Color Theory and Mixing
Lessons
About This Lesson Series...
The Color Theory and Mixing lesson series is a foundational and highly practical exploration of how color works and how to mix it effectively using acrylic paints. Whether you are a beginner learning the basics or an experienced artist seeking to strengthen your understanding of color relationships, this series offers clear, hands-on instruction rooted in both theory and practice. Through structured demonstrations and practical mixing exercises, you’ll develop a strong grasp of how colors interact, how to create accurate hues, and how to make confident color choices in your artwork.
Understanding the Color Wheel
The series begins with the color wheel — the essential framework for all color understanding. You’ll learn how primary colors (red, blue, yellow) relate to secondary and tertiary hues, and why this structure matters when you’re mixing paints. By exploring these relationships visually and actively with your own palette, you begin to internalize how colors blend, what happens when you mix complementary colors, and how to anticipate outcomes rather than guess. This foundational knowledge makes all subsequent mixing work more precise and expressive.
Value, Hue, and Saturation
Color is more than just hue — it’s also about value (lightness or darkness) and saturation (intensity). This lesson series dives into how value shifts affect the mood and readability of a painting and how saturation can be controlled to create atmosphere, depth, and emphasis. You’ll learn practical techniques for modifying value with white, black, or complementary colors and how to manage saturation so that colors feel vibrant without overpowering the composition.
Mixing Clean Colors
One of the biggest challenges artists face is mixing “clean” colors (clear, bright hues that don’t look muddy). This series teaches you how to mix colors efficiently and accurately on the palette before applying them to your painting. Using controlled studies, you’ll practice mixing related hues, blending analogous colors, and avoiding common pitfalls that lead to dull, lifeless mixes. These exercises build confidence and save time when you’re working on larger compositions.
Practical Palette Strategies
Along with theory, the lessons cover practical strategies for setting up and using your acrylic palette. You’ll learn how to organize your colors for efficiency, how to minimize wasted paint, and how to plan your mixtures in advance for a cohesive result. This includes exercises that help you connect mental concepts (like complementary contrast or color temperature) with actual pigment behavior on the palette. These skills are invaluable when it’s time to make color decisions in a real painting.
Applying Color Theory in Painting
The final focus of the series is applying what you’ve learned in actual painting scenarios. You’ll explore how to use color theory to enhance composition, create depth, and evoke mood. Lessons demonstrate how color temperature (warm vs. cool) can influence space and focus, how complementary contrasts draw the eye, and how strategic mixing choices can unify an entire piece. This practical application transforms abstract theory into real results in your acrylic work.
Building Confidence with Color
By the end of the Color Theory and Mixing lesson series, you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of how color works — not just conceptually, but as a working tool in your hand. You’ll walk away with practical mixing skills, stronger visual intuition, and the confidence to make deliberate, expressive color choices in your acrylic paintings. This series helps unlock color as a powerful expressive element rather than a source of uncertainty, giving you greater control over your artwork’s impact and harmony.
Here's what you'll need...
Your Choice of Paint Type...
- Cadmium Yellow and Lemon Yellow
- Cadmium Red and Alizarin Crimson
- Phthalo Blue and Ultramarine
- Titanium White and Ivory Black
- Palette Knife and Palette
Expert teacher and visual artist. Ashley is encouraging and makes creating art easy to understand.
Alizarin Crimson…. is that a single index pigment or a Hue mix (ie PR122/PR206/PG7) ??
Hi Margaret,
We were using the pure pigment.
This was very enjoyable and informative. Thank you. You make a good team.
That was very interesting, informing and funny to watch. Thank you to you two.
Thanks Lyne!
Thank you very much for the great information on color theory. This was very interesting!!!!
Awesome! Thanks Lamar, it was fun!
Thank you, both, for this color mixing lesson! I’m sure I’ll be watching it many times over!
Awesome and thanks Janet!
Awesome sauce! I’ve been changing the natural color of things since I was old enough to spit English peas and blueberries into my little fists said my mom, I have a tendency to believe her cause I still have to fight myself not to spit them to this day lol.
I Absolutely LOVE COLOUR I love to play with it, change it, use it, be used by it! COLOUR ROCKS MY WORLD! I have actually come here to hopefully learn a bit more about the enemy of mine drawing. When I first found you years ago I couldn’t even draw a stick man well lol. But from your free demos I drew the most gorgeous Apple with Prismas, my roommate, companion, actually wanted to frame the darn thing. That’s when O knew as soon as finances would allow I was in and here I am. I’m very excited please forgive the NOVEL.
Nice Joshua! Love to hear things like this!
Why is my subscription showing expired when I paid for it.
Hi Mary, We’ve sent you an email regarding your account.
Hello Matt,
I can’t download this video.
I liked this leasson was very interesting, thank you.
Cad yellow light or medium?
Cad red light or medium?
You can now purchase Liquitex non cad colors that are a pretty good match. In California, they led the way to labeling paint with Cadmium. I appreciate this as I work with adults and children with special needs and toxins are pretty important consideration.
Thanks for the informative lesson!
Sasha
Watching this, I was reminded of a little “time waster” game on my phone called “I Love Hue” in which a bunch of colored blocks are mixed up and you have to put them back in the correct order. It can be quite challenging, and it’s an interesting lesson in how your perception of colors is affected by the colors surrounding them.
HI MARK,
I NEVER REALLY KNOW WHAT COLOUR TO USE FOR SHADOWS?
Thanks so much, I enjoyed watching this, I learned so much about colour that I honestly never knew before. I have a habit of buying all sorts of paint/brands/lines…based on price and what they look like. I never realized I could make so many colours from six simple tubes! I also have a colour wheel that I never fully understood so your video helped a lot!
Excellent, I honestly struggle with color mixing. I think the limited palette will take some time but will be worth it in the long run. I have been given to buying what I need. Now I really am understanding that I don’t need to do that…..
Thank You
Very informitive. Thank you Ashly
I love this class. It helps a lot seeing Vicent Van Gogh paintings in the end to complement evrything you guys talked about through the class. Thank you!
This is my first lesson that I am watching from the virtual instructor, love it!
I teach primary grades of art so it is a bit high for them but I like it for my own art practice
Awesome, thanks Joanne!
This was great! I’m fairly new at all of this, and this was simple to understand and very informative. I followed along using Prismacolor pencils because I don’t have paint yet. I used ultramarine, Spanish orange and poppy red for the warm, and indigo blue, canary Yellow and crimson red for the cool. My mixed colors came out about the same as the paint colors. I was even able to make the browns and grays. Thank you for this.
A great lesson on color mixing. Which part was about color theory?
HI-
FOR A PALETTE, WHAT TYPE OF GLASS WOULD YOU USE- COMMON WINDOW GLASS, TEMPERED GLASS, ETC?
THANKS,
STEVE
If the primary colours can’t be made from other colours, how are they made?
Hi Pandora,
Primary colors (or the paints and other media available as the primary colors) come from naturally occurring pigments. They cannot be mixed by combining any other colors together.
how do you make brown from the primary colors?
OMG I feel I might actually understand colour theory!! Thank you guys !!
As you were showing the Van Gogh paintings and got to the sunflowers, the whovian in me was coming out lol I was wishing that for fun it said for Amy above his name on the vase lol. I really want to say thank you so much for everything you do on here! color theory has always confused me and using colored pencils always intimidated me but your courses and live lessons have helped me so much in overcoming those draw backs, it still intimidates me some but I’m getting past it little by little. your showing me that when I slow down and take my time instead of rushing through that I will get a much better result and also to keep working at it as it won’t look nice right away. Everything both you and Ashley do here is so very much appreciated by so many so thank you so much!
Very informative video. BUT I do find the background music a little distracting AND unnecessary
Hi Lesley,
There isn’t any music playing during the instructional part of the video. I’m not sure how the music is distracting to you.
This class was very informative. I am learning watercolor and would love to watch any color theory videos that speak to that media. I know a lot of it is the same, but I am speaking more to the changing of value and intensity. Is it just the adding of water or additional pigment, as opposed to adding white, black, or grey?
On a side not, now I want to pick up some oil paints and fold the colors together. Quite therapeutic…lol
Hi John,
Yes, with watercolor, the white of the paper is your “white”. By adding thinned applications of watercolor, you create lighter values of colors.
THANK YOU! I have watched so many videos on color theory from so many different people it made my head hurt. You and Ashley breaking it down with actual colors actually helped me understand the schemes so much better.