Understanding Color Theory

No matter what kind of artist you are, one of the most important aspects of art to understand is color theory.

In so many beading workshops, one of the things I most often hear is "I'm no good with color," "picking out colors is the worst part of this project" or even "I hate color" (gasp!). Sure, selecting colors is not an easy task, but it doesn't have to be a particularly difficult one. In one of my color classes I took at U of H, the professor said Lesson 1 was to look at nature. What colors does nature select to go together? Look at the yellows and purples of an iris or the reds and greens in a bush - and, yes it can be as simple as that.

Or, you can get a color wheel. Many artists swear by a color wheel to help them select color colors while others - not so much.

Regardless, color selection shouldn't have to be difficult; so to help you out, I found this nifty little article at the Artists Network website entitled "Understanding Color for Beginners - A Free Intro to Color Theory and More." Although it is geared more to painters, this article explains color theory in a way anyone can understand.

Click HERE to learn more about Color Theory. Also, I think the graphic above is one of the best I've seen. It belongs to decodir.com but, that website is no longer active.