Module 4 · Color
Every color.
Three pencils.
Red, yellow, and blue are all you need to build the entire color wheel. You're about to prove it.
Chapter 1
The three you can't make.
These three colors are called primary colors. You can't make them by mixing other colors. Every other color on the wheel is made from these three.
Primary colors are the starting point: you can't mix them from any other colors, but every other color on the wheel can be mixed from them. In art class we use the painter's primaries — red, yellow, and blue.
Screens use a different set — red, green, and blue light — because light adds together while pigment subtracts. Pencils are pigment, so we use red, yellow, and blue.
Chapter 2 · Mixing studio
Fill the wheel.
Pick two pencils and press Layer. If they make a color that's missing from the wheel, it fills in.
Pick two pencils, then Layer them the way you would on paper — light coats, back and forth, then burnish. Fill every empty space on the wheel.
Start with the secondary colors (two primaries mixed). Then make the tertiary colors (a primary + the secondary next to it).
Nine empty spaces. Work out which two pencils fill each one. Some pairs won't fill anything — find out why.
Secondary colors · two primaries
Tertiary colors · primary + secondary
Chapter 3
How colors get along.
Tap any color on the wheel to start from it. Then pick a relationship.
Chapter 4
Lighter. Darker. No black.
Tints are a color made lighter. Shades are a color made darker. With pencils, you make tints with light pressure and a white burnish, and shades by layering.
Here's the trick professionals use: darken a color with its complement, not black. Black makes colors look dead and gray. The complement makes them rich.
Try it: switch between Black and Opposite color below. Which dark side looks better?
Red
The color comes from what you picked in Chapter 3.
Chapter 5
Check yourself.
Chapter 6 · With real pencils
Now build it for real.
Use only red, yellow, and blue pencils plus white. Every space gets 3+ light layers, then a burnish.
Up next
The Color of Home.
Pick three or four neighbors from your wheel and use them to draw a place that feels like home.