Colour Theory and Application
This domain tests colour vocabulary, mixing control and deliberate application. You should distinguish pigment mixing from light mixing, explain harmonies, and adjust hue, value and chroma without muddying a colour.
Core rules
- Hue is the colour name; value is light-dark; chroma is saturation. A tint adds white, a shade adds black, a tone adds grey or complement.
- Pigment primaries are not the same as light primaries. In paint, cyan, magenta and yellow give cleaner mixes than red-yellow-blue in many student sets.
- Complementary colours sit opposite on the wheel; mixing them neutralises chroma. Analogous colours are adjacent; triadic colours are evenly spaced.
- Warm colours advance, cool colours recede, but simultaneous contrast can reverse the effect.
- Judge wet paint against dry samples and against neighbouring colours, not in isolation.
Worked example
Mix a muted green for dusty foliage. Start with yellow and blue to make a clear green. Add a tiny amount of red, the complement, until the green loses brightness. Test a stroke on white paper and beside the intended background. If it looks too dark, adjust with more yellow rather than black; black kills chroma and makes the green grey. Record the recipe as parts, not drops.
Traps
Using black to darken every colour. Overmixing until the colour is dead. Judging wet colour as final. Adding too many pigments to correct one mix. Ignoring local colour versus light colour.