Color Theory 101 - Acrylic Masterclass

Discover the basics of color theory on day one, create a color wheel with primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, and learn to read a store-bought color wheel for artistic guidance.

Explore color theory and the color wheel, mix primary colors to create balanced palettes, and use the wheel to craft harmonious color schemes that save money.

Learn to create a color wheel with three primary colors—red, yellow, blue—on acrylic paper using concentric circles and 12 segments, while tinting with white and mixing on the wheel.

Combine primary colors to form the three secondary colors—orange, green, and purple—by mixing yellow with red, then tint with white to reveal multiple shades.

Create a color wheel by mixing primary and secondary colors to form six tertiary colors, and learn to adjust light and dark shades on small acrylic paintings.

Explore the color wheel by mastering primary colors blue, yellow, and red, discovering secondary colors green, purple, orange, and the six tertiary hues created by mixing primaries and secondaries.

Create a color wheel with 12 divisions using a compass, pencil, and ruler, practice with red, blue, and yellow. Journal your color mixing and explore darkening toward black or brown.

Learn that color comes from light; Newton showed white light through a prism splits into seven colors, forming the color wheel, with primary, secondary, and tertiary colors by mixing.

Explore the color properties, hue, value, and saturation, and learn how these building blocks shape acrylic painting, with value charts, monochrome studies, and journal notes on saturated and desaturated landscapes.

Learn the three color properties - hue, value, and saturation - and how they shape contrast in acrylic painting. Use grayscale and desaturation to craft color relationships.

Create a ten-stone color chart using cadmium yellow, building tints with white, tones with gray, and shades with black to show how hue transforms.

Learn to create value charts in acrylics by building tints and shades with white and black, then apply a hue-based format to study color values.

Create a monochrome painting using Prussian blue to study value and the value chart, from tints to shades, and build layered mountain ranges and a light sky.

Learn to study values by creating a monochromatic ultramarine painting, building a value chart with tints and shades, and painting a beach cliff with sky, land, and waves.

Explore saturation and value by mixing cadmium yellow and Prussian blue to create saturated and muted greens, then paint a landscape using these hues.

Explore hue, value, and saturation as the three color properties, build value charts, and practice monochromatic paintings to reinforce a strong foundation for color theory in acrylics.

Explore value chart study in acrylic color theory, focusing on orange tones to sharpen your acrylic color mixing and tonal control.

Delve into a value chart study using cadmium red to understand lightness, value relationships, and color mixing within acrylic theory.

Explore the extra value chart study using teal blue acrylics in this color theory masterclass.

Explore color temperature to prevent muddy mixes and grasp color relationships. Learn warm and cool primaries, three secondary color charts, and how to paint a split primary wheel.

Explore how primaries shape a color wheel and reveal that blue, red, and yellow can be warm or cool in relative color temperature by comparing swatches.

Understand how warm and cool primaries create contrast and depth, then avoid muddy mixes by using split primary charts and color wheels.

Explore secondary color mixing: greens from blue and yellow, purples from blue and red, and oranges from red and yellow, highlighting how biases and white tinting affect vibrancy and desaturation.

Master the split primary color wheel to avoid muddy mixes and achieve vibrant greens. Use warm and cool biases for each primary to mix purples, oranges, and greens accurately.

Create a split primary color wheel and secondary color charts in your color journal to learn how primary colors interact, produce vibrant secondary and tertiary hues, and avoid muddy mixes.

Explore color schemes from the color wheel, learn complementary, analogous, monochromatic, triadic, and tetradic relationships, and see live color-mixing demonstrations to boost color confidence.

Explore complementary color schemes, two opposite colors on the color wheel, with six pairs in a 12-color wheel. Learn how primary-secondary and tertiary pairs create contrast, brightness, and neutralization.

Learn how desaturating with complementary colors—blue with orange or yellow with purple—creates dynamic, standout paintings better than gray or burnt sienna, and preview the next lesson on mixing opposites.

Explore monochromatic color schemes built from a single hue, using white and black to create light and dark values, and using complementary colors to desaturate or darken.

Explore how desaturating with complementary colors, rather than adding black, yields vibrant, desaturated darks and richer artworks in color theory.

Explore analogous colors, three adjacent hues on the color wheel, to create unity and harmony in painting, with a marker demo revealing twelve combinations like yellow-orange.

Explore twelve analogous color combinations on the color wheel in acrylics, mixing primary and secondary colors on a plate to create harmonious, tinted, toned, or muted paintings.

Discover extended analogous color schemes by adding adjacent colors on a 12-color wheel and mixing four to five hues. Apply these harmonious palettes to acrylic paintings inspired by nature.

Explore triadic color mixing by creating and comparing primary, secondary, and tertiary color combinations on the color wheel, and study high-contrast and split-complementary variations.

Explore tetradic color schemes: four colors in square or rectangle arrangements on the color wheel. Balance with a dominant color and accents, discovering fifteen possible combinations.

Explore tetrad color mixing by preparing twelve colors from primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries on a color wheel, then create six combinations to compare harmonious arrangements with complementary contrasts.