Colour Theory and Colour Mixing
Colour Theory and Colour Mixing tests the colour wheel, colour relationships and practical mixing. Expect questions on primaries, secondaries, complementary and analogous schemes, warm and cool colours, tints, shades and tones, and why mixed colours look dull.
Rules
Pigment primaries are red, yellow and blue in the traditional school model; mixing two gives secondaries - orange, green and violet. Complementary pairs sit opposite: red–green, blue–orange, yellow–violet. A tint adds white, a shade adds black, and a tone adds grey or the complement. Warm colours (red, orange, yellow) appear to advance; cool colours (blue, green, violet) recede. Use complements sparingly to neutralise, not to brighten.
Worked example
Mix a muted leaf green. Reasoning: start with yellow and a little blue to make a clean green; add a touch of red, the complement, to reduce saturation; test on scrap paper because pigment strength varies; do not add black, which deadens the hue and makes the green grey. For a lighter leaf, add yellow or white rather than more water alone.
Traps
Using black to darken every colour; overmixing until the hue is muddy; treating red and magenta as interchangeable; confusing tint with shade; placing warm and cool colours without a purpose; forgetting that drying paint changes value. Mixed colour often looks darker wet than dry, so test first.