Understanding Color

1. Introduction: Hello and welcome to Understanding Color. In this class, we're going to learn all about Color. If you are an artist, you know that some colors work well with each other, while others don't. So it can be tricky to create pleasing color schemes without knowing some of the fundamentals. So in the first few videos, and we'll talk about the 'theory' of color theory. We'll break down basic terminology and we'll look at the color wheel along with all the color schemes that are derived from it. We will also talk about the importance of 'Value' with regards to color. And in the later videos, we'll discuss the applications of color theory. Each video lesson is designed to be short and concise so that it can be re-watched as many times as needed. Remember to TURN ON video subtitles for better learning experience. For demonstration, I'll be using Photoshop and Procreate, but these rules of color are Universal and apply to color mixing everywhere. Well, I hope you find this class informative and useful. And then makes working with color a bit easier, and a lot more fun :) 2. Color Reference Library: Before we get into the theory of color theory, I want to give you a quick and easy method of finding the perfect color scheme for your artwork. All you need is a 'Color Reference Library' containing paintings, illustrations, or posters that inspire you. When you come across an image with an interesting color scheme, simply save it to your color reference library, then open the image in the software you like, pick colors using the 'eye dropper' tool. It's that easy. Essentially, we are using an image as a palette to inform our color choices. To make this process easier I've put together a Pinterest board that you can always refer to. You can find the link in the class description. Alternately, you could visit websites such as 'color hunt' or 'coolers.co' to find workable color templates. But if you're not happy with pre-made color templates and you want to know how to create exciting color schemes by yourself. Then this class is for you :D 3. Color Terminology: So what is a tint? What is a shade? And what do the words Hue, tone and saturation mean? For demonstration, let's use the color red. When we add white to our color, we produce a 'tint' of that color. We obtain a 'shade' by adding black. And when we add grey, which is a mixture of black and white, we get a 'tone' of the colour. When we ask someone to tone down a color, we're asking them to add gray, producing desaturated versions of the color. Now 'saturation' refers to the purity or vibrancy of the color. And the 'value' determines how dark or light the color is. And finally, if we change the hue of a color, we changed the color itself. Purple, orange, and green are examples of different hues. 4. The Color Wheel: All color theory seems to begin with the Color Wheel at its foundation. The Color Wheel is a fundamental tool that helps artists create aesthetically pleasing color schemes. Color schemes are color combinations based on their position on the color wheel. Complimentary split, complementary and analogous are examples of different color schemes. The color wheel was invented by Isaac Newton in the 17th century. Newton discovered that passing white light through a prism caused it to be split into a spectrum of color. He then mapped the spectrum (acronym: VIBGYOR) along a circle forming the world's first color wheel. If you take a closer look at the color view, we see that it is comprised of three color groups, primary, secondary, and tertiary. It all starts with the primary colors, Red, Yellow, and Blue. Primaries cannot be obtained by mixing other colours But in theory, you can obtain all other colors on the wheel by mixing them together. If we mix two primaries together, we will obtain a Secondary color. These are Orange, Green and Purple or Violet. And if we mix a Primary with a Secondary colour, we will obtain a tertiary color, which is an in-between color. They help us transition between Primaries and Secondaries along the color wheel. So is this the only color wheel? The color wheel you're looking at is a RYB color wheel, where our RYB are simply the initials of the Primaries that we're using. We can also call it the 'traditional painter's wheel' because it has to do with the mixing of pigment or paint. In fact, you can replace the three primary colors to create custom color wheels. The other important wheel is the RGB wheel of the light color model. We'll look at that one a bit later. To make it easier to remember the position and the placement of the colors on the wheel I like teaching the Color STAR where we'll use two triangles, One featuring our primary colors and the other one featuring our secondary colors. Now, put those together to form a STAR shape which makes it super easy to find And remember the complementary pairs. 'Complementary Colors' are colors that sit directly opposite each other on the color wheel. Red & green, Yellow & purple and Blue & orange are the 3 Basic complementary pairs. I highly recommend you try creating a color wheel for yourself. So go grab some paint or crayon, grab a piece of paper and try mixing the three primaries together and see what happens! 5. Color Schemes: As you've already seen, the color wheel is all about the relationship between the colors. We start with three colors, the primaries, we mix them together to create secondary colors. Then tertiary colors, completing the color wheel. So any change in the primary colours will affect what the color wheel looks like and thereby alter the color schemes we obtain from it. In this example, the color wheel on the left is comprised of cooler colors. It is almost a desaturated version of the wheel in the middle, while the wheel on the right has much warmer colors. So what are color schemes? Color schemes are combinations obtained from the color wheel based on the spatial relationship between the colors. There are several popular color schemes: Complementary, split-complementary, analogous, triadic, and tetradic to name a few. Let's take a closer look at these color combinations. Complimentary colors are some of the most commonly used color schemes. To create a complimentary pair: Pick a color, then pick the color directly opposite to it on the color wheel. In split complementary, we use the same colors as before, but instead of picking the colored directly opposite to our chosen color, we'll pick the colors right beside it. Analogous uses three to four colors that sit right beside each other on the color wheel. Analogous color schemes are very pleasing to the eye and have very strong Color Harmony. To create a triadic color scheme, we will be picking three colors that form a Triangle on the color wheel. To create a tetradic color scheme, we will be picking four colors corresponding to a Rectangular shape on the color wheel. So as you can see, there are many different color schemes that you can choose from. We have combinations that are as simple as picking colors opposite to each other, as well as color schemes corresponding to various Geometric shapes such as a triangle, rectangle, and even the square. The cool thing about these color schemes is you can take the basic shape that they form and rotate it along the wheel to create different color schemes. Now we have heard of primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. But there are two more Colors that I would like to mention. And these are white and black. White and black are the two Neutral colors that we can use to obtain tints and shades by mixing them with the hues on the color wheel. So the color wheel, in combination with these neutral colors can be used to produce a wide variety of color schemes and color palettes. So there's really no limit to the amount of colors you can produce. The slightest edition of black or white will change the value of your colors. And since we're working with pigments, it can also affect the vibrancy or saturation of your colors. Using too many pigments can also make your art look muddy and noisy. So always remember, when it comes to color: 'Less is More'. Tip: Try to restrict yourself to using a limited color palette. 6. Value 01 - What is Value?: The Value of a color determines how Dark or Light the color is. And every color has its own intrinsic Value. to use color well, it's important to know where each color falls along the 'Value spectrum' or the greyscale, with pure Black being the darkest value on the left, and pure White being the lightest value. Okay, quick test: which of these grey circles is the darkest? If you said the one on the right... you would be incorrect. If I move the circles down, we see that they are the exact same grey. So what's going on here? You see, value is 'relative' it is the surrounding value that makes our grey appear lighter or darker. That is a middle value will look darker when surrounded by lighter values and the same value will appear lighter when surrounded by darker values. Value is one of the most important aspects of an image you need to control as an artist. The fact is, good values equals a good painting. So start being mindful of value because if you values don't work, then the color does not matter. Now look at this grey circle inside the square. Can you see it? If I increase or decrease its Value, we are able to boost contrast and achieve more clarity. But if the value is similar to that of the Background, then the circle is lost. Now if we paint the circle Red... Well, it still doesn't work because this Red and the Background share a similar Value and there's not enough CONTRAST. So let's try changing the background color. Let's go with Red's complementary color Green. What about now? Does it work? Unfortunately, no, because this Red and this Green share a similar value. So when we look at the grey-scale version of this image, we see that there's not enough contrast or separation between the circle and the background. So it really doesn't matter which color combination or color scheme you pick If your values don't work, then the image won't work! 7. RGB HSB: In this lesson, we will talk about light and the RGB color wheel. The RYB wheel dealt with the mixing of paint, While the RGB wheel deals with the mixing of Light. So we can call this one the Light wheel. When you mix paint, the result is usually a Darker pigment. But when we mix Light, the result is a lighter and brighter color. So what is Light? Light is Electromagnetic radiation traveling in waves. When an object is heated, it emits energy in the form of light. The frequency of the light wave will determine the Hue of the light, While the Amplitude of the wave will determine the Brightness and intensity of the color. Not all light is visible. Human beings are only able to see and identify a limited spectrum of light. We can remember the names of the colors in the visible spectrum by using the acronym VIBGYOR Violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. These are also the colors we find in a Rainbow. Remember the colors get brighter and lighter when we mix Light So Red and Blue produces a bright Magenta color. Blue and Green produces Cyan and Red light mixed with Green light will produce a yellow colored light. The color schemes derived from the RGB wheel are also quite different. Red and cyan, Green and magenta, Blue and yellow are the basic complementary pairs. Similarly, the other combinations are different as well. When we combine the three primary colors: R, G and B at Equal intensity, we will obtain White Light. In this model, it is the absence of light that gives us the color black. In fact, black is not so much a color, but rather the absence of all light information. When it comes to working with digital software, you might have come across the letters HSB This stands for Hue, Saturation and Brightness. Sometimes the B is replaced with a V which stands for Value. This would be written as HSV. Here we have the classic color picker found in Photoshop. You can change the Hue of the color using the strip over here. You'll also notice the letters H, S and B along with RGB are also present. You can pick colors by moving your cursor here on the left. Or you could also change the individual values or percentages in the white boxes on the right. You can also type in the Color Code right here at the bottom to obtain a specific color. The letters 'ff' followed by four 0's, [#ff0000] will give you a Red Hue with 100% saturation and 100% brightness. Brightness here refers to the Brightness of the pixels on the screen and how much they light up. '0 Brightness' will always give you the color Black. As a rule, the colors will get darker as you move down and more saturated as you move to the right. Although they may share the same brightness, the colors on the left tend to have a lighter value than those present on the right. For example, both White and Red can have 100% brightness. But in terms of value, White is lighter than the color Red. 8. Value 02 - Determine Value: The value of a color refers to how dark or light the color is. Value also refers to the brightness of the color and may be defined in terms of how close the color is to black or white. But how exactly do you determine the Value of a color? There are multiple ways to do this. If you are working with traditional media such as watercolor or oil paint, the easiest way to determine the value would be to use a black and white filter on your smartphones camera app. If you don't have a black and white filter, you can always download one, Just search for 'Black and White Filter' or 'photo filter' in the App Store. This should give you a good sense of the range of Values you are working with. It will also inform you whether certain areas need to be darker or lighter. In Photoshop, there are two quick ways to check the Value of your image. One way to do this is to go to View > Proof setup > Custom then go under 'Proof conditions' And we want to make sure we have 'Dot Gain 25%' selected. Once you have this set up, every time you use the hotkey CTRL+Y You'll be able to quickly look at a grey-scale version of your image and compare the values of the colors in it. So that's the first method use the hotkey CTRL+Y to quickly check the values in your image. The next method uses the magic of Layer Blending. Simply create a New layer and make sure it is ABOVE all your other layers. Fill it in with Black, and then set the Layer Blending mode to COLOR Now everything beneath this layer will appear in grey-scale. This method will give you a very accurate read of the Values you are working with. You can use either method, But I want to point out that there are situations where the 'Proof Colors' method will give you slightly different results than when using the 'COLOR blending layer'. In the last video, I used the 'Proof Colors' [CTRL+Y] method to check the Value of the red circle sitting inside the Green square. If we use the Black layer set to COLOR blending mode, it shows us that the Red circle is actually darker than the Green here. And yes, Red does have a dark Value. But since we are working in RGB, we must also take into consideration the luminosity and brightness of the color. Both of these colors are highly saturated and have a similar brightness level. And therefore they end up fighting for Dominance. So we will need to adjust at least one of them. 'How to determine Value in Procreate' Procreate does not have a direct way of determining the Value of a particular image, but you can use the same Layer Blending method to determine the Value. Here, we have our image Quickly create a new layer, fill it in with Black and set the layer blending mode to COLOR. Now all you need to do is toggle the visibility of the layer, i.e. the Black layer that was set to COLOR and you'll be able to see the grey-scale version of everything beneath it. So whether you're working in Photoshop, Procreate, or even Traditional media. If you want to create Brilliant Color Schemes, Start paying attention to your Values.