Oil Painting Step by Step

Color Theory and Mixing

Knowing a little about color theory will help you tremendously in mixing colors. All colors are derived from just three primary colors—red, yellow, and blue. (The primaries can’t be created by mixing other colors.) Secondary colors (orange, green, purple) are each a combination of two primaries, and tertiary colors (red-orange, red-purple, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-purple) are the results of mixing a primary with a secondary. Hue refers to the color itself, such as red or green, and intensity means the strength of a color, from its pure state (straight from the tube) to one that is grayed or diluted. Value refers to the relative lightness or darkness of a color. (By varying the values of your colors, ...