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Week 2 of Wildlife Watercolor


Understanding color theory is crucial for watercolor wildlife painting because it allows you to mix realistic, natural hues by blending primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. Most animals and their environments are full of earthy tones like browns, greens, and grays, which are created by mixing red, yellow, and blue in various proportions. This knowledge helps you adjust colors to capture warm or cool shades, create depth and shading, and bring animals to life by accurately rendering their fur, feathers, or scales. It also allows you to harmonize the animals with their natural surroundings and highlight distinctive features with subtle color variations.


Watercolor color theory revolves around understanding how colors mix and interact to create new hues. The basic principles of color theory apply to all forms of painting, but watercolor paints are transparent and delicate, so color mixing requires special attention.





Primary Colors

In watercolor (and most traditional color systems), the primary colors are:

  • Red

  • Yellow

  • Blue

These are the foundational colors that cannot be created by mixing other colors. From these three, you can create virtually every other color by mixing them together in various combinations.

Secondary Colors

When you mix two primary colors, you get secondary colors:

  • Red + Yellow = Orange

  • Yellow + Blue = Green

  • Blue + Red = Purple

Secondary colors are the result of equal or near-equal mixtures of two primary colors.

Tertiary Colors

When you mix a primary color with a neighboring secondary color, you get tertiary colors. Examples include:

  • Red + Orange = Red-Orange

  • Yellow + Green = Yellow-Green

  • Blue + Purple = Blue-Purple

Tertiary colors give you a broader range of hues and are essential in creating depth and subtlety in watercolor painting.


Mixing to Get Browns

When you mix all three primary colors together (red, yellow, and blue), they neutralize each other and form different shades of brown. The specific shade of brown you get depends on the ratio of the colors used:

  • Equal amounts of red, yellow, and blue typically result in a neutral, middle brown.

  • More red will create a warmer, reddish-brown.

  • More yellow will make the brown warmer and more golden.

  • More blue will cool the brown, leading to a more grayish or earthy brown.

Modifying Browns

By adjusting the ratio of the primary colors, you can create different nuances of brown. For example:

  • Warm browns are achieved by adding more red or yellow to the mix.

  • Cool browns are achieved by adding more blue.


The transparency of watercolor also adds another layer of complexity. Watercolor paints are translucent, so the color intensity can change based on the water content and the layers of paint you apply. When you dilute the brown with more water, it becomes lighter and can even shift in hue based on which primary color dominates the mix.


In summary:

  • Primary colors: Red, Yellow, Blue

  • Secondary colors: Orange, Green, Purple

  • Tertiary colors: Combinations of primary and secondary colors

  • Brown: Mixing red, yellow, and blue in different proportions creates different shades of brown.

  • Warm or cool brown: Adjust by adding more of one primary color, warming the brown with red or yellow, or cooling it with blue.

This flexibility makes brown a versatile color for shadows, earth tones, and natural effects in watercolor painting.

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