For instance, yellow-green, yellow, and yellow-red are all vivid colors, each with their complexity, but when used together in a painting, it can look like a primary yellow. “There are mixed opinions with this approach because it’s very easy to have a calming color palette, but then you also have very low contrast, and all the colors blend together,” Newman says. This is a simple method to develop a color system, but it’s not without its flaws. You’ll need to have the proper contrast, so most illustrators choose one dominant color, along with a second supporting color and a third color to be used as an accent or highlight. You can use it to determine what color scheme matches the mood you’re trying to set.ĭo you want colors that flatter each other? Choose colors that are located right next to each other on the color wheel. “It’s a push-pull thing and it comes down to preference.” With so many options, how do you decide what color palette works best for your illustrations? The color wheel comes to the rescue. “When it comes to color theory, there’s no set list of ‘Don't do that,’” says illustrator Alyssa Newman. It’s a system of logic that places guidelines and rules of how colors contrast, mix, and match with each other. These are the four basic colors of ink used in printing color images.Ĭolor theory is the creative and scientific use of color. However, if printing is your ultimate goal, digital artists and designers can use, or convert files to, CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black). The light source of a monitor or screen can create any color you can imagine with the combination of different shades of red, green, and blue. Typically, print artists use the RYB color model, as it’s best suited to illustrating the correlation between physical colors in inks and paints in the color mixing process.įor designers or artists who work in the digital medium, the RGB color palette is most typically used, as those colors are found in the photoreceptors of the eyes. There are two types of wheels: one based on the primary colors of RYB (red, yellow, and blue) and one based in RGB color (red, green, and blue). Arranged in the order the colors appear in the light spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet), Sir Isaac Newton created the first color wheel in 1666.

It’s the standard tool for viewing and understanding color combinations. The color wheel represents all visible colors.

Color wheel primary secondary