this was something that my younger self was always on the edge of but could never fully parse. my art teacher would say you could make any color you want with the primary colors and I knew he was right but I would look at the blue/yellow /red paint we had and I knew he was wrongggg because I couldn't get certain colors without being grayed out and just knew we needed a pink in the mix because the blue was more like a blue green than a blue red. but this was all stuff I couldn't vocalize. having this information in a video is so helpful, thank you so much for making videos like this, like with your color spotlight series, they're informative on a subject I've always been in interested in
Thank you so much! You have a lot of natural talent to recognize that at a young age! I rarely use pink in paintings, and never really hand, so I guess I never pieced together that you'd need it for mixing colors, but you're absolutely right! Even as an adult, I don't remember my teacher covering this. It was only something I found out while researching on my own. Thank you so much for the kind words, it's always inspiring to me to hear that they're helpful!
In Liquid Color yes, I feel part of it is budget as you mentioned, along with a lot of primary kits offering primary blue/yellow/red which can get you a lot of color if they match in temperature, but the versatility of CMY versus RBY makes me wish my teacher had offered CMY paints, even if they were the cheap student grade paints, you could still do more.
Myself included! It's so hard in elementary schools to teach as an after school teacher when it comes to color theory because it's already so ingrained, then there's this silly stranger marching in saying "weeeell, actually" ;)
Just another reason to watch your video library! You have a wonderful reasoning and present information in such an understandable manner! I simply cannot express how much I enjoy watching your videos! You have a wonderful aspect and I appreciate you!
The Real Mythril you did not have to shift at all. Those colors were already there BEFORE CYM pigments and those "modern" pigments have been around for many years. Yes these pigments are great and yes split primaries are great. But even better is a completely diversified palette containing major single pigment players covering every major sub group. Sure it can be expensive but the "team" can be built over time.
RGB are the primaries in additive synthesis (think pixel colors) while CMY are the primaries for substractive synthesis (color printers). Evidently computer monitors and color printers work very well. I'm very new to watercolor but the color "theory" taught by various artists goes against everything I knew. Plus I realised I could mix Red and Blue from magenta and cyan in my kit. Good to know Im not crazy and the universe is still holding up.
this is a great video that explains the concepts well.. personally the CMY color does look cleaner but a tad lifeless to me if that makes any sense. so i will likely stay with the dual primary which i found to be amazingly easy and versatile.
I agree! I MUCH prefer the purples in CMY but like the greens and oranges better for practical paintings in RBY. I still highly recommend a split primary palette and I myself always have access to at least those six colors.
It gets its life back when you start mixing the complement to shade a color with as you approach black. That's essentially what's happening in the old paradigm, you're getting earthier colors because they aren't 100% primary. You're using a limited palette.
The reason it looks lifeless is because while CMY IS the real primary color wheel, and you WILL be able to mix all colors from it, while the same cannot be said about RYB.... You will never be able to maintain the vibrancy of the colors you mixed... That means that you lose vibrancy when you mix colors, which makes it difficult to get perfect vibrant colors from 3 colors alone. The colors you buy in their own respective tubes have been worked on and purified to be their best, vibrant selves. So you will most likely get the best red from a red that you buy, rather than a red that you mix. That is why some people think that RYB is the "other" primary color wheel. It's not, but since you start out with premade colors, they look more vibrant than if you were to mix into those colors. Thats why personally Id buy both the secondary colors I plan on using and the primary ones. So buy both magenta, cyan and yellow, but also blue, red, orange, purple and green... That way you get more of the purified pigments. But without cyan and magenta, your paintings will always be missing some pretty essential hues.
another great video Denise! I have dramatically reduce the colors I use daily into the primaries and a little bit of the earth tones since I learn more about mixing my own colors. I have lost my interest in having a big range of colors in my palletes now, thanks to you! 😄
Very cool! I hadn't thought about using that system in watercolors since you hear so much about the RBY color mixing. Reds are just so common because they are such plentiful pigments in nature that they are more easily obtained. It's funny to think we don't truly need them. :)
Bec M. Don't you know that there are a bunch of Yellows and Blues too? If we don't need red then you best let go of that "magenta" your using cause...it's a red.
When I discovered this, everything suddenly made sense! Ever since I was a kid I've been frustrated with not being able to mix every color from the ones who were supposed to be primaries! And no one could explain this to me, I just remember sometimes the teacher would bring out the hot pink "cheat" paint so we could make pink and purple, but I still couldn't get a satisfactory aqua blue. I'm definitely nerding into the CMY palette now because I'm kinda bummed out that I've been "lied" to my whole life! 😆 I love the CMY colors because they can actually mix EVERY color, even though some of them like warm yellow might look a little pale in comparison with pure pigment - that's a minor inconvenience in my book, because the joy of being able to paint a whole rainbow with just three primaries is so worth it! 😄 (and you can always add a warm yellow to the palette if you want but I like to keep it minimalistic because it's fun and challenging)
I think one could argue that the CMY mix leans on the "cool" side of the primaries spectrum while the RBY is on the "warm". Another graphic designer here, and I echo what was previously said, however, about some colors being an absolute nightmare to try and reproduce just with process (CMYK) color mix. Oranges, reds and peachy-type colors are notoriously difficult to reproduce with much vibrancy. Great video. I actually put together my own mini CMY palette a few months ago, but I used DS Cerulean Blue, Opera Pink, and Lemon Yellow. (I got a lot of flak about using Cerulean Blue on a particular watercolor enthusiasts social media group - but I forget the reasoning - I think it's because it's not a single-pigment? Or maybe it's fugitive? - I still consider myself very novice when it comes to watercolors - but I felt Cerulean looked the closest I could get to cyan.)
Kelly Roy that's exactly what I found here, that oranges were difficult but the rest was lovely. I still would never CHOOSE to only work with the three as o love color too much to limit myself ;)
@@richiejourney1840 all problems are starting when you're mixing colours by your own. In my opinion there is need for the scientific way to create colour wheel. Imagine colour wheel with 3 primary and 357 secondary clear hues or 3 primary and 1527 secondary clear hues. It is possible only in scientific way. If you make one by your self in that way it is great for understanding colour being.
what an awesome video! i heard a lot about cyan and magenta in photoshop and my printer and stuff like that but i never put thought on that so thank you so much!
In Liquid Color I'm blown away!!! omg thank you for answering! I really admire you, you always come with this really helpful type of videos that had help me on my way of learning watercolor!
this didnt click for me until i bought permanent rose (w&n cotman) and used it to mix and i got the most beautiful colors. i know its not a magenta but it works better than the cad red deep i have in my palette that i barely touch. definitely gonna try the colors you talked about here though.
I love rewatching these color theory videos while playing around with alternative triads. This morning, I played with Nickle Azo Yellow, Quin Magenta and Cobalt Teal (all from QoR) as my "primary" colors. I love a good granulating blue tone. (Sadly, once the Cobalt is gone, it's gone, I won't buy it again out of ethical concerns. Looking for a good replacement.)
For a small three color travel palette, what cyan, magenta, and yellow colors from Daniel Smith would you recommend, please? Great video on CMYK, I am going to be teaching some fourth and fifth grade students in this subject this autumn. Thanks again for the videos.
Thank you kindly and sorry I'm late on this. I have a video with my favorite Daniel Smith colors for a palette. My personal quirky favorite for a cool red is Carmine, but Quin Rose or Quin Pink or more of a mixing magenta. Lemon Yellow is my favorite from them for a mixing yellow (PY175, usually only available online), and Phthalo blue green shade for the cyan :)
Thank you so much! Would it be fair to say that Cyan can be a cool Blue and Magenta a Cool Red? This CMY vs RBY color wheel has been eye opening...Now just to combine the two into one palette!
I understand this is an older video; but, I still wanted to comment. Whether it is a cool red, a warm red, or what I call a neutral red that is neither warm or cool, it is still red which is one of the primary colors. Magenta is just a cool red. You can add a warm red to it to make it more neutral. If I am out of Quinacridone Rose, I can use Quinacridone Magenta with French Ultramarine and get violet or purple. I first learned about the split primary color wheel from Susie Short.
It's definitely a question of semantics. I would argue that magenta is a pink not a red, and when I referred to red in this video, I was specifically thinking about the primary red we use here in grade schools (at least in the US). The technical definition of primary colors is "any of a group of colors from which all other colors can be obtained by mixing," and you can't mix magenta from a warm red. Colors are so subjective though so I think it's great we all have different perspectives :)
Hi Denise, thanks for your videos. I am a bit confused about cyan. Are cyan and phthalo blue the same? I don't find that many companies produce a cyan colour - or do they just call it something else? I have a cyan from Lukas, but I M Graham, Daniel Smith and Winsor and Newton don't offer it.
Hi Catherine! Lukas' Cyan is made from PB15:3 which phthalo blue green shade (same used here) however I believe they add a white filler which (they don't technically have to list) as it's considerably lighter than phthalo blue typically is. Phthalo is short for phthalocyanine :)
Which Cyan did you use in the demo? Should I consider phthalo blue as the cyan in a CMY triad? What blue is usually used in the RBY triad - ultramarine?
Pyrrol Red has orange over tones and violet undertones I heard so it mixes with cobalt or ultramarine blue (both violet blues (cobalts a little bit less)) gets you maybe a soso purple not as muddy as cad red . Quinacridone Red on the other hand looks very orange with under and overtones but when mixed with blue, (Ultramarine and cobalt) you get a unusually vibrant purple
Our eyes perceive light and colors using the RGB system, however, it’s a misconception that It’s a middle Blue and Red, middle Blue and red both aren’t the cones , they are like a violet blue and an orange red, PV15 (BS) and PO73 in paint. And these 2 colors are also variants of blue and red, however, PV15 (BS) or most commonly PB29 , is used and PO73 or PR254 is used. This makes for some meh purples and bleh greens. However... PR122 can fix it, it mixes great purples with any violet blue or cyan and when mixing a bit of this with cyan , it will get you blue , mixing a teeny bit of yellow and you get red
well, that definition "a color that can't be mixed from others" is tricky, cause it does indeed work when it comes to light. paint on the other hands has different properties. Not any red serves as a primary red; pyrrol red for example, is one of the worst to use as a primary cause it gets neutralized and thus makes mud very easily instead of giving you the wide array of colors you were looking for. Something like quinacridone red on the other hand is indeed a primary red. in this video you picked the most aggressive, less mixable red available. Reds labeled as primary reds usually are a color very similar to quinacridone red and not pyrrol. this is why it seems like red isn't a primary when it comes to paint. Some pigments don't take mixing as good as theoretically that light color would. though i agree, when it comes to choosing a color, quinacridone pink or red are better options; this however does not disprove color theory... i feel like your video is feeding into a wrong idea.
I know this is an old comment and video, but bumping into it made me respond still. "Red" is a word under which vast majority of people imagine tomatoes, blood, red light on the crossroad, brake lights... It's almost synonymous to "warm red" in artistic viewpoint. Rarely anyone (unless artist) imagines cool red, they likely call it "pink" or "lilac".... In that regard using, as you put it, "worst red imaginable" for standartly used RBY color wheel makers perfect sense as it runs on how ppl imagine it. Similarly, most ppl will put cyan into "blue green" and not "blue" while Ultramarine is going to be labelled as "pure blue" due to same reasons I mentioned above. It's how we were taught to label certain colors, that creates the discord. Teach your kids that cyan is "blue" and magenta/pink is "red" and then tell them to draw colorwheel of RBY. Due to what "blue" and "red" means to them, the result should be actually CMY wheel... Cultural exposure to "standard" makes all of us influenced this or that way depending on where we grew up :)
Quin rose is not light fast. Daniel Smith’s is fugitive. You can use QOR’s quin red instead. This is an excellent video, and will change the way I set up my palette. Thank you!
Hi Denise! Thank you for a nice and easy demonstration, which should be very useful for any beginner. Forgive me for throwing '"a spanner in the works", but like most teachers and artists, you omitted the secret ingredient of Black! This is the keyline in all printing and when this was added to the primaries, Printing and colour copiers took on a new high in quality. I am always amazed how modern teaching in art, feel the need to make 'Black' a taboo, when in fact, used correctly can be a wonderful aid, in any medium, be it watercolour, oil, acrylic etc. We all know you cannot mix any primary colour, yet many artists think they can mix a black better than the manufacturer and wonder why they create 'mud' I would like to point out, Black was historically used by all the great Masters Without Exception, including watercolour, yet we are told to shun or discard it today! Why? Black charcoal drawing is a wonderful teacher for tones, so too is watercolour and acrylic, but much less messy. I would strongly urge any artist to experiment with black on its own and with every other single colour they have. An hour or two spent this way, can give you a decade of knowledge, you would never have had. Happy painting.
one of the huge problems with black and white in watercolour is opaque which can be a nightmare for water colour artists to be able to use black you need alot of experience did some amazing watercolour artist used black and white in very specific ways to create specific colours and i mix my own black because its more useful for me and i can mix blacks better than the paint companies for my own needs
This arises from the fact that in light the true Primarys are Red, Blue and Green, which added give white. Now in pigments we are doing the opposite and are removing light on the addition of each colour, and that when the artist RYB primarys get added together you get mud. The printers have it correct with CMYK when the colours subtract toward black. Im sure it would also give them a much greater gamut. So the difference is that light is additive and has RGB and pigments are subtractive and should start with CMY
mokiloke it makes sense. Light and white. Light for eye and brain. White for surface and mixing colours (whitening) making them whiter like brighter. Let's see how it goes on with smyk. Letter k represents the back. If you mix together those smy perfect colours you got back. It means a smy = k. Black is black. From light to black. From white to black. In that example black is constant. But not for sure. Black hole. There are no escape for visible light. But in other examples black and white are just shades of greys. It's meant colours are greys too. More grey add blacker it becomes. smy means grey; grey; grey. They are brighter. Like 1=1 Primaries. rgb means my; ys; sm .It is grey + grey; grey + grey; grey + grey. It's like 1+1=2 Secondaries. Then they comes - tertiaries s + m + y = black. It's something like 1+1+1=3 White is for all of them. Add if you need brighter. Back already present - you know 1+1+1=3 That's all. Nothing is broken nothing hurt nothing missing. Very simple. Thanks for Your attention.
I just did a color spotlight on pyrrol red :) It will make greyish or moody purples, but you can't get a bright purple from it like you can from a magenta.
Thanks for the Color Theory videos! Our eyes can only perceive Red, Blue, and Green, so our brains make inferences about the other colors, and Magenta doesn't exist in the color spectrum. Therefore it makes the formulation of pigments an interesting intersection of our biological limits and physics. I am completely on board with having the Split Primary and the CYM color tubes on the palette! Last week, I discovered a couple of sites that had an interesting take on color palettes and mixing: * Daniel Smith (www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-E-ColorMap), with a basic palette of 10, 4 primaries, 4 secondaries and 2 neutrals (the amazing Quinacridone Gold and Quinacridone Burnt Orange) * Jan Hart (janhart.com/jan-hart-high-chroma-color-wheel-2007/) High Chroma Color Wheel Chart (YMC) with single pigment suggestions for all 12 places on the Color Wheel made with C, Y, M, from fine watercolor manufacturers, Daniel Smith, M. Graham, Schmike, WN, etc.
Giselle Corona thanks for the additional information! I talk more about he color spectrum vs what we see in the color mixing mixing purple video and here are loads of other great videos here on TH-cam that talk about this as well.
I am working through your amazing series on Color Mixing. The Purple and Green totally rocked! Thanks again, there are many great watercolor channels on TH-cam, but yours stands out as one of the best, due to how you present the well-researched information, and of course your soothing voice.
Color mixing is so much fun on its own :) CMY primaries are versatile and bright, I found out about them through watching artist Tracy Lewis on Instagram (instagram.com/tracylewisart/)
CMY are primary LIGHT and LAYERING colours , so that means it is in technology screens but RYB are primary MIXING colours , *I think that CMY are for cartoons and manga and RYB are for more natural things like landscapes and portraits... Overall for everyone's job RYB will work better...*
Hello. What is needed to know about colours and colour mixing and not mixing in my opinion. s;m;y = (1; 1; 1 = primaries) s+m;m+y;y+s = 1+1; 1+1; 1+1 = secondaries) s+m+y = 1+1+1 = tertiaries) k = black = w = white = shades of grey. s+m+y = k = tertiaries Need brighter - add white. What You Think about it? Thanks for your attention.
As you say having the true primary colours on your pallet does not matter. As long as you have enough other colours to create all the other colours you want.
Ahh someone is answering this question for me! Now that you did do not think that I would do it, but I was asking another youtube artist-"instead of a split primary (didn't use that term), why not just do pure color"? He answered "what's pure?", but I did know what I meantI I suppose you could. I agree with a previous poster re: being a bit bland (or something). Thanks for posting.
Nice video, but why not just buy the real deal (as in real primary colors) MAGENTA and CYAN (with a warm light yellow almost everyone already has)?! Then you are sure to get all the other colors really clear and bright from them. I only buy those paints ready made in tubes that I use the most, so I don't always have to mix them, specially when I need larger amounts at a time.
hi um I have been trying to message m grahem about a pamphlet but never get word back I saw a email button but there is no address and they don't respond on there contact page could give me the address BTW this video is amazing still trying to get over the red shocker I had no idea:-)
I'm sorry you're having trouble reaching them. I can't give out the personal information I have for them though. All I can do is direct you to their contact page: mgraham.com/about/contact-us/ There is email, address, and phone number. Thanks for the kind words about the video and best wishes! :)
Clariece K you have to contact them with the boxes with your email and a message and they should reply. But there's also a phone number if you want to call them.
this was something that my younger self was always on the edge of but could never fully parse. my art teacher would say you could make any color you want with the primary colors and I knew he was right but I would look at the blue/yellow /red paint we had and I knew he was wrongggg because I couldn't get certain colors without being grayed out and just knew we needed a pink in the mix because the blue was more like a blue green than a blue red. but this was all stuff I couldn't vocalize. having this information in a video is so helpful, thank you so much for making videos like this, like with your color spotlight series, they're informative on a subject I've always been in interested in
Thank you so much! You have a lot of natural talent to recognize that at a young age! I rarely use pink in paintings, and never really hand, so I guess I never pieced together that you'd need it for mixing colors, but you're absolutely right! Even as an adult, I don't remember my teacher covering this. It was only something I found out while researching on my own. Thank you so much for the kind words, it's always inspiring to me to hear that they're helpful!
In Liquid Color yes, I feel part of it is budget as you mentioned, along with a lot of primary kits offering primary blue/yellow/red which can get you a lot of color if they match in temperature, but the versatility of CMY versus RBY makes me wish my teacher had offered CMY paints, even if they were the cheap student grade paints, you could still do more.
Thanks Denise! Art teachers across our nation will now have to amend their primary colors lessons! 😘👍🏾😃 TFS!
Myself included! It's so hard in elementary schools to teach as an after school teacher when it comes to color theory because it's already so ingrained, then there's this silly stranger marching in saying "weeeell, actually" ;)
Just another reason to watch your video library! You have a wonderful reasoning and present information in such an understandable manner! I simply cannot express how much I enjoy watching your videos! You have a wonderful aspect and I appreciate you!
Oh, Denise!! This turned my world upside down!! Tee Hee! You always make life much more COLORFUL! Thank you!
Tiffany Grey
The best thing I did in my art is shifting to using either CMY or cool and warm RBY i.e.6 colour primarys
The Real Mythril you did not have to shift at all. Those colors were already there BEFORE CYM pigments and those "modern" pigments have been around for many years. Yes these pigments are great and yes split primaries are great. But even better is a completely diversified palette containing major single pigment players covering every major sub group. Sure it can be expensive but the "team" can be built over time.
RGB are the primaries in additive synthesis (think pixel colors) while CMY are the primaries for substractive synthesis (color printers). Evidently computer monitors and color printers work very well. I'm very new to watercolor but the color "theory" taught by various artists goes against everything I knew. Plus I realised I could mix Red and Blue from magenta and cyan in my kit. Good to know Im not crazy and the universe is still holding up.
I do have an updated, much more in depth class over on Skillshare on color theory as well if you're interested!
Thank you for the demo. I've heard people claim CMY are the primaries, but you just proved it. Thank you!!
its so sad that it has to be proven.....
this is a great video that explains the concepts well.. personally the CMY color does look cleaner but a tad lifeless to me if that makes any sense. so i will likely stay with the dual primary which i found to be amazingly easy and versatile.
I agree! I MUCH prefer the purples in CMY but like the greens and oranges better for practical paintings in RBY. I still highly recommend a split primary palette and I myself always have access to at least those six colors.
It gets its life back when you start mixing the complement to shade a color with as you approach black. That's essentially what's happening in the old paradigm, you're getting earthier colors because they aren't 100% primary. You're using a limited palette.
The reason it looks lifeless is because while CMY IS the real primary color wheel, and you WILL be able to mix all colors from it, while the same cannot be said about RYB.... You will never be able to maintain the vibrancy of the colors you mixed... That means that you lose vibrancy when you mix colors, which makes it difficult to get perfect vibrant colors from 3 colors alone.
The colors you buy in their own respective tubes have been worked on and purified to be their best, vibrant selves. So you will most likely get the best red from a red that you buy, rather than a red that you mix.
That is why some people think that RYB is the "other" primary color wheel. It's not, but since you start out with premade colors, they look more vibrant than if you were to mix into those colors.
Thats why personally Id buy both the secondary colors I plan on using and the primary ones.
So buy both magenta, cyan and yellow, but also blue, red, orange, purple and green... That way you get more of the purified pigments.
But without cyan and magenta, your paintings will always be missing some pretty essential hues.
You really are The Color Guru. Noone does color theory as well as you do. And congrats on over 3k!
another great video Denise! I have dramatically reduce the colors I use daily into the primaries and a little bit of the earth tones since I learn more about mixing my own colors. I have lost my interest in having a big range of colors in my palletes now, thanks to you! 😄
Elga Benedicta aww thanks so much! I'm so glad that my videos have helped in this regard :)
This is exactly what i needed!! I was looking for a starter cmy watercolor palette so i could get into watercolors. Thank you!!
It does help and bringing in what a printer uses really helps. Thanks, this explains also why certain mixes don't work.
Thanks Essie!
Very cool! I hadn't thought about using that system in watercolors since you hear so much about the RBY color mixing. Reds are just so common because they are such plentiful pigments in nature that they are more easily obtained. It's funny to think we don't truly need them. :)
Bec M. Don't you know that there are a bunch of Yellows and Blues too? If we don't need red then you best let go of that "magenta" your using cause...it's a red.
Wonderful video! I was just explaining this to a friend of mine yesterday. Very well done, I'm gonna send her this video
Thanks so much! I'm glad it's helpful :)
Hi Denise! Another great video. Very informative. Thanks!
Funny Dude thank you!
So appreciate the video. And really value your insights. Love your work!
Betsy Weatherhead thanks so much :)
When I discovered this, everything suddenly made sense! Ever since I was a kid I've been frustrated with not being able to mix every color from the ones who were supposed to be primaries! And no one could explain this to me, I just remember sometimes the teacher would bring out the hot pink "cheat" paint so we could make pink and purple, but I still couldn't get a satisfactory aqua blue. I'm definitely nerding into the CMY palette now because I'm kinda bummed out that I've been "lied" to my whole life! 😆 I love the CMY colors because they can actually mix EVERY color, even though some of them like warm yellow might look a little pale in comparison with pure pigment - that's a minor inconvenience in my book, because the joy of being able to paint a whole rainbow with just three primaries is so worth it! 😄 (and you can always add a warm yellow to the palette if you want but I like to keep it minimalistic because it's fun and challenging)
I can't get a scarlett red or bright orange with CMY. The violet is Ok I guess. Isn't the best option a split primary palette?
I think one could argue that the CMY mix leans on the "cool" side of the primaries spectrum while the RBY is on the "warm".
Another graphic designer here, and I echo what was previously said, however, about some colors being an absolute nightmare to try and reproduce just with process (CMYK) color mix. Oranges, reds and peachy-type colors are notoriously difficult to reproduce with much vibrancy.
Great video. I actually put together my own mini CMY palette a few months ago, but I used DS Cerulean Blue, Opera Pink, and Lemon Yellow. (I got a lot of flak about using Cerulean Blue on a particular watercolor enthusiasts social media group - but I forget the reasoning - I think it's because it's not a single-pigment? Or maybe it's fugitive? - I still consider myself very novice when it comes to watercolors - but I felt Cerulean looked the closest I could get to cyan.)
Kelly Roy that's exactly what I found here, that oranges were difficult but the rest was lovely. I still would never CHOOSE to only work with the three as o love color too much to limit myself ;)
@@richiejourney1840 all problems are starting when you're mixing colours by your own. In my opinion there is need for the scientific way to create colour wheel. Imagine colour wheel with 3 primary and 357 secondary clear hues or 3 primary and 1527 secondary clear hues. It is possible only in scientific way. If you make one by your self in that way it is great for understanding colour being.
G Kar I buy all known single pigments in my main medium and make charts. Best way to learn and know.
Thats its good to have both the primary and the secondary colors all pre-mixed for you :) Then you have some good colors to mix from
CMY color wheel definitely looks more balance. In the RYB, the yellowish side looks broader.
what an awesome video! i heard a lot about cyan and magenta in photoshop and my printer and stuff like that but i never put thought on that so thank you so much!
Thank you Daniel! I'm glad it's helpful :)
In Liquid Color I'm blown away!!! omg thank you for answering! I really admire you, you always come with this really helpful type of videos that had help me on my way of learning watercolor!
Daniel Morales thank you for the kind words. It really means a lot to me!!
this didnt click for me until i bought permanent rose (w&n cotman) and used it to mix and i got the most beautiful colors. i know its not a magenta but it works better than the cad red deep i have in my palette that i barely touch. definitely gonna try the colors you talked about here though.
I'm glad you found the perm rose works well for you! Yes, most definitely better for mixing than cad red :)
I love rewatching these color theory videos while playing around with alternative triads. This morning, I played with Nickle Azo Yellow, Quin Magenta and Cobalt Teal (all from QoR) as my "primary" colors. I love a good granulating blue tone. (Sadly, once the Cobalt is gone, it's gone, I won't buy it again out of ethical concerns. Looking for a good replacement.)
Thank you for this! great, clear-cut information
For a small three color travel palette, what cyan, magenta, and yellow colors from Daniel Smith would you recommend, please? Great video on CMYK, I am going to be teaching some fourth and fifth grade students in this subject this autumn. Thanks again for the videos.
Thank you kindly and sorry I'm late on this. I have a video with my favorite Daniel Smith colors for a palette. My personal quirky favorite for a cool red is Carmine, but Quin Rose or Quin Pink or more of a mixing magenta. Lemon Yellow is my favorite from them for a mixing yellow (PY175, usually only available online), and Phthalo blue green shade for the cyan :)
In Liquid Color - Thank you!
Thank you so much! Would it be fair to say that Cyan can be a cool Blue and Magenta a Cool Red?
This CMY vs RBY color wheel has been eye opening...Now just to combine the two into one palette!
corikay yes absolutely. The CM would be your cool blue and red in a split primary palette :)
Don’t use lemon yellow for cmy, use a warm yellow
I understand this is an older video; but, I still wanted to comment. Whether it is a cool red, a warm red, or what I call a neutral red that is neither warm or cool, it is still red which is one of the primary colors. Magenta is just a cool red. You can add a warm red to it to make it more neutral. If I am out of Quinacridone Rose, I can use Quinacridone Magenta with French Ultramarine and get violet or purple. I first learned about the split primary color wheel from Susie Short.
It's definitely a question of semantics. I would argue that magenta is a pink not a red, and when I referred to red in this video, I was specifically thinking about the primary red we use here in grade schools (at least in the US). The technical definition of primary colors is "any of a group of colors from which all other colors can be obtained by mixing," and you can't mix magenta from a warm red. Colors are so subjective though so I think it's great we all have different perspectives :)
Hi Denise, thanks for your videos. I am a bit confused about cyan. Are cyan and phthalo blue the same? I don't find that many companies produce a cyan colour - or do they just call it something else? I have a cyan from Lukas, but I M Graham, Daniel Smith and Winsor and Newton don't offer it.
Hi Catherine! Lukas' Cyan is made from PB15:3 which phthalo blue green shade (same used here) however I believe they add a white filler which (they don't technically have to list) as it's considerably lighter than phthalo blue typically is. Phthalo is short for phthalocyanine :)
Which Cyan did you use in the demo? Should I consider phthalo blue as the cyan in a CMY triad? What blue is usually used in the RBY triad - ultramarine?
Pyrrol Red has orange over tones and violet undertones I heard so it mixes with cobalt or ultramarine blue (both violet blues (cobalts a little bit less)) gets you maybe a soso purple not as muddy as cad red .
Quinacridone Red on the other hand looks very orange with under and overtones but when mixed with blue, (Ultramarine and cobalt) you get a unusually vibrant purple
Our eyes perceive light and colors using the RGB system, however, it’s a misconception that It’s a middle Blue and Red, middle Blue and red both aren’t the cones , they are like a violet blue and an orange red, PV15 (BS) and PO73 in paint. And these 2 colors are also variants of blue and red, however, PV15 (BS) or most commonly PB29 , is used and PO73 or PR254 is used. This makes for some meh purples and bleh greens. However... PR122 can fix it, it mixes great purples with any violet blue or cyan and when mixing a bit of this with cyan , it will get you blue , mixing a teeny bit of yellow and you get red
Thanks for another great video!
Could it be that the 'CMY' got simplified/distorted to 'BRY' since Red and Blue are more recognisable culturally?
well, that definition "a color that can't be mixed from others" is tricky, cause it does indeed work when it comes to light. paint on the other hands has different properties.
Not any red serves as a primary red; pyrrol red for example, is one of the worst to use as a primary cause it gets neutralized and thus makes mud very easily instead of giving you the wide array of colors you were looking for. Something like quinacridone red on the other hand is indeed a primary red. in this video you picked the most aggressive, less mixable red available. Reds labeled as primary reds usually are a color very similar to quinacridone red and not pyrrol.
this is why it seems like red isn't a primary when it comes to paint. Some pigments don't take mixing as good as theoretically that light color would. though i agree, when it comes to choosing a color, quinacridone pink or red are better options; this however does not disprove color theory... i feel like your video is feeding into a wrong idea.
Crazy Mai could not have said it better!
I know this is an old comment and video, but bumping into it made me respond still.
"Red" is a word under which vast majority of people imagine tomatoes, blood, red light on the crossroad, brake lights... It's almost synonymous to "warm red" in artistic viewpoint. Rarely anyone (unless artist) imagines cool red, they likely call it "pink" or "lilac".... In that regard using, as you put it, "worst red imaginable" for standartly used RBY color wheel makers perfect sense as it runs on how ppl imagine it.
Similarly, most ppl will put cyan into "blue green" and not "blue" while Ultramarine is going to be labelled as "pure blue" due to same reasons I mentioned above.
It's how we were taught to label certain colors, that creates the discord. Teach your kids that cyan is "blue" and magenta/pink is "red" and then tell them to draw colorwheel of RBY. Due to what "blue" and "red" means to them, the result should be actually CMY wheel...
Cultural exposure to "standard" makes all of us influenced this or that way depending on where we grew up :)
Quin rose is not light fast. Daniel Smith’s is fugitive. You can use QOR’s quin red instead. This is an excellent video, and will change the way I set up my palette. Thank you!
I think CMY is better because our eyes have RGB receptors and cyan is white minus red, magenta is white minus green and yellow is white minus blue
Hi Denise! Thank you for a nice and easy demonstration, which should be very useful for any beginner. Forgive me for throwing '"a spanner in the works", but like most teachers and artists, you omitted the secret ingredient of Black! This is the keyline in all printing and when this was added to the primaries, Printing and colour copiers took on a new high in quality.
I am always amazed how modern teaching in art, feel the need to make 'Black' a taboo, when in fact, used correctly can be a wonderful aid, in any medium, be it watercolour, oil, acrylic etc. We all know you cannot mix any primary colour, yet many artists think they can mix a black better than the manufacturer and wonder why they create 'mud' I would like to point out, Black was historically used by all the great Masters Without Exception, including watercolour, yet we are told to shun or discard it today! Why?
Black charcoal drawing is a wonderful teacher for tones, so too is watercolour and acrylic, but much less messy.
I would strongly urge any artist to experiment with black on its own and with every other single colour they have. An hour or two spent this way, can give you a decade of knowledge, you would never have had. Happy painting.
one of the huge problems with black and white in watercolour is opaque which can be a nightmare for water colour artists
to be able to use black you need alot of experience did
some amazing watercolour artist used black and white in very specific ways to create specific colours
and i mix my own black because its more useful for me
and i can mix blacks better than the paint companies for my own needs
This arises from the fact that in light the true Primarys are Red, Blue and Green, which added give white. Now in pigments we are doing the opposite and are removing light on the addition of each colour, and that when the artist RYB primarys get added together you get mud. The printers have it correct with CMYK when the colours subtract toward black. Im sure it would also give them a much greater gamut. So the difference is that light is additive and has RGB and pigments are subtractive and should start with CMY
Yep, I just released a Skillshare on this class literally yesterday, lol.
mokiloke it makes sense. Light and white. Light for eye and brain. White for surface and mixing colours (whitening) making them whiter like brighter. Let's see how it goes on with smyk. Letter k represents the back. If you mix together those smy perfect colours you got back. It means a smy = k. Black is black. From light to black. From white to black. In that example black is constant. But not for sure. Black hole. There are no escape for visible light. But in other examples black and white are just shades of greys. It's meant colours are greys too. More grey add blacker it becomes. smy means grey; grey; grey. They are brighter. Like 1=1 Primaries. rgb means my; ys; sm .It is grey + grey; grey + grey; grey + grey. It's like 1+1=2 Secondaries. Then they comes - tertiaries s + m + y = black. It's something like 1+1+1=3 White is for all of them. Add if you need brighter. Back already present - you know 1+1+1=3 That's all. Nothing is broken nothing hurt nothing missing. Very simple. Thanks for Your attention.
mokiloke. I am sorry for mistakes I have. Back means black. a smy means The smy. And of course my English. Sorry bout that. Good wishes.
Isn't a split primary palette the best option?
Pyrrol Red, a bit warm but not as much as Cad red med ,still meh for Purples, Benzimadazolone Yellow, or Permanent Yellow Lt., Ultramarine Blue
I just did a color spotlight on pyrrol red :) It will make greyish or moody purples, but you can't get a bright purple from it like you can from a magenta.
In Liquid Color Well, at least you get better purples than true warm red, cad red medium
Thanks for the Color Theory videos!
Our eyes can only perceive Red, Blue, and Green, so our brains make inferences about the other colors, and Magenta doesn't exist in the color spectrum. Therefore it makes the formulation of pigments an interesting intersection of our biological limits and physics. I am completely on board with having the Split Primary and the CYM color tubes on the palette!
Last week, I discovered a couple of sites that had an interesting take on color palettes and mixing:
* Daniel Smith (www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-E-ColorMap), with a basic palette of 10, 4 primaries, 4 secondaries and 2 neutrals (the amazing Quinacridone Gold and Quinacridone Burnt Orange)
* Jan Hart (janhart.com/jan-hart-high-chroma-color-wheel-2007/) High Chroma Color Wheel Chart (YMC) with single pigment suggestions for all 12 places on the Color Wheel made with C, Y, M, from fine watercolor manufacturers, Daniel Smith, M. Graham, Schmike, WN, etc.
Giselle Corona thanks for the additional information! I talk more about he color spectrum vs what we see in the color mixing mixing purple video and here are loads of other great videos here on TH-cam that talk about this as well.
I am working through your amazing series on Color Mixing. The Purple and Green totally rocked! Thanks again, there are many great watercolor channels on TH-cam, but yours stands out as one of the best, due to how you present the well-researched information, and of course your soothing voice.
Giselle Corona thank you so much
Giselle Corona I completely agree she's awesome
Color mixing is so much fun on its own :) CMY primaries are versatile and bright, I found out about them through watching artist Tracy Lewis on Instagram (instagram.com/tracylewisart/)
CMY are primary LIGHT and LAYERING colours , so that means it is in technology screens but RYB are primary MIXING colours , *I think that CMY are for cartoons and manga and RYB are for more natural things like landscapes and portraits... Overall for everyone's job RYB will work better...*
Hello. What is needed to know about colours and colour mixing and not mixing in my opinion.
s;m;y = (1; 1; 1 = primaries)
s+m;m+y;y+s = 1+1; 1+1; 1+1 = secondaries)
s+m+y = 1+1+1 = tertiaries)
k = black = w = white = shades of grey.
s+m+y = k = tertiaries
Need brighter - add white. What You Think about it? Thanks for your attention.
This is why I think yellow is the only true primary color. It's the only color that can't be mixed.
bastet469 good luck mixing a magenta
bastet469...Lockwie Lockwie...Aldewyne... Actually, you can, but it is tricky and not very practical.
As you say having the true primary colours on your pallet does not matter. As long as you have enough other colours to create all the other colours you want.
Ahh someone is answering this question for me! Now that you did do not think that I would do it, but I was asking another youtube artist-"instead of a split primary (didn't use that term), why not just do pure color"? He answered "what's pure?", but I did know what I meantI I suppose you could. I agree with a previous poster re: being a bit bland (or something). Thanks for posting.
Magenta isn't a primary color either, in the RYB model it's a tertiary colour.
Red violet and a bright magenta aren't the same in terms of mixing. In my experience, you cannot mix a bright and clear magenta.
Nice, however, the cmy made red looks oranger than pyrrol red
Nice video, but why not just buy the real deal (as in real primary colors) MAGENTA and CYAN (with a warm light yellow almost everyone already has)?!
Then you are sure to get all the other colors really clear and bright from them.
I only buy those paints ready made in tubes that I use the most, so I don't always have to mix them, specially when I need larger amounts at a time.
The split primary palette is unnecessary. I'd recommend adding a green, red and cool blue pigment to cyan magent and yellow.
Wrong definition for “primary” from the get go. CMY are not “THE” primaries either. PB15:3 is not “Cyan” either….they just borrow the name.
excuse me while i scrape my brain off the wall
😂
hi um I have been trying to message m grahem about a pamphlet but never get word back I saw a email button but there is no address and they don't respond on there contact page could give me the address BTW this video is amazing still trying to get over the red shocker I had no idea:-)
I'm sorry you're having trouble reaching them. I can't give out the personal information I have for them though. All I can do is direct you to their contact page: mgraham.com/about/contact-us/ There is email, address, and phone number.
Thanks for the kind words about the video and best wishes! :)
M hi again sorry to bother you but where's the email address on their page
Clariece K you have to contact them with the boxes with your email and a message and they should reply. But there's also a phone number if you want to call them.
Okay thanks I will try again :-)
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