Color Layers

Color Layers

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Digital drawing, 800px x 600px
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Colors put on separate layers in a digital drawing can be "mixed" differently, depending on the order in which the layers are stacked. When the colors are completely opaque, the one on top masks the one beneath, and so on to the bottom of the stack. When the opacity of the colors is adjusted, an artist can control the blending of the colors.

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Split Complementary Color Scheme - Tertiaries

Split Complementary Color Scheme - Tertiary Colors

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Digital drawing, 800px x 600px
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In nature, colors tend toward less intense and less saturated and away from stark primary and secondary colors. Nevertheless, when you find a natural scene that attracts your eye, you are likely to spot color harmonies within the dull and near-neutral colors.
In this image reddish-brown colors contrast with yellow-greens and dull middle and dark greens, demonstrating a split-complementary relationship.

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Split Complementary Color Scheme - Yellow

Split Complementary Color Scheme - Yellow

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Digital drawing 800 px x 600 px
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The colors in this image aren't fully saturated, which gives a gentle and peaceful sensation to the design.
The base color of this triad is yellow and it shows full contrast with the blue-violet and red-violet split complementaries. However, since the overall effect is high key or very light in tone, the line drawing is necessary to separate the flower from its background.
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Split-Complementary Color Scheme - Blue

Split-Complementary Color Scheme - Based on Blue

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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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In this design, the base color is blue, and the split-complementary colors are red-orange and yellow-orange. There is good contrast because these colors are fully saturated, and the effect is bold but more pleasing visually than a blue-orange contrast would be.
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Split-Complementary Color Scheme

Split-Complementary Color Scheme

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Complementary colors sit opposite to each other on the color wheel. To reduce visual tension while maintaining a good contrast in the design, artists can use the two colors adjacent to the complement of the base color. This is called the split-complement. In this design, the primary color red is the base color, and the split-complementary colors are yellow-green and blue-green.
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Monochrome Color Scheme - Green

Monochrome Color Scheme - Green

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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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The human eye can detect more tints and shades of green than any other color. I guess this is because we evolved in the trees needing to identify food plants and plants for other uses.

In this drawing, I used dark and middle dark shades of green, a saturated green and a pale green, plus a black line drawing to pull the design together.
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Monochrome Color Scheme - Red

Monochrome Color Scheme - Red

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Digital drawing, 800px x 600 px
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This is the final version of the monochrome image, with the four layers for pale pink, rose, saturated red and brown opened on top of each other. The black layer that you saw earlier is hidden.

All these colors are based on a hue (color) of red, with variations on their saturation (intensity) and their value (lightness or darkness.)
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Monochrome Color Scheme - Red [Level 2 - The Brown Layer]

Monochrome Color Scheme - Red [Level 2 - The Brown Layer]
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Digital Drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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I am working through the various color levels in this image, and placing each color on a separate layer. This makes it easier for me to see the effect of each color on the entire drawing, and yet make corrections, if I find it necessary.

This layer shows the brown tone in this design. Of its hue, saturation and value, the hue is red, the saturation is full, and the intensity is about half that of a brilliant red. That is the only difference between the colors brown and red, they're the same, but brown is darker.

Still more to come!

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Monochrome Color Scheme - Red [Level 1 - The Black Layer]

Monochrome Color Scheme - Red [Level 1 - The Black Layer]

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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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My working method for these digital drawings is to use layers to separate the colors I am using. I am finding that each layer has its own charm and individual beauty beyond its contribution to the finished drawing.

Although the basic hue in this monochrome image is Red, my starting point is usually a drawing in black to establish fundamentals of value and contrast, and to place the various shapes and areas of tone. So, from my work-in-progress, here is the black component.

There's more to come!
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Monochrome Color Scheme - Yellow

Monochrome Color Scheme - Yellow
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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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Monochrome means one color, and this monochrome color scheme is based on the single hue of yellow.
Other characteristics of color are saturation and value. There is only one saturated yellow in this design, all the other yellow tints and yellow shades are based on this one hue.

The background is a neutral gray, to provide contrast against the yellows.
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Color Variations 3 - Saturation

Color Variations 3 - Saturation
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Colored pencil on paper, 6.5" x 10"
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Saturation, or the intensity of a color, is another way of describing a color. Saturation refers to the purity of the color, or how much the color has been dulled by the addition of any other colors. A color with high saturation is as brilliant and clear as possible. A color that is de-saturated is reduced to a tone in a gray-scale.

Adjusting the saturation of a color allows an artist to emphasize or de-emphasize certain parts of an image, to make a brilliant red flower stand out against a reddish-brown or a dull pink background. An artist can add depth to a landscape painting by reducing the saturation of colors representing areas in the distance, while reserving the most highly saturated colors for areas in the foreground.

In this drawing, I made all the colors as saturated as I could, by pressing hard with the colored pencils to cover the paper completely, so that the white of the paper would not make the pencil colors appear pale and dull.
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