depth and dimension in your paintings.
3. Notice What Your Paints Can Do
You may notice that some of your mixed colors look different than you expected. For example, my purple turned out more brownish than purple!
This happens because every pigment has its own characteristics. The particular red and blue we used created a more muted mixture rather than a bright purple. That doesn’t mean anything went wrong. These earthy, muted colors can be beautiful and useful in nature-inspired paintings.
As you experiment, pay attention to which combinations create bright colors and which create softer, more neutral colors. Your own color wheel will become a helpful reference for future paintings.
Keep your color wheel nearby! We’ll use what we learned about mixing colors as we continue exploring watercolor.
Putting Our Color Wheel to Use
Now that we’ve created our color wheel, let’s put those colors to work! For this exercise, I painted a simple leaf using five colors mixed from our three primary colors.
One of the lovely things about watercolor is that we don’t need a huge collection of paints to create a beautiful painting. By mixing a few colors and choosing a small palette, we can create a painting that feels cohesive and harmonious.
1. Choose Your Colors
Step 1: Look at your color wheel.
Take a moment to look at the colors you created. Notice which ones you love, which ones work well together, and which combinations surprise you.
Step 2: Choose five colors.
For my leaf, I chose five colors from my color wheel. You can choose colors that are close together on the wheel for a harmonious, nature-inspired palette, or experiment with colors that create a little more contrast.
Step 3: Mix your colors.
Use your three primary colors to mix the colors you selected. You can prepare them on your palette before you begin or mix them as you paint.
Step 4: Paint your leaf.
Use your chosen colors throughout the leaf, allowing some areas to be lighter and others darker. You don’t need to use every color equally. Try repeating a few of your colors in different areas to help the painting feel connected.
2. Why Limit Your Color Palette?
Choosing a smaller group of colors helps bring harmony to a painting. When colors are related or thoughtfully chosen, they tend to work together rather than compete for attention.
Mixing your own colors also helps you become more familiar with your paints. Over time, you’ll begin to recognize which combinations create bright greens, earthy browns, soft purples, and all the wonderful colors we find in nature.
There isn’t just one right way to create a palette. Try different combinations and notice what you enjoy. Your color wheel is a starting point, and the more you experiment, the more confident you’ll become in choosing colors for your paintings.
Remember: The goal isn’t to create a perfect leaf. It’s to explore your colors, enjoy the process, and discover what your paints can do!
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