Complete Color Theory Guide
Color theory is one of those topics that stumps a lot of artists and this is true of amateurs and pro artists alike. In this blog I’ll explain basic color theory and how we can use that for our art. There’s plenty to get into, so let’s hop right to it without wasting any time.
Tip #1: Additive and Subtractive
Colors can be broken up into two groups those being additive and subtractive color. Additive color, is color from light that doesn’t need to bounce off of anything to be seen. When additive colors mix they all combine to make white light. This white light can be directed into a prism and you’ll be able to see all of the colors on the visible spectrum. Subtractive colors are a little different though, in this category, light comes from the source, hits the object, the object absorbs all of the colors except for the one we see. The color it doesn’t absorb gets sent out back into the air and into our eyes, allowing us to see that particular color. Because this process causes light to be absorbed, the more colors we mix, the darker they become, eventually becoming black.
Tip #2: Color Wheels
Color wheels try their best to organize all the colors of the spectrum into a way that makes sense for art. Now to be perfectly clear, while there’s been many advancements in our understanding of color, this is a topic that is not at all refined for art. Munsell’s Color System and more recent interpretations of color have come out that change how we use and understand color. That being said, there’s still value in knowing how these wheels work, and how colors relationships generally work so for that reason we’ll cover the different color wheels.
Additive color wheel
Primary colors: Red, Green, Blue
Secondary colors: Yellow, Cyan, Magenta
Subtractive color wheel (Old)
Primary colors: Red, Yellow, Blue
Secondary colors: Orange, Green, Purple
Subtractive color wheel (New)
Primary colors: Yellow, Cyan, Magenta
Secondary colors: Red, Green, Blue
Tip #3: Properties of Color
All colors have 3 properties that make them, and those properties are Hue, Saturation, and Value. Hue is the color itself, if we want to be specific, it describes the wavelength of light that we’re viewing. Saturation describes the amount of color we have, with high saturation meaning we have a vivid color, and desaturated meaning our color is dull. Value describes how much light or dark, or it describes how much white or black is in the color.
Tip #4: Contrast
Contrast is one of the most important aspects of seeing, it’s how we differentiate one thing from another in our environment. Knowing that, it goes without saying that contrast is going to be equally important for our graffiti. We can contrast any of the 3 properties of color, so we can contrast light values against dark, warm colors against cool, and saturated colors against desaturated colors. Since graffiti tends to be very defined in it’s sections (fill in, 3D, etc) its easy to distinguish each section from one another, making one more saturated or darker than another section. There’s lots of freedom to be had here too, you can choose whatever section you’d like to be more or less saturated, darker, or brighter, and most of all your free to choose the colors too. If you’re trying to make your letter’s pop then the goal should be to have light against dark, warm, against cool, and saturated vs saturated, so this means that if our fill in is a light color, then we’ll want our 3D to be darker. If your 3D is saturated, then your fill in and your key line should be less saturated. If you find that two pieces that are touching (3D and key line for example) are equally as saturated, then that might be fine, just contrast with the other properties of color.
IMPORTANT TIP!
If there’s one thing about contrast I want to teach you guys is that you DON’T need contrast everywhere, in fact, you want to avoid having it everywhere. If everything contrasts, then nothing pops out; you need areas where elements unify together. This not only brings harmony to the image, but it’s exactly what allows for contrast to work in the first place. Sometimes you want a cool fill, and 3D, so that your key line or interior details can really jump out.
Tip #5: Color Harmonies - Key Colors
Let me start by saying this is not a complete science; in fact, even more research has been done to rework colors in a 3D format (Munsell Color System) to optimize color, and it’s known that the pure colors reach max purity at different values. Put extremely simply, color harmonies that are “spaced equally” would be inaccurate by new research standards, and therefore, those colors would not be the ones in the harmony. That being said, the methods we’ve been using have worked, and it’s what the industry largely uses, so there’s value to learning the older methods, but I do recommend learning the newest research out there on colors.
Monochromatic
Color Harmonies come in a large variety, and first on the list we have monochromatic color schemes, and these are when you pick a single color, then change its value and saturation.
Complimentary
Compliment colors are opposite one another on their color wheel. This harmony contrasts one another really well while not being too overt about the contrast. Its very easy to control this harmony since you’re only working with two colors, and some variations of each. Having so few variables, we can easily create contrast when, and where we want it, while also allowing other areas to blend in a little more.
Split Complement
Split complement introduces a total of three colors for it’s harmony where one color is on one end, then the to determine the other two, we’d go across the color wheel, and select the colors to the left and right of that. The two colors that are close together can easily overpower the single color, but this works both ways as the single color can also easily contrast them, allowing it to stand out. How you compose your colors, and how you deal with the saturation and value of each of these 3 colors, will determine which of the three colors pops out.
Triadic
Triadic colors are three colors that are equally spaced on the color wheel (though this isn’t so true with new studies of color). This harmony provides tons of innate contrast and can be hard to control as a result. It’s a good idea to pick one key color than really desaturate the other two colors. You could try to balance three similarly saturated colors while changing how often they appear and how light and dark they are, but this is far harder to do.
Analogous
Analogous colors have a very natural feeling with low amounts of contrast and this particular color family is easy to work with. If you’re working with analogous colors, it can be useful to look at nature for inspiration but one useful way to get these colors to work together is to choose 1 key color, and have a similar variation of that be a nice accent. The other color can either help in this accent or it can provide a slight bit of contrast without being too overpowering.
Tip #6: Design Interior Details
Interior details are exactly as they sound, they’re extra illustrative elements inside of your fill in / 3D. Many times when people ask for my help, they’re looking for a guide on how to copy an exact thing, an exact letter, design, fill in, so on, so forth. That’s not a great way to learn, and it’s also not really whats helpful for interior details. Understand, interior details don’t have to be a certain design, really sky’s the limit here, instead let me teach you a few different properties of interior details to consider that way you can make ANY design work.
Outline Color
If you’re not outlining your piece in black, then your outline should be a color from your color harmony. While outlines arent interior details, they are often used for some interior details like cracks and lines that segment parts of letters.
How to Pick Interior Detail Color
In the case that you’re doing standard interior details that aren’t using the outline color, then make sure the details are painted with one of the colors of your harmony.
Give the Interior Detail an Objective
If your key color is the base fill in then your interior detail can easily help emphasize that color. If your key color is something else, than your interior detail can still help that color pop as well, though it’s a little harder as the interior color may contrast the fill color.
Interior Details Help Flow
Interior details are great at adding more flow to your name with little to no effort at all. The angles and lines you make with your details can easily make line uniformity/similarity with the lines of your letter structures.
Interior Details Help Rebuild Structure
If you’ve added plenty of style to your letters, to the point where you may have lost some structure, then try using your interior detail to rebuild the lost area. There’s no specific, or “best” design to do this either, you can do it with a typical shape, lines, or a more ambiguous fill in that helps to define the structure.
Avoid Clutter
Lastly, remember, interior details can easily overpower and clutter your fill in. (especially when done with the outline color). While you can certainly add plenty of interior details, the more you have, the harder it becomes to control, and the more likely the details will overpower the fill.
With all of that, you have the tools needed to make new and original interior details, and you now know how to make any of those designs function within your work.
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