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Colour Theory

Understanding Colours

It is essential to understand colour theory in order to make your designs pleasing to the viewer and balanced on the face.

Learning which colours work well together will vastly improve the quality of your face painting.

For face painting we only need consider the RYB (Red, Yellow & Blue) format.

First, let’s look at the Colour Wheel.  Notice how it follows the order of the rainbow.

Tip: One of these acronyms might help: Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain or the person’s name Roy G. Biv

P.s. The digital format is RGB (Red, Green & Blue). The printing format is CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and K Black)

Primary Colours

The primary colours are:

  • Red
  • Yellow
  • Blue

Secondary Colours

The secondary colours are created by mixing two primaries together:

  • Red and Yellow mixed will make Orange
  • Yellow and Blue mixed will make Green
  • Red and Blue mixed will make Purple

Tertiary colours

The tertiary colours are made by mixing one primary with a secondary which is adjacent on the wheel.

Complementary Colours

These are colours which are opposite on the colour wheel.

  • Green and Red
  • Orange and Blue
  • Purple and Yellow

When placed next to each other, they stand out brightly and are very pleasing – like Green holly and Red berries. However when face painting, take care not to blend or mix complementary colours together, as you will create a version of Brown.

Analogous Colours

These are colours adjacent to each other on the colour wheel and blend together well

e.g. Blending a Red into Orange into Yellow.

Very popular for example when painting a tiger.

Monochromatic colours​

First select one colour.

  • Red mixed with White makes a tint.
  • Red mixed with Black makes a shade.

Another example is Sepia – dark Brown to very pale Cream.

Cool and Warm Colours

It is helpful to have knowledge of which colours are cool and which are warm; if you can match to the undertones of the person you are painting, it looks more effective and pleasing to the eye. Learn to recognise whether the skin undertone is warm or cool.

  • Warm – Yellow through Orange and Red tones
  • Cool – Purple and colours through Blue and Green

Find out more on Colour Theory in the FAM Club.

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