Learn how to control your colours, and take advantage
of different colour theory principles to make your art pop!

Hands down, on the ranking of the most important art principles, you find colour theory on a solid second place, only beaten by the most important theory; values. From all of the different aspects of art studies, colour studies are probably the most studied of them all, and it's probably also the hardest one to master. Staying on top and handling the most important principles of art will give your advantages in the art scene for sure and shouldn't be overlooked.

學習怎么控制色彩，在不同色彩理論中吸取精華，讓你的藝術作品變得更受歡迎！

我們按照藝術理論的重要性來排列，你會發現色彩理論排在第二位，僅次于最重要的：明度（這里指的是用素描關系繪制體積）。在藝術研究的不同方面里，色彩研究也許是最深奧的。而且也許是最難精通的。我們能肯定的說，掌握和處理最重要的藝術原理能夠讓你的藝術作品增添魅力，而且這也是不容忽視的。

The main characteristics of colour

The principle of colour might seem simple enough, but taking the four main characteristics of colour into consideration; hue, value, saturation, and temperature, there are really no limit of what you can do with this if you know a little about how it all works. There's a lot of theory and studies on colour principles, and you don't need to know them all to be able to create nice compositions of colour, but knowing a few of them is a good start for any artist.

色彩的主要特性

色彩原理看起來好像很簡單，但是我們來考慮色彩的四個主要特性：色相，明度，飽和度（也就是純度）和色溫（色溫簡單說就是平常大家說的冷暖），如果你對這些色彩特性是怎么工作的了解一點的話，那么它們對你該怎么去畫是毫無限制的。色彩原理的理論學科有很多種，不是需要了解所有理論才能創作出好的色彩作品，但掌握些理論對任何一位藝術家來說都是個好的開始。

Simultaneous contrast

同步對比

All colours and even greyscale values are influenced by their surrounding colour, and can be used in several ways to create the expression you're aiming for. This is important to keep in mind when choosing your palette, and if you're planning on having a strongly saturated and dominant background colour, make sure to put the influence of this colour into account early in the process when blocking in your composition.

Surrounding colours also influence grey-scale surfaces. Look at the centre example and notice that the grey circles seem to absorb some of their surrounding colour. This can be used to create some very special and interesting effects in your compositions. The grey circles at the bottom all have the same greyscale value, but are influenced by their surrounding value and therefore appears to be different from each other.

所有色彩甚至包括灰色，都會受到周圍顏色的影響，色彩的這種特性可以通過各種方式應用到你的作品當中。當你選擇色板的時候考慮到這一特性是非常重要的。而且當你打算用飽和度很高和面積很大的背景顏色時，確定在色彩草圖之前的階段就把顏色相互影響的特性考慮進去。

環境顏色同樣會影響到灰色，看例圖的中間一欄你就會發現灰色的圓點好像吸收了周圍的顏色。這可以在你的作品中創作出一些特別而且有趣的效果。最下面一欄的例圖中，圓點的明度都是一樣的，但他們周圍的顏色對圓點產生了影響，使它們看起來有了不用的明度。

The power of complimentary colours

補色的力量

Now, let's take a look at that slightly intimidating device known as the colour wheel; what would an article about colour be without one, right? When working digitally, the importance of the three primary colours (the triangle in the centre) aren't that important as you mix colours differently on the computer, but you can still use this wheel to figure out your complimentary colours. If you look at the outer ring, the colours positioned perfectly opposite each other are complimentary to the other; red versus green, blue versus yellow, and so on. These colours have the strongest contrast, colour-wise and are a good choice to use in areas of interest to bring out attention to specific part of your painting. Mix the two complimentary colours, and you end up with a neutral colour.

現在我們來看下這個有點詭異的東東，大家都管它叫色環~色環對于色彩作品來說是多么的不可或缺啊，是吧？當我們進行數字繪畫時，三原色（中間的三角形就是三原色了）的重要性比你自己在電腦上調出來的各種顏色差遠了，（其實傳統繪畫不也這樣嘛。。。都用原色畫會崩潰的。。= = 老外廢話多？）但這個色環會指導你補色的運用，外環上顏色的位置很好的顯示了補色位置，紅對應綠，藍對應黃，等等。（色環上相對180度的顏色互為補色）這些顏色有著很強對比度和色性，用這些顏色來突出畫面的視覺中心，增加畫面趣味性是個不錯的選擇。把互為補色的顏色混合得到的是偏中性的顏色。

Simon Dominic is using complimentary colours on this painting to bring out the purple birds towards the green main element in the composition.

Simon Dominic（上圖作者名）在這張畫中，通過運用補色使在大面積綠色元素上的紫色小鳥凸顯了出來。

Colours have weight, and it's quite simple; the darker the colour, the more solid and heavy the painted object will appear. The brighter colour and values, the lighter and more delicate the painted object will seem. You should use colour weight to balance your composition, and for creating striking moods. Philip Straub is using colour weight to bring out the main element in focus and balancing the composition in this painting. This is a great way to empathize areas when you're working within a limited colour range and don't want to use complimentary contrast as an attention seeker.

顏色有重量感，非常簡單，深色看起來更重，存在感比較強，亮色和明度高的顏色看起來更輕更精致，亮色畫出來的東西比較虛無飄渺。畫面需要色彩的量感來平衡，并以此取得吸引人的氣氛。Philip Straub（上圖作者名）用顏色的量感來突出主題元素使畫面得到平衡。這是當你只能用有限的顏色和不想使用補色的時候，用顏色的量感突出視覺中心的很好方法。

Stick with it

確定配色表
Once you're in the process of deciding on a colour scheme, no matter if you're starting off with colours from of the first rough, or if you already have a grey-scale version ready of your composition; create your colour scheme and stick with it. Altering too much throughout the process might mess things up more than you think. Minor tweaks are naturally a necessity if needed.

一旦你開始決定配色方案，無論是從最初的色彩草圖還是已經完成的黑白稿版本，確定你的配色并按照配色表的顏色去畫，在繪畫的過程中不停的修改顏色會使畫面比你想象的還要糟糕。如果需要的話做些小的調整時可以的。

Add depth with colour

用顏色制造景深

An efficient way of supplementing depth to a painting with already good values is taking advantage of the effect of warm and cool colours. This can be done quite simply by using warm colours on elements close to the viewer, and keeping the background elements and backdrop with cool colour. This is because warm colours seem to come forward and cool colours seem to recede away. You can also use the same effect to also create striking contrast in mood, as shown on this beautiful landscape by Gary Tonge.

有效的給一幅作品增加景深的方法是利用色彩冷暖的優勢，這么做很簡單，只要在近景部分用暖色調，然后保持背景元素的冷色調就可以了。這是因為暖色有向前的感覺，冷色有后退的感覺。你可以用同樣的方法創造出令人著迷的氣氛。我們展示下Gary Tonge（上圖作者名）這張漂亮的風景畫。

Light, shadow and colour

光影和顏色

When painting any subject, light and shadows are what will build the shapes in the piece. Values are extremely important to be settled early in the process, and when the final thrust of the creative effort is set by adding colour to the light and shadows, your piece will really spring to life.
Keep what was mentioned earlier in mind about adding depth with colour and settle for a colour for your main light source, and a colour for your ambient light. The ambient light is the space that your character or scene is set inside. If you have a clear blue sky, your ambient will be blue because of the massive blue sky-dome covering the scenery, and this colour will influence all of your objects from all angles, and especially the shadowed areas. This is why we often see that blue or purple shadows or backlights/rim-lights always seem to work out nicely in paintings.

Here, Izzy Medrano is using a main light source from the left, and using the surrounding, blue, ambient light make up the shapes of the shadowed side of the character.

畫面中，光影塑造形態，體積和素描關系在初始階段中確定下來非常重要。當最終的創造性的效果通過顏色和光影加到畫面中的時候，你的作品就會鮮活起來。
保持對作品的第一感覺，包括顏色塑造的景深，對主光源和環境光制定的色調。環境光取決于你在畫面中設定的角色或場景的空間，如果畫面中有蔚藍的天空，你的環境光應該是藍色，因為寬廣的藍色天空覆蓋了整個場景。這種藍色會從各個角度影響到場景中的所有物體，特別是陰影部分受環境光影響最明顯，這就是為什么我們經常能看到畫面中很漂亮的藍色或紫色的陰影或逆光下輪廓的藍紫色高光。

這幅作品zzy Medrano（上圖作者名）在畫面左邊設置主光源，然后利用周圍環境，藍色環境光塑造角色陰影中的形體。

Environmental influences
環境的相互影響

If you want to take the previous principle about light and ambient light and complicate it a bit further, you can start thinking about what material the different surfaces in your scene is made out of and how they all will reflect and bounce off light. The light will then cast shadows which will have to be sorted out as well. Looking at this alley painted by Levente Peterffy, you will see that he has taken advantage of ambient lighting to establish depth, and shadows for grounding the lit parts of the composition. Softening out the lit and saturated parts makes it appear as if the air around appear lit, which makes for the delicate and soft expression in this piece.

The same goes for semi transparent colourful surfaces, or solid yet strongly saturated elements where the colour of the surface will bounce off and tint the surrounding areas, both the air and surfaces, as Daniel Kvasznicza is nicely showing on his Chinatown conceptual sketch.

如果你想用之前關于光線和環境光的理論去繼續深入你的作品，你可以考慮下作品中各個物體不同的材質表面，這有助于你想象出各物體間相互影響的反光。光投下陰影，場景場景中的物體也就區分出來了。我們看Levente Peterffy（上圖作者名）畫的這幅小巷，作者用環境光來表現景深、地上的陰影和畫面中的光感。柔化光線，飽和度高的部分會體現出光感，就像空氣彌漫在光線周圍，使整張畫面色調柔和精致。

這同樣適用于半透明物體的表面，或者固體但飽和度高色彩濃烈的物體，物體表面的顏色會反射影響到周圍區域，包括周圍的空氣和物體表面。就像Daniel Kvasznicza（下圖作者名）漂亮的展示出了他的唐人街概念草圖。

Areas of interest

趣味中心

The same way as using strong contrast when working with values, adding attention to specific areas in your composition can and should be done with colours as well. Therefore; hold your horses, and don't use your colours on full strength all over your canvas, but reserve the strongest hues for areas of interest. Using complimentary contrast or simply stronger hues of a specific colour will work as an automatic attention seeker, and can be used cleverly if you are aware of how to take advantage of this effect. Remember that a painting with dull hues all over will be hard to read. You need strong colours to function as eye-catchers, but only in the right places.

In this painting, Simon Dominic has taken great advantage of colour saturation to empathize the unique features of the main character, and left the rest of the composition less saturated, yet within the same colour range. Add more saturation to the background and the painting would be hard to read.

我們應該而且必須同樣的方法加強明暗對比和色彩對比，使畫面中特殊區域引人注意，因此，請再三考慮，不要使整個畫面處理的太平均，要讓最漂亮的顏色在畫面的趣味中心，對比強烈的補色或是飽和度高的顏色會自動抓住人的視線。你如果意識到這種效果帶來的好處，就會聰明的運用它。記住用暗淡無趣的顏色畫出的作品會讓人很難接受，你需要用濃烈的色彩抓住人的視線，但一定要用在正確的地方。

在這張圖里，Simon Dominic（上圖作者名）利用飽和度高的色彩的優勢，使視線集中到了這個獨特的角色上，讓畫面其它部分的飽和度降低但不能差別太大。如果使背景飽和度變高整個畫面會很難看。

Single-coloured surfaces

單色表面

Unless it's the expression you're aiming for, having clean, single coloured surfaces can make your painting seem a lot duller than it could be, no matter how strong that colour is. Texture is key; try messing up that surface a bit with some textured brushes, or a simple noise and you'll see that simple measures like this can create interesting surfaces and make your painting come to life, even if the noise is within the same colour range as the clean base colour.

除非有特殊需要，干凈單一的表面會使你的畫面單調無聊，無論這顏色多純都一樣，紋理是關鍵，試著用些筆刷讓表面增加一些紋理或是簡單的雜色。你會發現這些簡單的方法可以創造出有趣的表面，并使你的畫面鮮活起來，甚至這些雜色下是相同的單一基本顏色。

Using complimentary colours to bring out areas of interest

用補色突出趣味中心

An expressive and efficient way of adding depth and settling where to put the areas of interest is by using complimentary colours. On this painting by Philip Straub, he is using the complimentary contrast of the red mushrooms and the green backdrop to make his composition easy to read. He is also taking advantage of colour saturation to bring out the foreground by keeping the background duller both in values and colour saturation.

用補色來增加景深和刻畫趣味中心是一個有表現力而且有效率的方式，在Philip Straub（上圖作者名）這幅畫中，他運用紅蘑菇和綠背景的補色對比使作品變得好看，同樣他利用高飽和度的優勢使前景突出，背景的顏色飽和度稍稍降低使背景退到遠處。

Using warm and cool colours to create depth

利用冷暖制造景深

Gary Tonge is showing a great example of how good composition and colour handling can make a painting really pop. By using warm colours close to the viewer, and cooler colours further away, the combination of colours will add depth to the piece because warm tones seem to come out towards you and cool colours recedes. The nice perspective of this specific piece and the placement of the point of interest are also helping.

Gary Tonge（上圖作者名）給我們展示了很好的例子，通過顏色處理使作品突出出來。作品中近景使用暖色，越遠的物體顏色越冷，這種顏色組合會使增加景深，因為暖色感覺向前，冷色有后退的感覺。整張畫漂亮的透視和趣味中心的布置安排都使畫面增色不少。

Colours influenced by environment

環境對顏色的影響

The atmosphere in this painting by Gary Tonge is bathing in a beautiful, golden light, which is influencing the entire scenery. Any other stronger colour or complimentary contrasts would break the wonderful mood he has created here. He is also relying on colour weight to make the structure closest to us appear more solid and heavy.

Gary Tonge（上圖作者名）這張作品的大氣中彌漫著漂亮的金色光芒，光線影響著場景中所有物體，任何其它的顏色和補色對比都會對這漂亮的氣氛造成破壞。他這里也利用顏色的重量感使前景的建筑看起來結實厚重。

Step 1, getting the base values up

步驟1，畫出基本的明暗光影

As already mentioned; having good values is crucial for your painting to work. No matter how well the colours are composed, bad values can still break the piece and it will be hard to read. If it works well in grey-scale as well as in colour, then you've succeeded.

就像之前提到的：好的明暗關系對整張畫來說至關重要。不論色彩多漂亮，差勁的明暗關系仍然會破壞效果，使整張畫很難看。如果畫的明暗和色彩一樣好，那么你就成功了。

Step 2, applying basic colour

步驟2，鋪大體色調

I wanted to create depth to this painting, even though it's a very simple composition. I decided to use a cool colour for the background because cool colours appear to recede back into the canvas. I wanted the woman's skin and dress to consist of a warm palette, along with the closest tentacles to drag them closer towards the viewer and away from the cool background.

我想在這幅作品中加入景深，即使這是一張很簡單的畫。我決定用冷色來畫背景因為冷色給人向后退的感覺，我想讓圖中的女人皮膚和服飾偏暖，和最近的觸手一起拉到近景，遠離背景。

Step 3, adding the final pass

步驟3，最終完成

Adding more contrast around the woman's head will work as an attention seeker, and I also applied a blue backlight-rim around her and on the closest tentacles to link them to the blue background. If you look at the top of her dress, you can see how the blue light is bouncing off her dress, and also how her raised arm reflects some warm shades of light as well.

在女人頭部周圍增加對比，使之更吸引眼球，加入藍色背光提亮女人和觸手的輪廓，使得在顏色上和背景聯系起來。在她的衣服上部你會看到藍色反光是怎么反射到衣服上的，還有她抬起的胳膊上反射的光的暖色陰影。

以上就是色彩的原理應用教程，教程很不錯，希望大家喜歡！