Colour Theory

A colour theory is made up of three parts, the colour wheel, colour harmony and the context of how colours are used.

The Colour Wheel
The colour wheel is exactly what is says, a wheel of colour. A proper definition for this is, 'A circle with different coloured sectors used to show the relationship between colours. Below you can see how people have represented colour wheels in the past, in comparison to the colour wheels that we use today.

Image sourced from http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory

There is also a more in depth representation of colour wheels. As there can be a 3 part, 6 part and a 12 part colour wheel. The 3 part colour wheel shows the 'Primary Colours', red, yellow and blue. Te 6 part colour wheel shows the 'Secondary Colours', red, yellow, blue, green, orange and purple. Green, orange and purple are the results of mixing together the primary colours in different ways. The 12 part colour wheel shows the 'Tertiary Colours', red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, yellow/orange, red/orange, red/purple, blue/purple, blue/green and yellow/green. Some of these colours are created by mixing together the primary and secondary colours, which is why you get a hue with a 2 part name, such as the blue/green.

Image sourced from http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory

We used the colour theory in our next task. Which was another life drawing class. However the focus was now on the use of colour, as we now had the knowledge of the colour wheel and how it worked. A red light was used to light up the model, so when I created my work I used the colours red, orange and yellow to draw the model himself. And different shades of green to create the shadows of the model on the wall.

Above is my final outcome. I chose to focus on his upper body, in which I used only coloured fineliners. I decided to create the whole image by drawing diagonal lines to create a textured look. I also drew lines closer together if I wanted to make parts of the drawing look darker and done the opposite if I wanted parts of the drawing to look lighter. I am quite pleased with the outcome of my work considering that it is my first attempt at creating a coloured life drawing.