Understanding colors and how to mix them will help you to create beautiful vibrant paintings.
All artists have painting techniques, and they all involve color mixing and theory.
The primary colors are red, yellow and blue.
It may seem hard to believe, but all other colors can be created from just these three.
This is why these three are called the primary colors.
Secondary colors are orange, green and purple or violet.
These are created when the primary colors are mixed together.
In addition, if secondary colors are mixed with primary, you create tertiary colors.
In all, that's 12 colors! Fortunately as artists, we do not need to mix every color we want to use in our paintings.
It is important however to understand color theory and these basic mixing principles.
The color wheel is a tool artists use to understand and visualize these principles.
I suggest having a color wheel in your work area that you use for reference as you paint.
It would be easy to make your own color wheel using the first part of this article as a tutorial.
In addition to the 3 primary colors, I suggest purchasing white, black and burnt umber (brown).
So to have virtually every single shade and variation you really only need to begin with these 6 original colors.
To lighten any color, either dilute it with water or add white or something that is lighter.
Depending on just how much lighter color you add, you end up with dozens of shades.
To darken a shade, add black or a darker color.
There are many other aspects of correct color mixing, but like anything you need to understand the bare basics first.
Color theory is definitely a good place to start.
Have fun and enjoy learning to paint.