https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj1FK8n7WgY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euTe191sAWg

To start off on my journey of learning how to use colour theory, I first took to YouTube as I prefer learning visually, and take more imformation in when watching videos rather than reading a bunch of text.

I found this YouTube video called "Understanding Colour". It has almost 2 million views and the comments are mostly positive, so I thought this would be a good place to start.

The video starts off with the creator explaining that using colours is one of the biggest hurdles that artists face. Knowing how to use colours effectively to adjust the mood or the atmosphere or picking colours that go well together. He states that it's hard for a lot of people to know how it works, and that by the end of this video, I will understand how to use colours effectively. Which is exactly what I want.

The video is going to broken down into three parts.

1) Why is colour so important?

2) Saturation and Value

3) Colour Harmonies

Why is colour so important?

"When used correctly, colour can guide the viewers eyes to what's important. It can also be used to create a mood or scene, or tell a story. However, when used incorrectly it can make the viewer feel lost, nausious or even irritated. Colours can make or break a scene"

Saturation and Value

A lot of people think Colors are all about harmonious relationships. But Saturation and Value are equally as important, if not more so. Without a clear understand of what saturation and value is, and why it's important, no color scheme will ever help you. Saturation is about intensity, and Value about Brightness/Darkness.

Something that's 100% saturation, which can be really hard to look at, for example the red above. But if you turn down the saturation, you end up with a light-pink fleshy colour.

If you turn down the value, you're making it darker, so if you look above you can see that on the left the red is bright, whereas to the far right, the red is more of a burgundy colour.

Adjusting both the saturation and value of a colour gives you a wide range of different colours, all from one single colour.

A lot of artists choose a lot of highly saturated colours because they think it makes it stand out and look better. But this is wrong. High satuirated colours not only look very fake, but using satured colours everywhere gives your eyes nowhere to rest, which is important in an image. I can make the viewer irritated.

However saturated colours are not always bad. When used in small amounts it can make things stand out. High saturation can also work in cartoons as it looks fake and plays to it's surreal unrealistic qualities.

Brightness and saturation can also adjust your mood.

An example of the film up is played, demonstrating the beginning and how bright and vibrant the colours are at the beginning of the intro which signified the joyus, happy moments in their lives, to the greyness and dullness of the colours at the end of the intro which represents sadness and helps you feel the coldness and loneliness the characters are felling.

Saturation and value

-Don't overdo it

-Use it to guide the viewer

-Use it to tell the story

-Use it to change the mood

-Draw attention to something

Colour Harmonies

Colour harmonies pertains to the fact that some colours look better together than others. Also known as colour schemes.

Six popular and common colour harmonies that work well.

Monochromatic

It involves only one colour. Best for single subjects because it forces the viewer to focus on the details of the image. Can be used to create a very atmospheric striking effect.