![]() What additional colors are in your subject? So in addition to pulling out your main colors, grab a few complementary colors as well to use whenever you need to tone down a color or make a convincing dark color.Ĥ. ![]() (EmptyEasel has an article on mixing oil paint to make black that covers this concept very well.) ![]() Second, the best way to get realistic dark values is often by layering complementary colors. Adding an earth tone or red to landscape greens makes the green look more natural. Layering a bit of green over red makes the red less bold. If you’ve studied an artist’s color wheel, you know that a complementary color is simply whatever color is opposite on the color wheel to the color you’re using.Ĭomplementary colors are helpful for a two reasons.įirst, adding a layer of complementary color will tone down the brightness of a color. What complementary colors are in your subject? Don’t be afraid to blend in those colors as you need them.ģ. If the red is bluish, add the closest matching blues. So I usually begin by laying aside every pencil in the color family that best represents the color of my subject.Īnd, if the red you’re drawing is a yellowish red, you may also want to lay aside the closest matching yellow pencils to your palette. This just means that (most of the time!) your best option is to blend two or more reds to get the correct red. On the other hand, if there are a lot of color variations in your item, you could possibly find matches for more than one of your pencils. It’s actually pretty common that none of your pencils will be an exact match. If you look at the ornament again, you can see that the bottom half is closest to the bottom pencil, while the top half looks more like the top pencil. One way to do that is to compare each of your red pencils to the object you’re drawing. Is the ornament a warm red-leaning toward yellow? Or is it a cool red-leaning toward blue?ĭetermining the secondary color can be more difficult and may require a little comparison. Most of the time, it will lean toward another color. You’re unlikely to find a subject that is a pure, single color. What color does your subject “lean” towards? It’s clearly red, so it’s in the red family.Ģ. What is the basic color of the item you’re going to be drawing? For example, let’s say you’re going to draw this Christmas ornament. The first thing to determine is also usually the easiest. :)īut no matter what you draw or how you draw it, there are a few basics I think you should keep in mind when you’re putting together a palette for your next drawing:ġ. I draw a lot of horses, so my palettes are usually pretty heavy on earth tones and other “horsey” colors. A number of factors play a role, like your own artistic style, your favorite subjects, and your working methods. Selecting your color palette for new drawings is a personal matter. But, with that said, these principles are based in color theory, so they should work in most situations. I’m not guaranteeing it will work for every artist it’s just what feels right to me. NOTE: Before I begin, I want to mention that the process I’m about to describe is entirely intuitive. By Carrie Lewis in Art Tutorials > Drawing Tips
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