CO LO R T I P S FO R A RT I STS
Your Creative Path!
I super appreciate your interest in Art2life I am excited to welcome you into this
and all the ways my team and I can help community. The Art2life Artists Facebook
you become the artist you are meant to be. group is free and we would love you to be
a part of it. It is just brimming with artists
When I was starting on my creative path, I who are learning, sharing and are on the
was not able to find the answers to so many fast track to improving their art. Come in
questions I had about making my art. and give and get feedback, make friends
and get inspired!
It felt hard figuring it all out alone. I didn’t
see many people pulling this off and the
artists that were successful wouldn’t share. J O I N O U R F R E E FA C E B O O K G R O U P
So sharing with artists is a big part of what
I believe in. It is what Art2life is all about. It turns out thriving as an artist is truly
We provide the vital information you need possible. And doing this together is simply
to thrive as an artist. No matter what level way more fun.
you are at. We are a growing community
of creatives that support and inspire each Nicholas
other to make our art and life extraordinary.
CO LO R T I P S FO R A RT I STS
OK ON TO
COLOR!
Before I dive into these color tips
with you, I need to go over the 5
most important aspects of Color.
Understanding these provides the
foundation for making the color in
your art amazing.
They are
VA L U E
S AT U R AT I O N
T E M P E R AT U R E
H A R M O N Y and
COMPLEMENTS
CO LO R T I P S FO R A RT I STS
VA L U E
Value is the lightness and darkness of a color. (What it
would look like in a black and white photograph.) Value
is the most important and visually potent aspect of color.
Value is noticed before “color” by the human eye. This is
extremely important to remember. When we choose a color
for our art it is the relative value contrast of that color that
makes us notice it. The viewer will see high value contrast
areas in your art first.
CO LO R T I P S FO R A RT I STS
S AT U R AT I O N
Saturation is the purity or intensity of a color. The most
saturated colors are usually the ones we buy, full strength
in the art store, such as cadmium red, ultramarine blue,
dioxin purple or permanent green, etc. It is not possible to
make cadmium red more red. It is fully saturated when we
purchase the tube of paint. It is only when we add other
colors, especially black and white that the saturation of say,
cadmium red would lessen. When colors are “greyed” down
with black and white they become less saturated. However
saturation is always relative. If we make a grey with black,
white and a tiny amount of orange, this grey would be more
saturated than a grey that is only made by mixing black and
white together.
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WA R M E R
T E M P E R AT U R E
Temperature is the warmth or coolness of a color. Red,
orange and yellows are warm colors and blue, greens are
cool.
COOLER
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HARMONY
Harmony is the accordant arrangement of colors. Color
harmonies, like music is beautiful. Colors that are in harmony
must contain at least one common color. For example if red,
blue and green have had orange mixed in to each of them,
these colors will appear related and will be in harmony with
each other. Colors need at least one common color in them
to be in harmony but often they share more. For example if
red, blue and green all have a small amount of red, blue and
green in them they also will be in harmony.
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COMPLEMENTS
The color wheel arranges color around a circle according
to similarities and commonalties. The colors on the wheel
beside each other are the most related. For example,
the orange is most similar to yellow and red. However,
directly across the wheel from orange is blue. Blue is the
complement of orange.
The complementary colors are the colors that are directly
across from one another in the color wheel. See chart of
color wheel below.
There are only 3 complement relationships or pairings.
Green is the complement of red.
Orange is the complement of blue.
Purple is the complement of yellow.
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CO LO R
TIPS
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TIP
KEEP THE
01 VA L U E S
O F YO U R
CO LO R S
VAL ORGANIZED
UES The most visible noticeable aspect of color is its value.
Try to remember this when making your colors. If you can
organize, especially as your art is developing, your colors
as either being clearly dark or light value, you will be better
able to see the design of your art emerging. Try to have
your colors “group” together into light or dark colors. An
easy way to see if this is working is to view your art from
a distance. It is super helpful if you can clearly see what is
light and what is dark. Not only does this generally make
your art stronger, but it also makes your art more clear, so
you can then choose what to do next.
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E N H A N C E YO U R
02 CO LO R S BY
P R OV I D I N G
THEIR
OPP OPPOSITES
OSI Understanding the notion of opposites creates creating rich
interesting color. To make anything look fantastic in our art,
TES
especially color, it is crucial that we think of opposites.
If you have a dark saturated color that is a cool color, try
adjusting what is around that color or in the proximity, to be
a color that is its opposite…in this case a color that would
be very light, unsaturated and possibly slightly warm. If you
can get in the habit of seeing what colors will enhance the
colors you have placed in your art, the overall color in your
art will become more sophisticated.
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03 H O L D B AC K O N
S AT U R AT I O N I N
THE BEGINNING
SAT When creating your art, try using colors that are less
URA
saturated. If your colors are made with more colors in
them they will all relate better because they will be more
harmonized. Color is almost like fools gold in that if used
at full saturation it creates a situation whereby all you see
TION
is the intense color, making it difficult to see anything else.
If you keep your color somewhat subdued in the beginning
you still will have room to expand to more saturated colors
as the work develops. Once the work becomes more
developed you will be better able to be more selective
about what colors are or are not more saturated.
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04 MAKE ONE
CO LO R T H E
HERO
HE Sometimes when making my art, my color can look totally
RO
random and unrelated. When this happens I always ask
myself which of these 3 or 4 colors that are all equally
strong do I really want to showcase? Which one do I love
the most in this particular painting? This question forces me
to choose one color to leave more noticeable and possibly
more saturated. Next I subdue the other colors so they
are significantly less saturated or noticeable. This simple
decision often pulls the work together and gives me clarity
about the direction of the art.
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05 U S E CO LO R
TO M OV E T H E
VIEWER’S EYE
MO If you have a fairly noticeable area of color in your art and
VE
you like the color and the placement try bringing this same
color into 1-2 different places in the art. It can just be a hint
or tiny mark but if it is that same color, the viewer’s eye will
instantly recognize it and will be visually moved throughout
your art instead of staring in the one place in your art where
this one instance of a particular color occurs.
CO LO R T I P S FO R A RT I STS
CO LO R T I P S FO R A RT I STS
I hope these tips
were helpful.
The Art2Life Community is
all about sharing resources, Join the
inspiration, and supporting
each other. It’s about finding FREE ART2LIFE ARTISTS GROUP
what inspires and brings you
joy, and making Art that is
more and more like yourself. Let’s do this! Together.
See you there...
Nicholas