Beginning Color Theory for Coloring Digital Art
We all know the scene in the movie Wizard of Oz. That moment when Dorothy’s house lands in Oz and she opens the door into Munchkin Land and sees the world awash in color for the first time. It’s almost as if she had never truly seen the world before or is now seeing it for the first time. Her mouth drops open as if in awe. This is the impact color has on us. It not only intensifies the world but fills us with emotion. In short, it has the power to create mood.
But why is this important? It’s important for so many reasons, but it’s especially important when you’re coloring digital art. If you love coloring adult coloring pages, especially digital coloring pages you’ll want to learn everything you can about color theory and color associations or meanings. Even if you’re an advanced colorist, you can still hone your skills by learning color theory fundamentals.
So in this post, the first of many coloring tutorials we’ll be providing, we’re going to break down the basics of color and provide tips and tricks for coloring digital art that will help you choose color harmonies and color schemes to create “mood” in your finished coloring books or digital coloring art.
How Do Our Eyes See Color?
But to truly grasp color, you need to first understand how we see color in the first place. No really, think about it. Have you ever thought about how it is that human beings see all of the colors of the rainbows but dogs, for example, can only see blue and yellow? Color is how we see the world or at least how most of us see the world. About 4.5 % of the people in the world are color-blind most of whom are men and don’t see all the colors of the world. And in fact, some animals and insects can see colors we can’t see.
Our eyes’ ability to see color is a product of how our eyes process light itself. As light bounces off objects in our world, light is sent to the back of our eyes, hitting the retina, which has millions of light-sensitive cells called rods and cones. When light hits the retina, the “cones” not only send signals to the brain, but also detect color. The human eye has 3 kinds of photo-receptive cones, some that are sensitive to red light, others that are sensitive to green light, and even more that are sensitive to blue light.
But how do the cones differentiate between colors? It’s simple really. Light is composed of waves and each wavelength corresponds to a specific color on a spectrum from ultraviolet on one end, which are very short wavelengths, and infrareds on the other, which are very long wavelengths.
Light wavelengths humans see fall somewhere in between. For example, yellow light has a wavelength of 580 nanometers, which is in the middle, whereas violet light is about 400 nanometers, and red light is roughly 700 nanometers.
In this way, the human eye determines an object’s color not by what light it absorbs, but what light it reflects. In other words, the color of an object is determined by what light it does not absorb. For example, a purple grape is perceived as purple, because the grape skin is capable of absorbing all light wavelengths except those that are 400 nanometers or violet. Make sense?
But the real question, when coloring digital art, is do we see color the same way? Well, we already know that some people are color blind because they are missing some cones that are sensitive to red and/or green light. Did you also know that some people have extra cones, which enable them to see more colors than most? These folks are called tetrachromats. They also know now that memories and feelings can affect how we see color. Cool, huh? So as you’re thinking about coloring digital art, you’ll want to keep in mind that not everyone can see all colors and even when we do technically see the same colors, we’re not all perceiving them in the same way. And the fact that memories and feelings impact how we perceive color shows you that the colors you choose as you’re coloring a coloring book or adult coloring page will also impact how your audience “perceives” your finished coloring page.
“Light is therefore color, and shadow the privation of it.”
The Invention of the Color Wheel
Color Wheel with Primary and Secondary Colors
And this brings us to the color wheel. Almost the first assignment you have when you start “art 101” or “graphic design 101” is a lesson on the color wheel. The color wheel is so fundamental to the discipline of art we often take it for granted and don’t think about how it came into being and how it’s development changed how we do art and even how we conceive color.
We’re taught in preschool that there are only seven basic colors that exist in a rainbow or Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. But did you know that for thousands of years there was no universal way to categorize color let alone catalog all the colors found in the world? Philosophers from Aristotle onward , but it wasn’t until Sir Issac Newton, in the 18th century that a universally applicable system for color could be created: the color wheel.
In 1666, the year the Great Fire ravaged London, Sir Isaac Newton began experimenting with prisms and beams of light. He not only used the prism to separate wavelengths into a rainbow of colors, but then used a second prism to merge the wavelengths back together again. Newton’s experiments with white light led to the discovery of the visible spectrum of light. In fact, the Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Green, Indigo, and Violet or ROYGBIV was the result of this discovery.
Light refracted and broken into rainbow in prism
This was the start of his journey to the creation of what we now commonly call The Color wheel.
Newton’s Original Color Wheel
Newton published his findings in his work Opticks in 1704 which posited the theory that red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors from which all other colors are derived. When Newton recombined light waves from Red, Yellow, and Blue, he discovered that they would re-generate White Light. And when any of these two were combined, what we now called “secondary” colors were formed--Orange, Green, and Purple.
Although Newton’s work had helped humanity to get ever closer to a universally applicable system of color, there was still a lot left to do. Less than 4 years after the publication of Opticks, an artist manual attributed to Claude Boutet was published, which built on Newton’s work and are the earliest known examples of Newtonian Color Wheel being utilized to teach “color theory” to artists. Notice how on the left wheel are 7 colors consistent with Newton’s work, but on the write the artist had moved to include the 12 colors which are now commonly used in a Color Wheel.
Boutets Original Color Wheels, 7 and 12 Colors
By 1772, Ignaz Schiffermüller, a naturalist and teacher had developed a robusT color system based on Newton’s original wheel. Unlike Newton or boute, Schiffermuller’s wheel, included not only the primary and secondary colors, but also six tertiary colors. He also felt like the 12 colors on the wheel weren’t enough to categorize all of hues based on the principal colors, so he also included a chart for each color on the wheel, which included 36 unique colors. In total, Schiffermüller’s system--Wheel and Charts--identified 432 unique colors!
Ignaz Schiffermüller’s Color Wheel with Tertiary Color
Ignaz Schiffermüller’s Work on Tints, Shades, and Tones
Ironically, Schiffermüller’s chart system paved the way for our modern day pantone system. In 1776, Moses Harris began to fill in the original color wheel. In his color system, the purest colors are placed in the center of the circle and the lightest colors are on the edge.
Moses Harris’s Color Wheel and the Modern Monochromatic Color Wheel
A quick glance at Harri’s color wheel and you can see how we developed the modern monochromatic color wheel.
Obviously, the value of Newton’s original color wheel and those color systems that succeeded his, are useful for those coloring digital art or coloring pages because it allows colorists to easily apply color theory to quickly develop color palettes or schemes to evoke theme and mood.
The “Science” Behind Color Harmonies
Let’s review the basics of the color wheel and color system.
Primary Colors
Primary colors are the 3 colors on the visual light spectrum that when mixed together form white light. But from an artist’s perspective, they’re simply 3 colors from which all other colors are derived and which cannot be created by mixing secondary colors.
Primary colors consist of Red, Yellow, & Blue.
Secondary Colors
Secondary Colors are simply 3 colors created by mixing two adjacent primary colors on the color wheel. When the primary colors red and blue are combined, they create a “secondary” color we now call “purple.” Likewise, when the primary color yellow and blue are mixed, they create a “secondary” color we now call “green.” And finally, when the primary colors red and yellow are combined, they create a secondary color we call “orange.”
Secondary colors consist of Orange, Green and Purple.
Tertiary Colors
Tertiary colors are colors created by mixing primary colors with secondary colors. For example, combining red with green or yellow with purple or blue with orange.
Tertiary color examples include, red-green, blue-orange, yellow-purple.
Hue, Tint, Shade, and Tone
When we think of “color” what we’re actually referring to is “hue” or the basic color before you add white, black or grey. And this is where Schiffermüller’s original chart system of 36 colors for every principal color in the wheel comes into play. By adding white, black or grey to any color you essentially create a tint, a shade, or a tone respectively. A tint is simply a “hue” to which white has been added. Likewise, a shade is a “hue” to which black has been added. And finally a tone is a “hue” to which both black and white have been added or gray.
Here is a quick visual representation we put together to show the relationship between Hue, Tine, Shade, and Tone.
How Tints, Shades, and Tones are Created from a Hue or Color
Taking the basic hue of “purple,” you can add white, grey, or black. When you add white you get the tint “lilac.” Which is one of my favorite colors! Could you tell? Now, if you add black you get “eggplant.” But if you add “grey” instead you’ll get a hue closer to “mauve.”
How to Develop Color Schemes When Coloring Digital Art
Now that we have the basics down, it’s time to increase the level of difficulty. Once you know what color is and how to make tints, shades, and tones, you’re ready to start working with color schemes or palettes for your coloring pages and digital art.
Have you ever wondered when you looked at a beautifully colored page how the colorist just intrinsically knew which colors to use and that they would all look good together? Have you ever thought, “Wow, I’m just not cut out for this” simply because you struggled to find color combinations that looked good and created the mood you intended? Well, I’m here to let you in on a little secret. Those colorists you were so envious of basically cheated. Like all painters or designers, instead of spending hours and hours trying colors together to see how they would go together, they leverages hundreds of years of color theory, which I outlined above, and the basic color wheel to instantly develop “color schemes” or “color palettes” that would not only go well together, but actually create a mood in their audience.
In short, while there are possibly millions of potential palettes or color schemes a colorist can use to fill in a design, all colors are split into both warm and cool palettes and there are also 5 basic types of color schemes based upon the color wheel that will actually enable you to develop a beautiful and harmonious color scheme for your coloring book and digital art in a matter of seconds!
Let me show you how easy it is to make beautiful coloring pages with perfically harmonious color:
Warm & Cool Color Palettes
Okay, first, did you know that all colors on the color wheel fall into one of two primary color schemes or palettes? Yep. It’s true. All colors on the color wheel are essentially either warm or cool depending on where they sit.
In his diagram, you can clearly see that red, orange and yellow are warm whereas blue, green and purple are cool.
Why is this important? Because as I’ll explain later when looking at basic color schemes such as analogous or monochromatic schemes, simply by selecting colors on one side of the color wheel can create an “instant” mood in your audience. You don’t need to study color theory for half your life or even go to design school to instantly evoke a feeling of “warmth” in your audience. Likewise, you can create a “cool” minimalistic feel in your audience in the same way.
Here’s an example of one of our coloring pagesvcolored twice in two different palettes: one using a warm color palette on the top and another using a cool color palette on the bottom. Notice how each conveys a certain mood.
Coloring Page Warm and CoolPalettes
Since this coloring page is taken from our fashion coloring book Roaring 20s: The Golden Age of Paris Fashion, during the time of the “hot” Jazz Age, we might want to create a feeling of “heat” and “sizzle.” For these reasons, while both color schemes are beautiful, we might choose the one which generates a warm mood to really bring out the essence of this period and design.
Roaring 20s Fashion Coloring Book
Enjoy hours of coloring fun with this adult coloring book with 30 coloring pages!
How to Create Beautiful Color Schemes in an Instant
But beyond warm and cool palettes, there are five basic schemes you can immediately use to take your coloring “game” to the next level. Below we define each of these and show you how to use the color wheel to create amazing color schemes for your next coloring book project.
Monochromatic Color Schemes
A monochromatic color scheme is scheme based upon variations of a single color or hue. As I noted above in the discussion of tint, shade, and tone using the base color “purple”, you can easily develop a monochromatic scheme for your adult coloring project using an principal color on the color wheel that will look harmonious and invoke a mood.
While people instantly assume that a monochromatic scheme is boring, I would argue the opposite. There is a wonderful harmony created and so much variation to choose from when adding tints, tones and shades to a color.
Complementary Color Schemes
In contrast to a monochromatic color scheme, a complementary color scheme uses two rather than one base color. What color theorists from Isaac Newton onward learned from the development of the color wheel is that colors opposite on the wheel are actually complementary, meaning they automatically go well together.
What’s more, complementary colors also create a vibrant, lively and even dramatic “mood” when the principal colors chosen are bright or fully saturated.
Some obvious complementary color schemes can be created by finding a focal color on the color wheel and then simply choosing the opposite color on the wheel.
Examples of Complementary Color schemes include:
Red and Green
Yellow and Purple
Orange and Blue
Analogous Color Schemes
Analogous Color Schemes
Like complementary color schemes, analogous color schemes include more than one principal color, but unlike complementary schemes, they are created by choosing colors directly adjacent to the principal color rather than opposite from it. The most basic analogous color scheme is three colors side-by-side, but they can include a whole group of colors.
Examples of Analogous Color schemes include:
Blue, Blue Violet, and Violet
Or
Red, Red Orange, and Orange
Why are analogous color schemes useful when coloring digital art and coloring books? Well, it goes back to our discussion of warm versus cool palettes. All colorists, especially beginning colorists, can leverage analogous color palettes to create an instant mood. Not only are some colors warm and cool, but each color on the color wheel is also associated with memories, feelings, and emotions. We discuss exactly what mood each color evokes below.
In the examples above, the “Blue, Blue Violet, and Violet” analogous color palette is “cool” whereas the “Red, Red Orange, and Orange” analogous color palette is “warm.” So by using analogous color schemes, you can not only create “temperature,” but also create a color complexity with more depth than a monochromatic scheme. In other words, analogous palettes give you almost instantaneous temperature + depth.
Triadic Color Schemes
Of all the color schemes available, I would argue that triadic color schemes create the greatest “harmonies.” Triadic color palettes are similar to analogous color schemes in that they contain three principal colors, but they differ in terms of where those colors sit on the color wheel. Triadic color schemes are created by selecting three colors equally spaced around the color wheel.
In fact, a great way to select colors for a triadic color scheme is to put or draw a triangle in the center of the color wheel and select the color where each triangle point rests.
Here’s an example of how a triangle can help you choose 3 colors evenly spaced around the color wheel.
Examples of Triadic Color schemes include:
Red, Yellow, Blue
Purple, Green, Orange
That’s right! If you’re super clever, you figured out that both primary and secondary colors can serve as perfect Triadic color palettes. How cool is that?
Tetradic Color Schemes
Tetradic color schemes are similar to Triadic color schemes. The only difference is that a Tetradic color palette consists of four rather than three principal colors. And again, just like the Triadic color scheme, you can quickly figure out a Tetradic palette by placing a square in the center of the color wheel and selecting the color where each corner point rests.
This diagram shows how you can use a square to help you awaken the intrinsic color harmonies of a Tetradic color palette.
Examples of Tetradic Color schemes include:
Red, Green, Blue Purple, and Yellow Orange
Yellow, Purple, Blue Green, and Red Orange.
So what I strongly recommend for those of you who are beginning colorists working on printed coloring books and pages is to take a few moments to buy a traditional artist’s color wheel. I really like Blick’s “Pocket Color Wheel” which will only set you back about $5 :)
If you’re strictly coloring digital art and digital coloring pages, I’d recommend using digital color wheel tool: Session Color Calculator
How to Create Mood and Meaning When Coloring with Color Associations
Now that we’ve gotten all of the technical stuff out of the way, how can understanding color theory help you when coloring adult coloring pages or digital art? Beyond helping you to save time--sometimes hours--trying to develop a color scheme that’s harmonious, knowing the color theory can also help you develop “mood” and “theme” in your coloring book or pages. As I will show you, not only do certain colors convey “temperature,” they also convey meanings that evoke strong feelings and emotions in viewers. Think about the Wizard of Oz example I discussed at the beginning of this post. When Dorothy’s house lands in Oz for the first time, she’s captivated by the color she sees all around her.
You want to think about your coloring pages as potential sites of “art” that can literally inspire awe, inspiration and many other emotions and feelings. Making the transition from a beginning colorist to an advanced colorist is largely about leveraging the meanings and associations of color to make the biggest impact on your audience.
Color meanings? Associations? Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Sounds like some hooey you’d find in a textbook called “The Psychology of Color” right? And yes, you’re on the right track. But in our case, we can leverage the psychology of color in very practical ways to get phenomenal results in our coloring projects. So let’s examine our favorite colors and learn a little more about what each color is associated with and what they mean. Ultimately, you’ll be able to uncover how to use each color in the color wheel for deep impact in your digital art and pages.
The Psychology of Color
How to Use Color to Affect Mood: Colors and their Meanings
Color Associations
As I noted in another blog post on the topic of branding: “Colors are an essential component when conveying mood and emotion. Every color is either warm or cool depending on where it is on the spectrum and all colors are associated with specific attributes. Blue, for example, is associated with trust and stability. Many top brands choose blue for a reason. Purple is associated with passion and sophistication. Green is associated with health, vitality and often wealth.”
As you’re beginning your next coloring project, select the top 1, 2 or 3 colors that you believe connote the primary attribute and mood you want to “convey” in the illustration or line art you’re coloring. Then use the color wheel to start exploring color harmonies and schemes, such as monochromatic, complementary, analogous, triadic and tetradic.
To help you get started, I’ve created and included the Color Scheme Guide, Worksheet and Test Pages I use when I’m starting a coloring book project. I hope you find it useful :) For best results, I recommend printing this handing resource on high-quality paper, such as card stock.
Free Color Scheme Kit
Create perfect color schemes in minutes!
Color Archetypes
And finally, to close this whole discussion, if you’re coloring people in your coloring pages, you’ll also want to make use of literary color archetypes. So not only do colors convey meaning and have associations, they can also help underscore personality types or what we call “personas”. This is essentially helpful for fashion coloring pages, portrait coloring pages, or those with people in “scenes.”
There are 12 major persona archetypes and each one is associated with a color or specific set of colors:
Ruler
Creator/Artist
Sage
Innocent
Explorer
Rebel
Hero
Wizard
Jester
Everyman
Lover
Caregiver
12 Persona Archetypes
Okay, so now you have everything you need to get started to create your first color scheme quickly! Just think, no more disappointment with your finished coloring page because you weren’t happy with the colors you chose! And no more wasted time worrying about getting your color scheme just perfect. With everything you’ve learned here about how we see color, how the color wheel was invented and the “science” behind beautiful color schemes, you can create gorgeous coloring schemes for your colored pages and digital art in less than 10 minutes! Woo hoo :)
Try Our Free Color Scheme Kit: Guide, Worksheet, and Test Pages!
To help make this practical, we’ve taken the liberty of providing a brand new FREE guide on how to select color schemes. This guide includes a 4-step worksheet to help guide you through the process and then also includes test pages so you can print and experiment with color as much as you want.
