Watercolor Basics: Simplifying Color Theory and Mixing For Beginners

1. Introduction: If you're anything like me, you've probably experienced the frustration of not getting your colors just right. Maybe your greens turn out muddy instead of vibrant, or perhaps you can never quite figure out which colors you need to mix to match the colors you need. You are not alone. Color theory and mixing is one of the most challenging aspects of watercolor painting, but it can also be the most rewarding once you get the hang of it. Hi there, creative. My name is Shannon Layne. I am an artist, a hand letterer, and a teacher here on skillshare. In this class, I'm going to walk you through everything I wish I had known when I was struggling to understand color theory and how to mix colors. We'll start with some basic color theory terminology, such as primary, secondary and tertiary colors. We'll then move on to more complex concepts like color temperature, color bias, value, and mixing neutrals. The best way to learn how watercolors work is by experimenting. So I've included some practical exercises like painting color charts and creating color wheels so that we can observe the results together. Then to wrap up, we'll create a set of vibrant popsicles as the class project. By the end of this class, you'll have a solid foundation in color theory and the confidence to make any color you need. So if you're ready to dive into the colorful world of watercolors, grab your supplies, and I'll see you in class. 2. Supplies and Overview: The purpose of this class is to help you get comfortable playing with your paints and observing how they interact. Everyone's colors and process will be different. So feel free to follow along with me or watch the entire class first and then start mixing colors when you feel ready. The key is to have fun and to learn through experimentation. Here's a look at all the supplies that you'll need. You need some watercolor paints. High quality paints are recommended for better mixing results, but student grade paints can work also. Just keep in mind that student grade paints might be harder to mix due to their lower pigment concentration, which can lead to less vibrant colors. A few sheets of high quality watercolor paper, as well as a few pieces of scrap paper that you're going to be using to test your mixtures on. A round brush, you can have a large one and a small one just for a little bit of variety. A mixing palette that has a lot of bells for holding all your mixtures and different paint combinations. To jars of water, a piece of paper towel or some tissue for blotting your brush or controlling the amount of water you have in it. A pencil. This can be for sketching out your design and also for taking notes on specific colors and mixtures. Masking tape to help you create your charts and grid, if you would like. And then the templates for the charts and the color eels that I've provided for you to download in the projects and resources section of this class. S. The first tip that I want to share with you is to pay attention to the amount of water in your paint brush. It is important to always remember that your paint brush is one of the main ways that water will be added to your paint mixture. So if you dip your brush into water and immediately take it out to use it, you will notice that it will drip onto your paper or your surface. If your intention is to add water to your paint mixture, this is a good way to do it. If you're not trained to intentionally add water to your mixture, and you're, for example, trained to clean out your brush and pick up some color. When you dip your brush into your water, pull it along the edge of your container or dub it into a piece of paper tubel to remove the excess water. Your brush should be wet enough that the bristle stick together and keep its shape that way you won't unintentionally dilute your mixture. The next thing you should remember is to always activate your watercolor. If you take a dry paint brush, and try to pick up paint with it without activating it, either nothing happens if you're using pan watercolor, or if you're using tube watercolor, it is applied thick with a consistency similar to acrylic or wash paint. And this is not what we're going for. If you take a paint brush and try to pick up paint, the water in the brush will activate some of it, but it will be just a small amount. So what you need to do is add some water to your paint. You can use a dropper or a spray bottle or your paint brush to add it and let that water stay on your paint for a well. Then use a wet paint brush to swirl around and mix some of that water and the paint together. This way allows you to pick up more pigment in your paint brush. The next important tip is to always use two containers of water. If you're using one container, when you go to pick up water to add it to your mixture, the color for the dirty water will be added to your mixture, which is not something you want to happen as this can make your mixture muy or just inaccurate. So e one container to clean out your brush and then use the container with the clean water to pick up water and add it to your mixture. The next tip is to always have a piece of scrap paper to swatch your colors. And wait for the paint to dry before making any adjustments to your mixtures because sometimes your colors will dry darker or lighter than they appear on the palette. The next tip is to use a clean palette with a lot of space or mix in wells to avoid your colors running into each other and resulting in contamination or muddy colors. The next important tip is to start with small amounts of paint when you are mixing. This makes it easier for you to maintain control over the intensity and the value of your mixture, and it's always easier to add more paint later on. 3. What Is Color Theory?: To kick this class off, let's have a look at what is color theory. Color theory is the study of colors and how they interact with each other. So you can think of it as a good book for us as artists to use to help us mix the exact colors that we need. Color theory starts with the color wheel, which is a circular diagram that shows the relationship between colors. Primary colors, red, yellow, and blue are the foundational colors that cannot be created by mixing any other colors. However, all other colors can be created from some combination of these three. Secondary colors, green, orange, and purple, are created by mix in two primary colors together in equal parts. So red and yellow will give you orange, blue and yellow will give you green and red and blue will give you purple. And on the color wheel, these colors are bright in the middle of the primaries that they're mixed from. T tertiary colors are made by mix in a primary color with a secondary color in equal parts. On the color wheel, these will fill in the gaps in between the colors that they're made from. Color schemes are another important aspect of color theory. Color schemes are combinations of colors that have a particular relationship with each other based on the color view. They will guide you in selecting colors and reduce the guess wear and the frustration that often comes when you attempt to mix color. A monochromatic color scheme uses different values of a single color. Analogous colors are next to each other on the color view. For example, blue, blue, green, and green. These colors often blend really well or mix really well together without clashing or neutralizing each other. Complimentary colors are opposite each other on the color view, so red and green and blue and orange. These pairs can create high contrast and make each other stand out. But red mixed together, they can neutralize each other and result in muted colors or browns or grays. The triadic color scheme includes three colors that are evenly spaced around the color view. So red, yellow, and blue are an example of this. Color itself has three properties. Hue is the name of the color, such as red, orange, or yellow. It is what we think of when we refer to a color by name. Saturation is the intensity or purity of a color. High saturation means the color is vivid and bright, while low saturation means that the color is muted or dull. Value is the lightness or darkness of a color. Lighter values are called tints, and darker values are called shades. So in the next lesson, we're going to have a closer look at how to create values with water color. 4. Exploring Color Value: Er. As mentioned in the previous lesson, value refers to the lightness or darkness of a color. Unlike other mediums like acrylic paint, for example, which requires adding white to lighten your color. Water colors naturally change in value based on the amount of water you use. As you mix more water with the paint, it dilutes the pigment and allows more of the white paper underneath to show through. To get a better understanding of value, we're going to create a simple value scale. So grab your supplies and let's get started. Add a drop of water onto your palette. Pick up a small amount of that paint and mix it with the water on your palette. Then paint a small square on your paper using that color. Pick up another small amount of that paint, add it to the mixture and paint another small square. Then add a little bit more pigment and paint another square. You're going to continue doing this until you get to a value that is very thick and almost like your original color. When you're done, we're going to paint this scale again, but this time, we're going to start with our paint and gradually add water to it. Pick up a small amount of paint and add it to your palette. Then paint a s on your per. Add a little bit of water to the mixture and paint another square. You're doing the opposite of what you did for the first part of this exercise. So just gradually continue adding water to the mixture and swatching your colors. As you paint, you'll notice that the more water your mixture has, the more fluid it is, and there it moves around on the palette. Plus, you'll have lighter and more transparent colors when you swatch it. While the more pigment in the mixture, the thicker and the more opaque the color. So depending on the technique you want to achieve, you may need a mixture with water and less pigment for a lighter value and vice versa. The more you practice and experiment, the easier it will be for you to get a good idea of the right ratio to suit the effect you want. 5. Color temperature and Color Bias: Color temperature refers to the warmth or coolness of a color. Colors like red, orange, and yellow are considered warm and colors like blue, green, and purple are considered cool. But any color can have any temperature. So even though yellow and red are warm colors, you can have cool yellows and cool reds. Most water colors with the exception of black and white, which are neutral colors, have an undertone, which helps us to determine whether the color is warm or cool. This subtle undertone is known as color bias. So when it comes to color mixing, the bias or undertone is just as important as the color you're mixing. So instead of trying to identify the temperature of a particular color, you should instead identify the bias of the color. And to do this, I am using the Daniel Smith watercolor sheets. This includes the entire range of over 200 colors. This was a really important tool that helped me to understand color bias, color theory, and how to mix colors. A lot better because you have a whole range of colors at your fingertips, and these dots may look small, but they can go a long way and help you to just see how different colors with different biases mix together. So I'm going to use these to show you the different things to look for to identify the bias and the temperature of your colors. Cool yellows have a bias towards blue. These appear slightly green. They look fresh and crisp. Oh. Warm yellows have a red bias, so they appear slightly orange and warm and a little sunny. When it comes to cool reds, they have a blue bias. They appear slightly purple, and they're more deeper and richer in color. Warm reds have a yellow, bias or yellow undertone, and they appear slightly orange. They look fiery and very intense. Comes to blues, these are a little tricky because some people would consider blues that have a red bias to be warm, while others may consider them to be cool. So I personally don't like to think too much about the temperature of blue I just like to focus on the bias only. So you're going to have some blues that have a red bias. These are going to be slightly purple. They're deep in color, and they look a little velvety sometimes. For the sake of this example, I'm going to put it in the cool category. But if you're using the reference sheet, you're going to see that I have it arranged. Just based on the bias, not necessarily the temperature. Then there are some blues that have a yellow bias. These blues are slightly green. They're also brighter and look very clear. In the next lesson, we're going to have a look at how the bias of your colors can affect your mixtures. 6. Mixing Warm and Cool Colors: In this lesson, we are going to do a simple color mix in chart to see how our warm and cool primaries interact and produce different secondary colors. The reason why this exercise is important is because it will clear up a common assumption that many people have when it comes to mix in water colors. It is quite common to think that as long as you only mix two colors that have the same temperature together, you will always produce the best results. For example, you might assume that mixing a warm red with a warm blue should produce a warm purple. When I first started using watercolors, this is an assumption I had as well. But this way of thinking is often the cause of the dark muddy colors that you run into whenever you try to mix a vibrant secondary color. Warm red has a yellow undertone, and let's say the blue has a yellow undertone as well. When the blue and the red mix together, they will create a purple, but the yellow undertone will neutralize the mixture making it darker. This happens because yellow is a complimentary color of purple. When two complimentary colors interact, they try to cancel each other out. We're going to go deeper into mix in complimentary colors later on in this class. So right now, we're just going to focus on our color mix in chart. From your palette, select three warm and three cool primaries. You can use the temperature reference sheet in the project section to help you select your six colors from whatever set you have. Then on your watercolor paper, create a grid with four columns or three rows. You can use the template I've provided if you prefer. Then use a masking tape to secure it to the desk and also to separate the boxes so that your colors don't run into each other. In the first row, you're going to mix cool yellow and cool red to see what type of yellow it produces. To keep track of your mixes, add a small swatch of the two colors you're using in the top of the corresponding box. You can also make note of their temperature or biases as well. Then on your palette, try to mix equal amounts of these two colors together to create your secondary color, and then swatch it in. My mixture had too much water, so I had to just mix some more, and there's nothing wrong with doing that. It's always best to start with a little bit and always add more if necessary. In the next box, you're going to mix your cool yellow with your warm red and swatch it in. O Then mix and swatch the warm yellow with the cool red and add it into the third box. In the final box, mix the warm yellow and the warm red together and swatch it in. O In the next row, we're going to make some purples. In this first box, you're going to mix your cool red and your cool blue together, which in this case, I'm using my blue with the red bias as my cool blue, and then you're going to swatch it in. Then your cool red and your warm blue so the one that has the yellow bias and swatch it into the next box. H You're going to continue to mix and swatch the remaining combinations and add them to your chart. As you continue, it is very important to remember that your results can vary widely. Each brand has its own formulations, which can affect the mixing properties of your paint. Your mixes might not match exactly what I demonstrate, and that doesn't mean that your mixture is incorrect. So don't try to force them to match what you're seeing on screen. Instead, simply pay attention to your own paints and observe how they interact with each other. H Oh A When the bias of the two primary colors lead toward the secondary color you want to create, they produce the most vibrant results. For instance, the cool blue that has that red bias and the red that has the blue bias resulted in the most vibrant purple. The same can be said for the green when both colors had the blue green er, they produced the vibrant green. So before you go, take a look at your chart, and based on the results you like best, choose one red, one yellow, and one blue. I didn't really like hold the mixtures with the warm colors turned out, and I'm quite happy with the mixtures that I got in the first column with only cool colors. So that's what I'm using. I am swapping my ultramarine for one from another brand that is not as granulating, just so that it mixes a little better. Once you have your selection, head to the next lesson, and we'll start painting our color reel. 7. How to Paint Color wheel: Now that we know a little bit more information about color theory. We are going to paint a color reel. To follow along, you'll need your two jars of clean water, your paint brush, and a piece of paper towel, a piece of watercolor paper that has the color reel sketch onto it, and a palette with at least 12 different sections for you to mix your colors in. Then you'll need your primary colors. And you're going to add these to your palette. The consistency should be somewhere on the thicker side, so more pigment and less water. I've added my colors with some space in between them so that I can mix my secondary and tertiary colors in between the two primaries that make them up. So once you finish, adding your primaries, you can add them to the color view, leaving three spaces in between each color. Now, as you are doing this exercise, it is very important that you remember to clean your brush in between colors just to make sure that you don't contaminate any of your mixes. S S S S Once you're finished adding your primary colors, it's no time to add your secondary colors. The first color that I'm going to mix is green. So clean and load your brush with some of your yellow and add it to one of the empty sections on your palette. Then clean and load your brush with blue and mix the colors together. We're trying to pick up the same amount of each just so that our secondary color is as accurate as possible. When you're done mixing those colors together, you can add it into the space in between the yellow and the blue on your paper. Then in another empty section of the palettes red and blue together and add it to the space in been red and blue on your color. S S Then it makes your final secondary color makes equal parts of yellow and red together and add that orange color into the space between your yellow and red on the paper. Once you're finished adding in your secondary colors, it's time to add your tertiary colors. We don't want our colors to mix or bleed together, so you need to make sure that your color wheel is completely at this point because these colors are going to be right next to other colors. Again, tertiary colors are created when you mix equal parts of one primary and secondary color together. The first tertiary color that I'm going to mix and add to the color view is yellow green. So I'm going to pick up equal parts yellow and equal parts green, mix them together on the palette and paint it in. Then the next tertiary color that we're adding is blue green. So M equal parts blue and green and add it to the color in between blue and green. So to complete this color wel, you're just going to continue and adding your tertiary colors. And then I will see you in the next lesson. U U 8. Creating Tints: Now that you have a better understanding of value and you've painted a basic color wheel, we're going to take it a step further and add some tints to it. A tint is created by adding white to a color, making it lighter. For example, pink is a tint of bd. Like I mentioned in one of the previous lessons, when we're using watercolor, we lighten our colors using water. But you might be thinking, since some watercolor sets include a white paint in them, why not just use it to create tints or lighter values? Well, while most watercolor paints are transparent, white watercolor paints are often opaque. This opacity can make it difficult to do certain techniques, especially those that require you to layer your colors and maintain the watercolor look. When you mix white with your colors to lighten them, this can make your mixture lose its transparency as well and start to feel more like wash paint. So using water is definitely the best way to go. So a amount of your color to a area and add a little bit of water to it. So I am starting with my yellow orange. As I gradually add water, I'm going to add those new swatches underneath the previous one. And I'm doing about four of these four Son Son Son Once you're finished with that, you're going to switch to another and for this exercise, it is best to work in alternating sections just to make sure that your colors don't bleed into each other. S S S Son. Son. S S So Son. Oh Uh O 9. Mixing Neutrals: Mixing neutral colors is just a matter of mixing two complimentary colors together. So I am going to use this color wheel. This is another color wheel that I have done, and I used the same colors that I used for the previous color wheel. And I'm using the same palette, but I will be mixing my neutrals in the center. So I'm starting with a lot of yellow, and then I picked up a little bit of its complimentary color, which is purple, and it mix the two of bus together, and I'm adding it into that section under the yellow because yellow is going to be the dominant color, and I'm going to be gradually adding more of its complement to darken the color, and I'm going to add it into this section. So once I finished with that first set, I added a little bit more purple, and then I painted in the color that I got. As you are adding your compliment, you don't want it to overpower your main color. So just try to add a little amount at time and look at it on the palette and just try to see if it is darker than the shade that you had previously Um, if you are following along with this, if you aren't, you can just watch and see just how the colors just gradually change from a highly saturated color to a more muted, neutral, brown, or even just darker shades of the main color. So as I was finished with that section of yellow, I flipped my wheel, and I'm starting with a large amount of purple, and then I'm going to gradually add my yellow to darken it. As you can see, I was able to get four different brown tones just by adding varying amounts of purple to my yellow, and I'm going to get even more by varying the amounts of yellow that I add to this purple. Hopefully this exercise will definitely show you that if you don't have all the colors in the world, you can definitely work with a limited color palette and not only get bright vibrant mixes, but you can also get more tone neutral colors using only three primary colors. H 's'. Oh. 10. Creating Shades: A shade is a color made darker by adding black to it. For example, maroon is a shade of red, but when it comes to watercolor, black may not be the best option. Most black water colors are neutral and usually have no undertone or color bias. So adding these colors straight from the pan or te with another color means that it will contribute no additional color characteristics or anything that can affect the bias of the mixture. So all it will do is absorb or mute your main color rather than enhance it. Another reason why black straight from the tube or the pan may not be a good idea for your mixtures is because black watercolor pets are often opaque as well. So when you add black into the mix, it can create a solid, almost murky result because the black will dominate the mixture and just mask that underlying color. For this next exercise, you're going to pick a color, and we're going to try these different darkening methods to see how well they work and which you may like or which one you may not like. And these are all great options if you're looking to darken the color without using a traditional black. So before we do that, first, you're going to swatch your color. So the color I'm using is ultramarine. Then just for the sake of comparison, I am going to mix it with a little bit of black, which is a black straight from the tube that came with this set. And then I'm also going to swatch that mixture. I'm doing sort of a gradient. So adding some water towards the end of the swatch just to see both the light and darker version of the color. The first method of darkening colors is to use a hue. I'm going to use some of the darker blues that I have in my palette. I have two that are very dark, which is my indigo, and then I have paints gray. Different brands, paint will look very different. You're really just going to look at your swatches and see if you have a darker hue and then use that to darken your color. The next option to darken your color is to use a complimentary color. The complimentary color to blue is orange. I'm going to swatch two different oranges that I have. This one is the more lighter one, and I've mixed it in with my blue, and then I'm just going to swatch and see the color that we get. Then I'm using a much darker orange just to see how that looks compared to the other one. The next option that you can try to darken your colors is to use neutral colors. So browns and grays can add a little bit more warmth or coolness to your color depending on whichever neutral color you use. So Browns tend to make your colors a little bit more warmer, and then the grays would possibly make them more cooler. So if you want to not only change the shade of your color, but you want to adjust the temperature of it as well, this is a good way to do that. So I have four different rows in my palette and I'm just going to add them to this blue just to see the different mixtures that we can get. The final option you can try is to use a custom block. So I'll see you in the next lesson where we learn a few different that you can make your own block. 11. Creating Your Own Black: Just as the bias of your primary colors determine the vibrancy of your secondary colors, it is equally as important to the outcome of the black Q achieve. If you were to mix three primary colors with conflicting biases together, the outcome would likely be a dull or muddy color. When mixing a custom black, you want to choose primaries with a bias that neutralize each other. So take a look at your swatches and the reference chart and choose a cool red, a warm yellow, and a warm blue. This combination will work really well because both the colors and their biases will work together and cancel each other out when mixed together. Then on your watercolor paper, you can add tiny swatches of your primers along with their names and their biases to help you keep track of what you're doing. Then on your palette, makes a small amount of two of these colors together. I'm starting with red and blue. You want to be using equal parts of these so that the mixture turn into the secondary color. My mixture is a little too blue, so I had to add some more red to make it more purple. Then you're going to gradually add small amounts of the third color to the mixture. This should start neutralizing the color into a more deeper darker one. To test, just watch it on your scrap paper and see how it looks. You're then going to the proportions until you achieve your desired intensity. If the black looks a purple, you need to add a little bit more of it complement, which is yellow to darken it. So you're going to just gradually keep doing this until it gets dark. You don't want the yellow to overpower the mixture. So just add a little bit at a time. My mixture started looking a little bit more on the reddish side, so I had to add the complement of red which is green. Since we're only using these three colors, I'm going to mix my green by mixing some of the blue and the yellow together and then gradually add a small amount to the mixture. Then when your block is finished, you can add it to your paper and then just add a little bit of water just so you can see the darkest and the latest values. Another combination of primaries that work really well to create a black is a warm red, a cool yellow, and a blue that has a red bias, so cool blue. Again, I am starting by mixing my two colors first. M blue and my red. This mixture already gives me a really dark intense purple. Then I'm going to gradually add in my yellow. I don't want it to overpower the mixture because then I'll have to keep adding in more purple. I got this one to be dark pretty fast, but it did not mix enough. It was very light and diluted. So it was not as intense as it needed to be when I swatched it so as to mi are mixture. Then when I got it correct, I added it onto my paper. Oh. Oh You can use different combinations of primary colors you have on your palette that match these biases as they will produce blacks that all have different characteristics. You can even try some other combinations with some other biases to see what kind of colors you can create. Some mixtures will give you a very dark gray or colors, but again, feel free to experiment with what you have and make note of the results that you get. Oh Then when you're finished mix in all these different blocks, you can try them out with the color from the previous lesson and swash them into that final box. Oh Sometimes your mixture may look a little bit off or muddy, and that just means that your colors didn't neutralize each other so well. So if you notice that your blacks look more like a dark brown or a murky gray and lack the darkness and the intensity that it should have. And despite making adjustments, it's not getting darker, this may be a sign that you need to scrap that mixture and start over. So if this happens, just clean your palette, carefully double check the biases of your colors and start with a fresh mixture. 12. Mixing Custom Colors: Very rarely will you have to use your colors straight from the palette without adjusting them a bit, especially when it comes to created things from real life or a reference photo. So we're going to put everything we've learned so far into practice to mix specific colors. For this lesson, I'm going to mix colors to match this reference image. I'm going to use a limited palette with only six colors, the three warm and three cool colors that I used to create the chart early on in this class. So based on this reference image, I'm mixing a reddish purple for the veins, and then green for the leaves. So I'm going to start with the red purple first. So I'm going to consult my color mixing chart and see which of these purples I'm going to start with. I want a vibrant purple, so I'm going to start with my cool red and cool blue for my purple. So I'm going to mix that purple from that same combination. But I'm going to add a little bit more bred to it since it is a red purple. I'm just going to test out my mixture on a piece of scrap paper until I get the color to match how I want. When I'm happy, I'm going to swash that onto my paper. Then I want to create another value. This is going to be sort of the mid tone. So this first value that I just crated is more the darker purple. So I'm going to take some of that and add it to another section and add just a little bit more red to it. I'd like to start with my darker tones first and then lighten them a little bit. This is my personal method of mixing colors, but maybe you would prefer to start with your lighter colors first and then create your darker tones. That is totally fine as well. Then for the later parts, I'm just going to be using a later value. So I'm going to separate some of that mixture, add some water to it and get that later value. Then we're on to the green. So the green that I want to create is not necessarily the most vibrant green. So again, I'm going to consult my color mix in chart and see which one I want to mix. I want to mix the first green that is a little bit more muted and not as vibrant as the second one. So I'm going to mix those two colors together on my palette and then swatch them. This ended up a little too bright. I wanted to mute it a little bit, so I gradually added a little bit of the compliment to this color. And once I'm happy with that mixture, I added it onto my paper. So again, I've just taken a set of that color and added it to another section on my pelt, added a bit of water to it, and then a bit more yellow to make it a brighter yellow green, then I swatched it in. My final green is actually going to be darker than these first two. So I took a little bit of that color, and I'm going to add the complement of the yellow green, which if you take a look at the color, you're going to see that it is red purple. So I'm just going to take a bit of my red purple mixture and darken that green a bit. That. 13. Class Project: Painting Popsicles: Know that we have completed some practical exercises to learn a bit more about color theory and mix in watercolors. It is no time to work on our class project. We're going to paint some vibrant, expressive popsicles, not only using different color schemes, but also using some of the texture techniques that I shared in my previous watercolor basics class, all about watercolor textures. So first, you're going to sketch three popsicles onto some watercolor paper. I've included the sketch that I'm using. So you can download it and transfer it onto your watercolor paper if you want to. You can paint along with me, using whatever colors you want. I am going to be using a different color scheme for each of these popsicles. So for this first popsicle, I am going to be using a monochromatic color scheme. So I'm using this very bright neon pink, and I added some of that to my palette, added a little bit of water, and then I started to paint my popsicle. As I started to fill all the shape, I added some water in some areas that I wanted to be lighter, and then I picked up a bit of green to add to my pink to darken it a little bit because green is going to be the complimentary color to this pink, which is just a form of red. So green is going to be a compliment and I added varying amounts of green to my mixture on the palette just to get some darker values of pink. F Before my paint, I wanted to add some texture. So I just went back in with my brush and dropped in a drops of color. Son. Son. I also wanted to leave a highlight to just show a little bit more contrast. So I cleaned off my brush and I picked up some water, and then I'm just going to add it into the area that I want to lift color from. S S S before the color on the popsicle was completely dried. I went back in with some water and added a few drops of water all around the popsicle to create some blooms. You can do whichever texture technique you want. I am going to be using a few different ones, just to get a few different types of effects. You can stick with your favorite one. It is completely up to you. You can even leave these without texture if you'd like. Once I'm finished, I'm going to allow that to dry and then move on to the next popsicle. For this one, I am going to be using colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. I am going to stick with the orange and yellow range. I'm going to pick up some red from my pan and just add a little bit of water so that it is a lot easier to work with and then I'm just going to use that to paint the top third of my second popsicle. So S To make sure that my colors blend together, I have added my color without a straight edge. So then I'm just going to pick up some water and I'm going to feather the edge of the color just so that it transitions from the, more intense red to a one, and this will just make the next color blend into it ai. So then I'm going to pick up my nest color, which is going to be an orange. I really am not too focused on color names and stuff like that for this. We're just really picking up what colors feel right to me. I am, of course, looking at my swatches, I have them in front of me, so I can see which colors I want to use. And then I'm just adding that red orange mixture to the middle part of this popsicle. Of course, I'm just going to blend the two colors together by just pulling some of the color down into that red orange and taking some of that red orange up into the red color. Isn't finish adding that, I'm going to then pick up some water and just feather out the bottom of that orange line. Just so that my next color, which is going to be my yellow will blend into that a lot easier. I added my yellow to the palette that already had orange. So have sort of a yellow orange color. Be these colors are next to each other on the color wheel, I know that they will blend together without having to worry about them becoming a du. Once I'm finished adding in my color. I am going to sprinkle some salt all over this middle popsicle, and that is the texture that I want to create for this one. Again, you can use any of the texture techniques you want or you can leave them as they are without texture. It's totally up to you. I'm going to allow this to dry and then move on to my next popsicle. For this next popsicle, I'm going to use complimentary colors, which are just colors that are opposite of each other on the color wheel. I am using orange and blue, so I'm using a yellowish orange color, and then I'm going to use a light tulish blue color. I'm going to do this using the wet ont technique. This is definitely going to be an exercise in practice and a lot of patients because I don't want these two colors to blend. So I've wet the popsicle and remember not to have any puddles forming. You want the paper to be glossy, but without puddles. Then I'm adding my orange to the top half of this popsicle. Then I'm also going to just be dropping in some colors all along the top half. I am really embracing the wet on wet aspect of this. I'm not trying to get anything to blend seamlessly. In fact, I do want the distinct line between these two colors just so that they don't meet and have any my tones in the mile. I want the middle to be very bright and vibrant. I also added in a darker shade of orange to a few areas across the top, and I'm just doing this very loosely. Again, I'm not trying to blend anything too seamlessly. So if you are painting, and you notice that any areas are starting to dry, you can just lightly wet that area before you start painting because if that area has dried, when you apply your paint to it, it will be you won't be able to get that wet on wet look. Then I'm going in with my blue and I'm painting the bottom half and then just dropping in some color all across the bottom half. Once your popsicles are dry, it is now time to add in the sticks, and I mixed a little bit of yellow and a little bit of purple together to create a light brown shade. And I got this mix from the one that I did in my mixing neutrals lesson because I really liked how that particular shade of brown looked. So I mixed it again and use that to paint my popsicle sticks. I'm just going to add that color to the bottom of all of these popsicles and allow that to dry. U. M 14. Adding Details: As the popsicle sticks were dry in, I then use a damp brush. I had just a little bit of water, and I'm just going to pull it along the middle section of the popsicles, where we have those later lines that you can see on a popsicle. That water will help to activate the pigment, and then you're going to remove all the water from your brush by dab it on a paper towel and just dragging your brush along that wet area to remove the pigment. When you're finish lifting your color, we are then going to start adding in some inner shadows to these lines. Draw a thin line with whatever your base color is. Then you're going to pick up some water as blend that line into that part of the. The bottom part of my popsicle is a darker pink, so I had to mix a dark pink, and I'm then going to add a line on the bottom of this section as well as the right side. And then I'm going to clean my brush and fade the inner part of this into the white area. Then you're going to repeat these steps to create the shadowing on the other side of the bicycle. Then you're just going to add a darker value of your brow onto the popsicle stick just to create a shadow. I'm adding this in the upper left corner of each of the sticks. That That So S U Oh.'s s. Oh. Now we're going to add some highlights. I am using some white gash and I've switched to a smaller brush, and I'm just going to add some very thin lines along the outer edge of those ins that we just painted. You can add them however you like, you can add them or you can add that are thin like the ones that I'm doing is completely up to you. 15. Wrap up: Congratulations on making it to the end of this class. We've covered so much information from the basics of color theory, understanding, color temperature, and value to more hands on exercises with color wheels and charts and different color schemes. Then we brought it together to create some vibrant watercolor popsicles for the class project. I'd love to see everything you've created, so don't forget to share your class project and any charts or diagrams you've made in this class to the project gallery. If you found this class helpful, I'd really appreciate it if you could leave a review to help others who may be interested about learning about color theory to know what to expect from this class. Also, be sure to follow me on my skill share page so you don't miss any future updates. If you enjoy this class, you might want to check out my other classes in this watercolor basic series. In the first class, we dive into a whole range of techniques from washes to advanced texturing methods. It is a great compliment to what you've learned in this class, helping you to get more comfortable with watercolors. And if you're looking to explore more projects, stay tuned, I have upcoming classes that will continue to build on those watercolor skills, focusing on different subjects and techniques. If you have a specific questions or want some personalized guidance, then I'm offering one on one sessions. These are perfect for you if you're looking for a feedback on your work, if you want to tackle any challenges you've encountered. So whether you continue with the Watercolor basic series or you join me for a personalized session, I am excited to keep making art with you. Thank you so much for being a part of this class, and I hope to see you in the next one.