Two Ultimate Color Theory Tips for Watercolor Artists

Psst! Want the TL;DR?

• Mix complementary colors for your darks
• Do NOT mix white or black paint with your colors

 

Ah, color theory. How it lights up the eyes, invigorates the limbs, stirs the mind, and awakens the soul to start creating art!

No, actually it doesn’t. 

Color theory, to me, is not exactly captivating. Depending on how confident *cough, arrogant, cough* you are as an artist, you might think you don’t even need color theory. I mean, you’re an artist who makes art - you already know what colors look good together and what don’t. Color comes pretty naturally to you, right? 

Well, allow me to tell you otherwise. These two most impactful color theory tips I'm about to share with you completely changed how I paint.  So, here we go!

1. Add the complementary color to darken your main color

Say what? This is probably one of the most mind-blowing pieces of advice I’ve ever heard. About anything. And that’s honestly kind of sad, because this is such a basic tip, but it makes such a massive difference in your artwork. 

Say you're painting a red apple, and want to do it realistically. There’s a shadow on the left side, so you take your red paint, add a little bit of blue, and paint the shadow.

 

That looks fine. It looks darker, and darker means a shadow. But now I want you to take your red paint and mix in green.

* Quick little spiel: If you’re unsure of which green to choose, decide on whether you want your painting to be on the cooler side, or the warmer side. Or you can just match it with your red. Warm red = warm green, cool red = cool green.*

What do you think? Doesn’t it look so much more natural? You're welcome. 

 

Ignoring my poor apple paintings, look at the colors side-by-side. I guarantee you, the more you apply this tip in your artwork, the better and more vibrant it'll be. 

2. Do NOT use black or white paint

I’m gonna be brutally honest for just a second - white watercolor is pointless and a waste of money and space on your palette. 

Alright, maybe not a complete waste. There are artists who use it, and when built up thick enough (butter consistency), I suppose it can be used to help with highlights. But really, with a medium like watercolor, the highlights in your painting will be so much more striking if you just leave the paper white (even if your paper is off-white)! 

 

If you already have a color mixed, but you want to lighten it up, here's what you do: add more water! It sounds obvious after you say it, right? But this is something that's easy to overlook, especially if you get easily distracted mixing your colors (guilty). 

So, what about black? I’m actually not opposed to using black paint like I am with white. The problems start when you begin mixing black with other colors. It creates a flat, muddy effect, and totally takes the life out of your painting. Plus, like with any other paint, it can easily get out of control and overwhelm your other colors. 

 

So how do you darken a color, then? The opposite way you lighten it. You add more pigment! Or, of course, use the complementary color method above. 

 

Here's some examples of paint lightened and darkened using black and white paint next to paint lightened and darkened using more or less water. 

As you can see, the colors mixed with black look plain awful, and the colors mixed with white look rather cloudy, which, if that's your goal, great! But generally this isn't the look someone's after with their watercolor paint. 

 

I also painted a quick eye to illustrate using black and white paint. I only used black for the pupil, and even there the painting looks a little lifeless (but, to be fair, it's far from my best work and is on cheaper paper). I used very thick white paint for the highlights, but once it dried, it almost looked like gray compared to the paper!

The point is this: Use black for your absolute deepest blacks, and use it in moderation, and don't use white ever because it's the worst and I hate it. Or do. Whatever floats your boat. 

3. Bonus Tip! Surprise!

Buy. Quality. Paints. Mixing colors will be so much easier, brighter, and the paint will interact with the paper better and more evenly. For extra brownie points, use quality paper too. Upping your supplies will help your painting skills progress immensely. The brands I like to use are Winsor and Newton paints, and Arches watercolor paper. 

That’s all for now. Keep painting!