Color Wheel How to mix colors with a limited palette Video Lecture - Master

hi bear Lindsay here the frugal crafter
today by request by a lot of requests
actually probably my most requested
topic I'm going to talk about color
theory mixing colors and the color wheel
and I'm using watercolors to explain
this but this will apply to whatever
you're mixing whatever color paints
whatever type of paints you're using and
the way I like to mix is based on a
split complementary system so I use
these six colors it's a three primaries
but I have a warm and a cool version of
each so this is my palette here you can
see I have a lot of colors I don't use
them all in one painting and you don't
need this many because you can mix
pretty much anything with these six
another reason you might want to have
other colors is because of the way that
they stain or the way that they lift or
the way that they granulate on or
they're just specific specific
characteristics of the pigments or maybe
because you use them a lot and trying to
remix the same thing over and over and
over again might take a bit of extra
time once you've developed what your
style is but we're going to use these
basic colors and I just want to go over
this a little bit first because I did
this I actually filmed it and I thought
it might be easier for you guys to see
this first and then we'll make our color
wheel together so um what I have here on
the inside of my wheel so you'll begin
by drawing a circle on your paper
I have colors that are mixed vividly on
purpose then I have colors that are
mixed mute muted on purpose and when you
use a split complementary color system
you're able to get the most vivid colors
so say you want to make our nice bright
orange if you use the warm red in the
warm yellow that's going to give you a
vivid orange if you use the cool red and
the cool yellow it's going to give you
more of a peach with purple if you use
the cool red and the warmer blue it's
going to give you purple but if you use
the warm red and the more greeny blue
it's going to give you almost a black so
you can see how you can really control
your mixes by knowing how your colors
lean if do they lean cool to lean warm
do they lean towards what what territory
color do they lean next to so and I also
want to show you I do a couple favorites
here yellow ochre burnt sienna and SAP
green but I was also able to mix them
from the six colors that I have here and
don't worry if you can't write all the
stand and you can't remember it I will
have a printable PDF that you can
download that will have the list
of my basic supplies on it so you can
check that out too so here I've just
gone a brand new chart so we could fill
it in together so we're going to do
first is we're going to lay out our
colors we're going to get some cadmium
red which is our more orange red okay
I'm also going to put this um right here
on my color wheel now we're going to get
some alizarin crimson which is our
cooler red put that right here in this
box just so you have a kind of a color
key see how that's much more cool and
we're going to go over here with it okay
so next to my crimson we're going to put
ultramarine because that is more like
purple than our oppression or our
phthalo blue so we've got some
ultramarine let's reign here so let me
try to plenty on there and ultramarine
is going to be our warmer blue over here
now let me show you what happens when
you mix these two colors together since
we have two going right there already it
makes a little bit of that crimson get a
beautiful vivid purple and you know mix
it a little bit more red we get a red
violet we get a little more blue and we
get a blue pilot okay but they're super
super vivid now look what happens if I
let me get the other blue and we're
going to use also use either you can use
turquoise you can use Prussian blue you
can use stay a little blue I'm using
Prussian blue because I find it lifts a
little easier and that's a quality that
I like don't say if I take that color
and then mix it with that color so I'm
going you know I'm trying to make purple
with the colors the primaries that are
further away from each other on the
color wheel look what happens tap a
little bit that off it's kind of yuck
a little bit more that in there look at
that just it almost turns black you know
but you might want that you might want
to be able to make that shade so that
might be what you're going for okay look
at that it's like almost like a burnt
umber color
okay so for our yellows I want my lemon
which is a little more greeny over here
next to my oppression and I want my
cadmium yellow closer to my orange all
right now so good I French put my
phthalo in there we'll put that in there
so you can always see a fresh version of
that was pretty hell exactly okay so now
let's do let's mix the rest of our
tertiary colors so we'll take a little
bit of this CAD yellow take some of the
CAD red so you get a beautiful orange
and I can mix it in with a little bit of
the red I already Heaven have a red
orange can mix it more over to the
yellow and get more of a yellow orange
so you get some nice really vivid mixes
there same thing with our lemon yellow
and our oppression phthalo or turquoise
whichever you're using it see you can
get your favorite pick whatever color
you like the best out of those and then
you can you can still get the really
vivid mixes rinsing my brush just so I
can kind of pull some of the colors to
their neighbors so you can kind of see
how you can get that a more chartreuse
color by adding more yellow or you can
get more of like a teal by having it
more over to the blue side probably have
a little more yellow in that to get a
more balanced green there so right here
I've shown you how to make some really
vivid mixes and now let's say I want
kind of a khaki green I don't want that
super vibrant green I'm going to take
the cadmium yellow because it's more
closer to orange okay and then I'm going
to take the ultramarine blue that's more
closer to purple so then I know they're
not going to make a vivid a vivid color
because they are too far away on the
color wheel so when I mix them together
look at that it kind of this olive
almost like a SAP green color see that
so I mean you can really control the
colors you can have the exact color you
want you don't have to spend time
hunting for a tube of paint
oops on with the cadmium so you get that
lovely kind of
Gish almost like a SAP green color and
the same thing if I take that crimson
and I take the lemon because they're
further apart I'll get a peach so watch
this I got my lemon and I get just a
touch of chrome zinc that's a very
strong get more of a piece especially if
I add water to it I'll get much more of
like a peach color okay so you can see
how you can really manipulate your
colors here and you don't need a ton of
colors now one way people like to darken
colours they'll want to add black or
brown but you don't need to do that so
what I can do here I can take a little
bit of either of these reds okay and I
can pick up some of this green look what
happens they neutralize themselves they
turn into a brown or a grey they negate
each other if I do the same thing with a
purple and the yellow same thing is
going to happen if I grab some of this
yellow I grab a little that purple see
they pull in together and they all make
these mutual browns now if I want to
make grey I could do all those two
colors made a really good grey you just
want to make sure you have probably a
little bit more both the bluer based
colors in and you'll get more of a grey
but I take this yellow my blue is dried
there so I'll just grab a little off the
palette I'm going to grab fresh and blue
you can take either one
oops I need to grab my orange you know
you just get you just dull it down by
adding your opposite to it so it's um
it's really intuitive once you try it
and I mean if you have some cheap paint
that's a perfect stuff to practice color
theory with go ahead and play with it
because it will help you now the other
thing I want to show you is there may be
some colors you use all the time and
they're really handy to have on your
palette and in those instances I would
you know go ahead and buy a tube like I
really like yellow ochre I really like
burnt sienna I really like SAP green but
we can mix these colors with those six
colors that I showed you okay and I will
show you how so what I like to do is
figure out okay what's the color most
like you know I'd say this is
the most like these two so I've grabbed
my Prussian blue and I'd grab my lemon
because it's always easier to dull a
color down okay that's pretty close but
I feel like it needs just a touch of
like maybe cadmium red so I'm just going
to grab a touch of cadmium red and look
at that same color okay so for the burnt
sienna I would say well it's probably
and they probably if I go with that blue
in that red so CAD red and Prussian blue
and it might need a little bit of yellow
let's just do a little bit of that blue
and see a little bit more blue and let's
add some CAD yellow to it
a little bit more blue because it's a
little too orange here
a little bit more blue whoops it's a
little too much
but you can see how you can kind of get
a little overboard like that's more of a
burnt umber so now you get a little bit
more red a little bit more yellow to
kind of tone it down a bit that's a
little closer and there we go get a
little closer there so you know it can
be mine that's not dead on I was a much
closer on this one here that I just
mixed that was the mix that was the
burnt sienna but the other thing I want
to show you another reason why I like to
get some colors from the tubes you can
see like this brands Hannah here are
some cool interesting markings in here
just the granulation from the pigment
whereas this is very flat and like this
yellow ochre has a little bit of
seamless to have a little bit more
granulation than that little swatch I
put there of my mix so um you know I
would say go ahead and buy the colors if
you're going to move some tons but you
know you can mix them so for yellow
ochre I would start with cad yellow
because that's what it's closest to then
probably add a little bit of the cad red
mix it over there but way too much cad
red in there and then i would need a
touch of blue to negate it i'm going to
try some ultramarine for that because i
don't want to turn green because it's
got a lot of yellow in there okay yellow
so i mean this is like a delicate
balance but you can mix it a little bit
of water make it a little bit more blue
in there
but you know you keep mixing it until
you get just the right color and I could
pick up some of my neutrals that I've
already mixed and you know alter it that
way so basically what I'm telling you is
mix your colors learn how to work with
those six colors then you know I do
recommend these colors if you want but
not necessary have fun learn how to mix
your colors it's going to really pay off
in the long run as far as your painting
goes now if you're painting in oils or
acrylics of course you add water to
lighten I'm sorry you add white paint to
lighten them but it's the same deal no
matter what you're mixing no matter what
you're using if you found this helpful
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and till next time happy crafting