"If a color looks good, I'll just use it"... these are words of wisdom! Sometimes people seem to over complicate a thing. If you like the color, just use it.. this is the simplest way to paint. Thank you kindly for your videos
As a therapist. People don't sometimes seem to over complicate a thing, we frequently do haha. Our brains are designed to solve problems. And used to be focused on surviving. Now without such urgent priorities to focus on (for most people these days) such as finding food, warmth, safe places etc. Our brains find some of the dumbest god damn things to over complicate hahaha. Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk
uhhhhh excuse me but we studied arts for a reason color is an important subject to study in arts just like anatomy we don't make things complicated we study it so we can apply it in our masterpiece color definitely is part of how you describe a view or an object.
I think one of the most helpful concepts here is that we are dealing with pigments. They have other properties than just hue, chroma and value. They can be transparent, or not, strong tinting or not, gritty (or more likely to be gritty) or not, faster drying or slower, creamier, etc. etc. To get the right hues AND the right properties of texture, drying time, etc. to get all of that right gives you a selection of several colors from around the wheel that are just right and pleasing for you. Thank you again, Florent, for your detailed explanation of colors and oil colors.
Florent, your videos have been so helpful and inspiring. I'm loving the direction you have taken your content. Being an artist is more than technique interacting with various mediums, it is also about expression, emotions and commentary to say the least. You bring those all to your content and it's incredible. Thank you.
FINALLY!!! I am so glad to find an artist who can explain it so well. Of course this notion is overrated and limiting. My students are always shocked to hear I don’t recommend this approach (or at least explore other options). Huge thank you! You are an amazing instructor and I love your channel👌💜
Thank you for your wonderful explanation of 'primary colors'. For the last year, I have been participating in an online art class that one of my friends started. They will pick a photograph of something as the subject for the evening, and they will tell us what color paints we will need. After seeing your video, I can see what this teacher is doing is simply selecting a set of 'primary colors' to create the gamut of colors that are in the subject photograph. Thank you for giving me this new insight.
I started with watercolors last year and foold around a little bit. My setup came with CMY, and I can mix bright red and blue hues out of them. I think I get what the point if this vid is, but I still think CMY are the primaries...which does not mean, I don't use red and blue pigments...I don't want to mix them all the time and for natural paintings, dull colors are indeed great. But if you want a bright color...it seems to me, that RYB won't do it. So yes, it doesn't really matter how we call them, just use them how we like.
This is the most sensible presentation I have seen on primary colours. Thanks so much this has demystified the primary colour argument for me and helped me to decide which colours to create my palette with.
Wow, I never thought of using 14. However, I know that a lot of artists use three primary colors plus white, because white can be used to lighten the shade of any hue. Some artists may also use black as a primary for darkening the shade of any hue.
@@SigurdBraathen it's a basic part of the Pantone Matching system. their matching guides provide thousands of samples made with specific proportions of several pigments. to start you can check out the brief summary in Pantone's wikipedia entry, which starts: "... about 30% of the Pantone system's 1114 spot colors (as of year 2000) cannot be simulated with CMYK but with 13 base pigments (14 including black) mixed in specified amounts, called base colors." humans need *at least* three primary colors, but when you're limited to physical pigments, more is better
@@beezany : I am almost confident that's because pigments aren't perfect. We need 8 hypothetical perfect pigments to mix any colour - or several imperfect ones. E.g. "warm yellow" and "cool yellow" etc.
good point . perhaps one must play with colors so much until he finds his own unique preferences for color ,as the perception is so different from an individual to another . i cant wait for your next video :)
"Primary" is a reference - using a limited palette, one must find the colors that best approximate the primaries RELATIVE to the limited gamut. ALL THINGS ARE RELATIVE!
Are use primary as the color families the basic color families are red yellow blue is it the primary colors or the color of families now shades of orange are in both the red and the yellow colored families shades and hues or tints of Purple are both red and blue families and green or blue and yellow families thinking of colors in families is how I do it that's the first true and factual way to think of it
The information enriched my knowledge about color and the video its self enriched my eyes about mixing and seeing color. I have to say that the way you present your videos is very pleasing and attractive! Now I'm so inspired to paint!
It's true that it's best to choose your primaries based on the subject you want to paint. I think the "problem" that most often rises up is the " Which primaries do I buy if I'm starting out and I want to learn mixing but can't afford a big variety "
I suppose the answer might be to choose a set of colours you find inspiring and enjoyable to use, but that don't get in your way? But I've no idea how a beginner could find what colours they like without also trying colours they don't!
@@loati94 whilst learning about all of this, I discovered how different the Pthalos act to the Ultramarines, and how different the Quinacs behave to the Cadmiums to the Alizarins. And then there are all the earth colours, which seem to be mostly different iron oxides! My mind was really blown when I mixed Veridian with Magenta, and got anything from a blue to a violet! I didn't think you could mix a purple and a green, two secondaries, and get blue, which is supposed to be a primary. But then, mixing Alazarin Crimson gave such a different result, I decided to just learn the combinations I had. That was what I meant by paints not getting in the way. Maybe a better way to phrase it might be to learn the paints I have?
Id tell beginners to use a standard R B Y, simply as there will be more resources available to them as they are learning more about mixing colours based on all the history of art before the present day, as well as books and videos etc. Then after some time once they are more than familiar with colour theory can approach the options of different colour wheels being now more aware of how to use them and if they are worth using
Outstanding video. Thank you for your generosity to share materials. This is answered questions that has perplexed me for my 23 years of teaching art. I have constantly been conflicted when presenting the subtractive colors between the copy machine and the tubes of paint. Thank you so much for this excellent thoughtful presentation. I also am so grateful to have a thorough grasp on gamut now. It makes so much sense.
Very helpful about relating the choice of primary colours to gamut, in essence, the palet that you choose to have (think "Zorn" palette). Colors are perceived relatively, a very weak red can appear very strong if the hues of other colors are relatively weak. One question I have is how far you can "push" the colors around the wheel especially with the examples you gave on creating a red with quinacridone rose + cadmium yellow. I have worked with transparent colors where you start with their "secondary" color (magenta, green), but by mixing it with a counterpart you can extract a "primary". For example, mixing "Cobalt Violet" from Georgian with "Veridian Green" Gamblin in the right amount gives you quite a pure blue. Green is the opposite of red in the color wheel, it seems to cancel the red in the violet, leaving only a blue. Cobalt Violet with Gold Ochre (Gamblin) will give you a definite red. Yellow is the opposite of purple and this cancels the blue. But gold ochre is a little bit on the orange side, so the color remaining is red. Finally, a little bit of Gold Ochre with Veridian yields a very clear green. Mixing a little bit of green with the gold ochre gives you a clearer yellow with the "red" in gold ochre filtered out. The resulting colors are extremely subtle, you're left working within a very tight range of chroma, but I've seen paintings produced by this and because the colors are less chromatic, skins and portraits look more natural.
Excellent video. - If it looks good, it is good. - I like mixing mediums because I want to experiment with their properties and interactions. An effect is often more desirable than a specific color. The hue is not even the priority unless I want a specific highlight in the work. - Today’s technology, nontoxic pigments and no-harm options let me dabble with everything. I learned about primary colors in primary school. The true test of me creating an image will always be with graphite and charcoals. Drawing, values, shading, implied edges, and the psychology of seeing are a never ending challenge for me. Relatively, color is easy. - I like a pre planned chosen or limited palette based on the reference and my focus. I typically select two warm, two cool, a yellow in the middle of those, white and a grey that matches the “average” value of the final work. If I have a series of works then the limited palette adds cohesiveness. If the work is a drawing or uses less medium then I pay more attention to the surface color and texture. Custom prep and gessos can save a lot of time later, especially since I don’t have a budget that lets me buy the best readymade supplies. Home Depot beats Michael’s on many levels especially when I want to scale up my art.
When I try new mediums, I aways buy red, yellow, blue, black and white. Then, after i've dabbled a bit, i increase my stock by adding Prussian blue, cadmium yellow, magenta.
Thank you! Your Overview helped me greatly to get clarity in choosing the right acrylics starter kit for my daughters (7&9yo) without falling off the fence on either side. I can still remember the frustration of my school gouache pallet never producing anything near a true violet, so I was already dead set on including magenta. Your video helped me understand both the pragmatic and the essential roles of the other classic hues. I think I will go for 12-18 colours including Gold, Silver, black, white, both magenta and primary red, diverse classic blue shades and several yellows (because a single yellow never goes a long way anyway) plus a couple of good go-to composites in skin, leaf and earth tones to save both the kids and the bright colours from becoming needlessly exhausted in excessive bottom-up-blending efforts.
Well in reality, the logic of primary colors in subtractive spectrums is kinda misleading as all subtractive spectrums are a result of how they reflect light which is controlled by the additive spectrum. Of course we all know that red, green, and blue are the primaries of light but that doesn't mean objects that specifically reflect those colors function the same when mixed. So in that regard it's hard to really set in stone a primary colors for paint other than primary hues for a color space.
This was an amazing video that really cleared up a lot. I was getting so frustrated trying to make the perfect magenta, and I just couldn't. Thank you so much for sharing!
Our eyes see colour using 3 groups of cone cells, each group is dedicated to one colour red, green and blue. And amongst the groups we see purple and other colours thanks to all three groups of cones cells, if you lack some or all of the cells in one of the groups you are colour blinded from seeing either reds, greens, or blues but if you lack two of the groups of cone cells then you see in black and white. So the primary colours that our eyes biologically use is rgb
Look at a 4 primary color wheel with Red Yellow Green and Blue. Isn't it an even and smooth transition of colors? We have 3 cones but our eyes and minds are wired to perceive 4 signals from these. The fourth signal is Yellow, from a ratio of the others. Our minds use these 4 signals to notice the transitional ranges and weigh them between their two adjacent colors.
@CrossingTheStreetArt yellow is not it's own signal. the reason you see yellow is because your red and green cone are being activated equally at the same time.
Those primary triads are both in the opaque watercolour boxes used in teaching art here in Germany and that's what most kids around here learn colour theory and mixing with. Those twelve colours that are usually in these ( there's actually a German norm regulating which colour have to go in them ^^) are also what I feel most comfortable with :) So especially when I started getting in transparent watercolours I was completely confused when there were no magenta and cyan in the box I got 😂 So I bought them as additionals. And an actual orange and violet, too 😜
I'm convinced that color and which color's are considered primary have more to do with the rods and cones in the eye and how the brain interprets and integrates the information received. We typically have red, green and blue cones. It is interesting that these are the compliments of yellow, cyan, and magenta that are often considered the true primaries. Each cone doesn't just register one wave length but is sensitive to a range of wave lengths in bell shaped curves around the color that characterizes it. The sensitivities of the different type cones overlap and signals are integrated within the brain to perceive a range of colors. The wave lengths range from about 740 nanometers on the red side to 380 nanometers on the violet side of the spectrum. We perceive this in the classical color wheel form because the red cones start to pick up harmonic sensitivity to violet light at about twice the frequency of red and integrates it with adjecent blue cones. It is also interesting that we tend to perceive more shades of violet and less shades of red.
Also, yellow is deduced by our eyes/minds and is treated as its own cone. Look at a 4 primary color wheel and notice that it has a completely smooth transition while some colors seem to get squished together on the standard color wheels with 3 primary colors. If we want a color wheel that's true to our perception, it has to have these 4 primary colors.
Hello Florentino, being a beginner using oils has been very interesting, it’s very forgiving unlike other mediums only I’m handicaped by being red-green colour blind, but still manage to have successful results. Your tutorials are very informative and helpful for me and wish to thank you for this. I don’t copy but try to use ideas and modify or improve where I feel it’s needed so it may look similar but still at the same time an original. Yves.F.Colliere
Good on you to paint despite your color blindness, you can translate the world with your own unique vision and your own unique expression, that's amazing. Keep it up ! 👍🎨
Nice video! I still think cmy is the best option for people that need to work with a limited color palette for a reason. e.g. some people can't afford a set of 20-30 different colors since they can get expensive quickly. So instead of buying ryb and black&white they are better off buying cmy and black&white. Also many students are limited by their art teachers. Also I think the main problem is that, like you said, most people aren't aware of the true definiton of "primary colors" and then there are for example art teachers who get upset at their students bc they fail at mixing a vibrant purple or pink. Imho we could improve this situation by teaching children about both options but still telling them that they can obtain a larger range of different colors by using cmy rather than ryb. In the end tradition isn't everything.
I love the RYB system, because it's so easy to explain to kids, helping them get creative with a limited palette. Sadly, kids, but even some adults tend to use colours straight from the tube, without thinking of mixing them. RYB gives a very good start to the joy of creating art. MYC is less intuitive.
I taught my sister cmy. Cmy is wayyy more simple to understand and explain. The cmy color wheel is more accurate. I ditched ryb because I didn’t understand it. Cmy was easier to use and I knew how to mix colors better. My sister , who’s 5 rn, knows the difference between Blue, azure and cyan. One of her favorite color is azure but not blue. If you want to teach ryb to kids, ok. But I honestly recommend cmy
I don’t understand this argument. CMY is just as intuitive as RYB (if not more so since it is accurate). The only reason people claim cmy is difficult for children to understand is because they underestimate children’s ability to learn new things.
In the history of "primary" colors, the Renaissance artist's "basic colors" (as described by Alberti or Leonardo) were not three but four - red, yellow, green and blue.
This is my first ever YT comment. I would get kinda frustrated when I heard other artists saying you can mix any other color with just Red, Yellow, and Blue. But you explained it perfectly for me to understand. Its actually just about creating the widest Gamut that can encompass the most amount of colors, not just being able to create every color imaginable.
I am an artist who would want to paint with cmyk and do not care about the tradition over the scientificness and range of the gamut, but everyone has the right to do use their gamut however they want due to their purpose!
I have just the basics in both Oils and Acrylics, as most other colors can be mixed from them, therefore, I save more $$$ by not buying all sorts of colors I may not use at all. Oh, as an update....Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are used in printing Color Photographs in the Darkroom. I use to develope my own B&W and Color Film, including printing from an enlarger with a drawer for the filters
Finally a youtube artist who doesn't think cyan and magenta are all there is. Very balanced look, thanks. The only thing I would question is using the word "cyan" in the spectrum of light. Lots of other people do it too. Blue green is what usually would be called that part of the spectrum when mixing primaries of light (blue and green, the primaries of light). Cyan is the name of a specific pigment that happens to be a greenish blue. The name is based on the chemical makeup. We'd probably not use cerulean or turquoise or ultramarine as names of the spectrum either. Thanks for the great video, love your approach to painting.
The rainbow spectrum of light, it doesn't have terribly much to do with colors as we use, other than that small bands of that spectrum appears to us, as having that color. So I agree with being careful not to confuse the colors in that spectrum with real colors. They are not the same things. The color 'Cyan' contains the entire spectrum of that rainbow, except the red part. A "Cyan" is a color that lack, or have a very small red component reflected or transferred. It's not based on any chemical makeup. It's based on it's light absorption spectrum. The origin of the word "cyan" is the Greek "Kyanos", which was a dark blue enamel. "Cyan" became used for minus-red, subtractive mixing colors, some time around 1880. It's entirely analogous to Yellow, lack of blue, and Magenta, lack of green. The reason the chemical component "Cyano-group" CN (triple bonded), as in Copper Phthalo cyanide for instance, is named thus, is probably because people who died by HCN poisoning became blue. The medical term "cyanosis" refers to the condition of blue coloring of skin. But I don't know that, so is pure speculation on my part. Fun fact, many colors traditionally and habitually called "blue", are actually stronger Cyans than Blues.
@@Vermiliontea I think that the makers of color printers use magenta, yellow and cyan as primary colors, because they define a primary color as one that absorbs one, but only one, of the primary light wavelengths, and reflects the other two. That’s true about the light spectrum. We can see the range of colors in the spectrum by looking at a rainbow 🌈 or a prism, but that doesn’t include all of the colors that we see elsewhere in nature. For example, there are hues of purple and pink that don’t exist in the spectrum but can still be obtained by mixing colors from the red end and the blue end of the spectrum.
I find that if you mix red with green paint, you may indeed get something of a yellow hue, but it won’t be a bright canary yellow but more of a muddy shade. So a figured that’s one of the reasons why yellow is considered a primary color, because it’s better to just let it stand on its own rather than to obtain it by mixing. I think you could get green by mixing yellow with either blue or with cyan, but mixing it with cyan would give a much brighter green than mixing it with blue. Maybe the reason a lot of artists prefer to use blue as a primary color rather than cyan is because they prefer the darker green, because most of the things that occur in nature as green are of the more dark green like grass and leaves.
yellow and blue actually cannot ever make green if you're using a sensible definition of what those colors are. so yellow is when your red and green cones are activated. and blue is when just the blue cone is activated. therefore, mixing yellow and blue means that all 3 cones are being activated, so you perceive no actual color. the only reason why blue and yellow can give you green is because the pigments we use are inaccurate. but that doesnt mean we should continue describing colors inaccurately. yellow and blue are complimentary colors based on how the human eye scientifically works. therefore, mixing them does not give you green. it gives you grey.
@@perperperpen Thats because most blues you can buy lean towards cyan. An actual secondary blue, some people would describe as almost violet and that blue is on the opposite site of the color wheel to yellow.
I learned recently that while "wavelength" is a physical quality of monochromatic light (like from a laser), "color" is a perceptual quality. Light doesn't become color until our brain interprets it.
Those are the color that our eyes use for primaries, our eyes only have cones specialized for a range of reds, a range of greens, and a range of blues, then every other color we see is because they activate 2 cones at a time and our brain mixes them
Thanks for sharing this video. I've been an artist for almost a decade now, and i'm finding this discussion more and more intriguing about "primary colours". To me, primary colours are colours you cannot create by mixing other colours, AND being able to create all other colours. So Red, Yellow and Blue cannot be created by mixing colours. So the remaining 3 colours (and from there changing the shades of all 6 so go through the other thousands of shades of each colour, unless you consider those other shades of colours, other colours each, unto their own), are Orange, Green, and Violet. Obviously red + blue = Violet, magenta etc. red + yellow = orange yellow + blue = green. And Cyan being a shade/mix of blue-green, is made up of yellow and blue originally. Chartreuse Is a greeny yellow. (that some people consider a primary colour, but it's Really been mixed with light amount of blue to get the greenish tinge). And Magenta is just red and blue mixed to the right amount. So Cyan, Magenta and Chartreuse are colours that can be created mixing colours. That's why i consider Red, Blue and Yellow the main, real, primary colours. Thanks for sharing your views on all of this stuff as well mate. Very well spoken and explained. :)
I always like use the analogy of the ambiguity of color to say why i like something, because sometimes i over complicate my self trying to explain why i like something or why i dont, or why something happende, or what something mean, and i always remember that i have a favorite color for unknown reasons and im fine with it, i think life would be simpler if i live by choosing things as randomly as colors “just because” , and also think that shows your true nature, its like a portal to your soul cause of the pureness of the election :)
Offset printers use black, blue, red and yellow. To get a pure red, they add yellow, so that it does not look pink, because the white of the paper will bleed through the red. If you place a mirror in water, and face away from the sun, you get the sun to reflect back to you, then you will see a sphere, with the top third is red, the middle third will be yellow, and the bottom third is blue. Curiosity the colors will sag and drip down, but not mix.😊
I don’t know, cyan just looks like light blue to me. In a couple of company’s paint lines i notice they sell “primary cyan” as just PB15:3 + PW6. Not even adding green.
Great video, thanks. Coming from the Movie/Broadcasting world, I deal most commonly with additive primary systems, RGB. But the particular R, G and B are carefully defined and are different for every type of television standard, motion picture projection standard, etc. And the complete Gamut that the human eye can see is not triangular, which means that there are no three *visible* colors that can reproduce all colors that the humans are capable of seeing. So no additive or subtractive system of 3 primaries will ever be able to make *ALL* colors. (look up the cie 1931 color model.) But due to technological limitations, three is about the best we can do. There is a system that can mathematically represent all colors that humans can see. This is known as the XYZ color model. It works a bit differently. X and Y are the left/right up/down graph familiar from high school math and the color gamut triangle is drawn onto that graph, so that any hue can be described with only two values X & Y. The non-triangular human perceptual gamut can be drawn on the X,Y plane. The Z represents the brightness. This is a three dimensional space. In modern color systems, the R, G & B primaries are defined by their X, Y, Z position in that space. Of course that still doesn't answer the question about what the "true" primary colors are... Honestly they are whatever works for you in your particular situation.
I actually paint watercolors in CMYK and tbh you can't mix a true magenta or cyan (in the intensity a printer uses) with RGB. Doesn't matter for most picture though.
There are artists out there who are absolutely stubborn in their insistence that RYB is all anyone needs to know. Why's that? Tradition. I've even met designers who work strictly with Web and print, yet repeat the RYB notion despite predominantly working with RGB and CMY color spaces. There's a lot of inertia regarding the concept of primary color, and I wish people in the art/design space would recognize that the information they subscribe to, while not necessarily wrong, is incomplete.
"this is not true because if we use a red, we can mix a red" literally the dumbest sentence I've heard in idk how long. It is impossible to mix a primary color, without using that primary color, making it... you guessed it, a primary color.
Your videos on color theory are fenomenal! They are really helpful and also clarified a lot of misconceptions for me. Do you have any thoughts on skin tones and color temperature? I feel that there's a lot of misinformation on the internet regarding warm/cool colors and warm/cool undertones. Do you ever consider undertone when mixing skin tones and consider temperature when choosing a color palette (and how it will match the skin tone)? Thank you!
Paint makes color by absorbing light and bouncing the one of the colour you see, if you mix 2 paint both absorb a little bit of the other and the rest goes to your eyes, thats why they get darker. Light makes color by emitting light, if you mix 2 lights they don't absorb eachother, they add to each other, thats why they get lighter. Thats why you cant use light color for paint. then, the reason behind using RGB for light is beacuse they're the color that our eyes see, our eyes only have cones specialized for a range of reds, a range of greens, and a range of blues, then every other color we see is because they activate 2 cones at a time and our brain mixes them
Actually…RGB is the “foundational primaries” arbitrarily and optimally chosen to explain Conceptual Theory. In fact the mixing of colors in “light” is indeed within the “subtractive” realm because we define subtractive in relation to physical materials color mixing and we are passing light through color filters. Light mixing therefore, is an additive system along with a negative system simply because it goes both ways by controlling Luminance and filters. Our “Subtractive” material paint mixing model is imperfect as well yet we are simulating both additive and subtractive directions. Irregardless of all that…CYM is NOT even “foundational primary” in the Theoretical System. They are “Secondary Foundational in both additive and subtractive” within THAT model.
4:37 I don’t think that is true because if that was the case, then you would be able to pick any 3 colours and label them as primary, unless one of them was a literal mix by the other two. There is another misconception that really bugs me, and it’s the ‘brown’ thing. It bugs me when people say ‘shades of brown’ because brown is not its own colour, it is simply a darker orange. And the reason why cyan, Magenta and Yellow don’t make every colour of pigment is because the sources are impure. It is impossible to get any colour with 100% saturation and 100% value in paints, inks, or any type of pigments. However, you are right about most of the painting bits, adding more colours to your ‘primary’ gamut will instantly make the amount of colours you can make higher. I would recommend to add cyan, magenta, yellow, white and black to your gamut first, then add more colours. Adding more can never make it worse.
"then you would be able to pick any 3 colours and label them as primary" This is the point he's making: For any gamut there will be some amount of primary colors. So if you pick those colors as your primaries, you'll end up with the that very gamut. "unless one of them was a literal mix by the other two" Yes. This is why the definition includes the second point. So when you say "I don’t think that is true", I think you should re-evaluate exactly what is being defined. "Adding more can never make it worse." This REALLY depends on what you define as being "good" or "bad". From a technical printer engineer's perspective, more colors will be better. From a painter's perspective.... well if you don't need the color for YOUR artistic purpose, why bother?
@@dr1303 ik that now, but still, he’s incorrect about the part where he says you can make cyan and magenta by mixing pigments. Pure cyan, magenta, yellow and white pigments create every colour. They just don’t exist in nature
I've considered my ideal primaries, and came up with: Veridian, Pthalo Blue, Magenta, Cad Orange, Process Yellow and maybe Lemon Yellow. With those five or six, I can get super saturated hues. I find that purples and oranges mixed from any red tend to be more muddy than I'd like, that's why I decided on an orange as a primary, and mixing secondary purple from Pthalo and Magenta. If I need a red, then I might add a Cadmium or Scarlet Lake. The red I got from mixing orange and Magenta wasnt quite as Ferrari-like as a pure red. That brings us to seven primaries.
Hello Florence. I Buy this informatión and one course in gumrod, But I need subtitles in Spanish, is possible? I want some other courses, but with this option. Thanks For this resourses, finally i understand the color and My limitations
Considering our eyes have red, green and blue receptors, all primary definitions that don't use those colors are not based on anything definitive. Just use what works, keeping in mind the hue, value and chroma relationships between the colors you use.
Although i agree with what you said entirely, I wanted to point out one main aspect of color that i think really makes sense here, you told us to look at our image that we are going to paint and then decide the gamut and consequently the colors. However, i think, color is relative, no two people look at a flower and think of the exact same color and this is because of experiences, i think the aim should not be to accurately copy what you see but to show others what you see with the colors you like, you don’t have to necessarily copy color to make a good painting, an expressive painting is much more meaningful compared to a photorealistic one. Also, you might not always have the tubes that you need for that gamut and being able to improvise and make something even better is what interest me in painting. Your work is great by the way, hopefully i can enroll in your paid courses soon.
The human eye is red deficient do to red being a large weak wavelength, and the refraction of the eyeball shifts everything to the blue wavelength. Red Yellow and Blue are the correct primary colors.
You mixed red but what colors do you mix to get a primary yellow and primary blue? Your mixture to make Cyan- can I use that in my inkjet printer? Why not? You just demonstrated you made the primary Cyan paint similar to Cyan ink. You’re argument states paint and ink are all the same right?
Dear brother I have been following your videos for sometimes. You have a great in-depth knowledge about colours and colour theory. You are a fantastic painter and I really love your paintings. It really requires great study and pains to make such wonderful videos. Hats-off !!! Keep going.
We have 3 cones that detect 3 ranges of light ( except our red cones detect 2 vastly different ranges of light, but since the signal is coming from one come, they both appear red), BUT our minds DEDUCE 1 more. Red green and blue are what our cones detect individually, but YELLOW is deduced based on ratios of the those signals. AFTER that, we notice the transition between those 4 colors.
Oh, this is the question of wavelengths? Is there a single wavelength of light that a human eye would perceive as magenta? It's definitely an interesting question!
It's not a spectral color, so there is no single wavelength of light that you can see as magenta. Instead, it's how your brain interprets a mixture of red and blue light. In music theory, you'd call it a chord.
@@beezany exactly. Note artists like Seurat who used tiny dots of single colors close to one another (pointillism) to create these broad ranges of colors and textures on a canvas because they knew that the relationships the colors have play off of one another when viewed from a distance. Zorn had an extremely limited palette but managed to create works that had diverse colors based on mixing and how the cools and warms played off of one another when placed close together. Then you had people like Sargent who had ginormous palettes of every color imaginable, but he could paint a dress in two brush strokes lol.
All color is ‘“imaginary” Color is the language of the psychology of the brain relative to how your eyes receive light wave signals-physiology and physics. No two people see a color exactly the same.
"If a color looks good, I'll just use it"... these are words of wisdom! Sometimes people seem to over complicate a thing. If you like the color, just use it.. this is the simplest way to paint. Thank you kindly for your videos
Thanks for your nice comment 🙏
As a therapist. People don't sometimes seem to over complicate a thing, we frequently do haha.
Our brains are designed to solve problems. And used to be focused on surviving. Now without such urgent priorities to focus on (for most people these days) such as finding food, warmth, safe places etc. Our brains find some of the dumbest god damn things to over complicate hahaha.
Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk
uhhhhh excuse me but we studied arts for a reason color is an important subject to study in arts just like anatomy we don't make things complicated we study it so we can apply it in our masterpiece color definitely is part of how you describe a view or an object.
Thats the dumbest thing i've ever heard
I think one of the most helpful concepts here is that we are dealing with pigments. They have other properties than just hue, chroma and value. They can be transparent, or not, strong tinting or not, gritty (or more likely to be gritty) or not, faster drying or slower, creamier, etc. etc. To get the right hues AND the right properties of texture, drying time, etc. to get all of that right gives you a selection of several colors from around the wheel that are just right and pleasing for you. Thank you again, Florent, for your detailed explanation of colors and oil colors.
Florent, your videos have been so helpful and inspiring. I'm loving the direction you have taken your content. Being an artist is more than technique interacting with various mediums, it is also about expression, emotions and commentary to say the least. You bring those all to your content and it's incredible. Thank you.
FINALLY!!! I am so glad to find an artist who can explain it so well. Of course this notion is overrated and limiting. My students are always shocked to hear I don’t recommend this approach (or at least explore other options). Huge thank you! You are an amazing instructor and I love your channel👌💜
Thank you for your wonderful explanation of 'primary colors'. For the last year, I have been participating in an online art class that one of my friends started. They will pick a photograph of something as the subject for the evening, and they will tell us what color paints we will need. After seeing your video, I can see what this teacher is doing is simply selecting a set of 'primary colors' to create the gamut of colors that are in the subject photograph. Thank you for giving me this new insight.
...I agree...it’s about what colors will best suit whatever painting your working on...precise planning etc...
I started with watercolors last year and foold around a little bit. My setup came with CMY, and I can mix bright red and blue hues out of them. I think I get what the point if this vid is, but I still think CMY are the primaries...which does not mean, I don't use red and blue pigments...I don't want to mix them all the time and for natural paintings, dull colors are indeed great. But if you want a bright color...it seems to me, that RYB won't do it. So yes, it doesn't really matter how we call them, just use them how we like.
This is the most sensible presentation I have seen on primary colours. Thanks so much this has demystified the primary colour argument for me and helped me to decide which colours to create my palette with.
Some color systems use a lot more than 3 primary colors. For example the Pantone mixing system has 14 primary colors.
Wow, I never thought of using 14.
However, I know that a lot of artists use three primary colors plus white, because white can be used to lighten the shade of any hue. Some artists may also use black as a primary for darkening the shade of any hue.
Reall?! Do you have a link on that, @beezany?
@@SigurdBraathen it's a basic part of the Pantone Matching system. their matching guides provide thousands of samples made with specific proportions of several pigments. to start you can check out the brief summary in Pantone's wikipedia entry, which starts:
"... about 30% of the Pantone system's 1114 spot colors (as of year 2000) cannot be simulated with CMYK but with 13 base pigments (14 including black) mixed in specified amounts, called base colors."
humans need *at least* three primary colors, but when you're limited to physical pigments, more is better
@@beezany : I am almost confident that's because pigments aren't perfect.
We need 8 hypothetical perfect pigments to mix any colour - or several imperfect ones. E.g. "warm yellow" and "cool yellow" etc.
good point . perhaps one must play with colors so much until he finds his own unique preferences for color ,as the perception is so different from an individual to another . i cant wait for your next video :)
I find yellow varies alot between individuals! I seem to see lime green where most other people see yellow.
"Primary" is a reference - using a limited palette, one must find the colors that best approximate the primaries RELATIVE to the limited gamut.
ALL THINGS ARE RELATIVE!
Are use primary as the color families the basic color families are red yellow blue is it the primary colors or the color of families now shades of orange are in both the red and the yellow colored families shades and hues or tints of Purple are both red and blue families and green or blue and yellow families thinking of colors in families is how I do it that's the first true and factual way to think of it
The information enriched my knowledge about color and the video its self enriched my eyes about mixing and seeing color.
I have to say that the way you present your videos is very pleasing and attractive!
Now I'm so inspired to paint!
Excellent ! Justifies many of my concerns with other "color mixing" videos.
It's true that it's best to choose your primaries based on the subject you want to paint. I think the "problem" that most often rises up is the " Which primaries do I buy if I'm starting out and I want to learn mixing but can't afford a big variety "
I suppose the answer might be to choose a set of colours you find inspiring and enjoyable to use, but that don't get in your way? But I've no idea how a beginner could find what colours they like without also trying colours they don't!
@@Mikey__R Yep it takes some trial and error and some unused colors in your set to finally know what you like
@@loati94 whilst learning about all of this, I discovered how different the Pthalos act to the Ultramarines, and how different the Quinacs behave to the Cadmiums to the Alizarins. And then there are all the earth colours, which seem to be mostly different iron oxides!
My mind was really blown when I mixed Veridian with Magenta, and got anything from a blue to a violet! I didn't think you could mix a purple and a green, two secondaries, and get blue, which is supposed to be a primary. But then, mixing Alazarin Crimson gave such a different result, I decided to just learn the combinations I had.
That was what I meant by paints not getting in the way. Maybe a better way to phrase it might be to learn the paints I have?
Id tell beginners to use a standard R B Y, simply as there will be more resources available to them as they are learning more about mixing colours based on all the history of art before the present day, as well as books and videos etc. Then after some time once they are more than familiar with colour theory can approach the options of different colour wheels being now more aware of how to use them and if they are worth using
I like your thoughtful and scientific approach to painting that is the foundation beneath the emotional expressive side. We need both.
Outstanding video. Thank you for your generosity to share materials. This is answered questions that has perplexed me for my 23 years of teaching art. I have constantly been conflicted when presenting the subtractive colors between the copy machine and the tubes of paint. Thank you so much for this excellent thoughtful presentation. I also am so grateful to have a thorough grasp on gamut now. It makes so much sense.
Very helpful about relating the choice of primary colours to gamut, in essence, the palet that you choose to have (think "Zorn" palette). Colors are perceived relatively, a very weak red can appear very strong if the hues of other colors are relatively weak. One question I have is how far you can "push" the colors around the wheel especially with the examples you gave on creating a red with quinacridone rose + cadmium yellow. I have worked with transparent colors where you start with their "secondary" color (magenta, green), but by mixing it with a counterpart you can extract a "primary". For example, mixing "Cobalt Violet" from Georgian with "Veridian Green" Gamblin in the right amount gives you quite a pure blue. Green is the opposite of red in the color wheel, it seems to cancel the red in the violet, leaving only a blue. Cobalt Violet with Gold Ochre (Gamblin) will give you a definite red. Yellow is the opposite of purple and this cancels the blue. But gold ochre is a little bit on the orange side, so the color remaining is red. Finally, a little bit of Gold Ochre with Veridian yields a very clear green. Mixing a little bit of green with the gold ochre gives you a clearer yellow with the "red" in gold ochre filtered out. The resulting colors are extremely subtle, you're left working within a very tight range of chroma, but I've seen paintings produced by this and because the colors are less chromatic, skins and portraits look more natural.
Excellent video.
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If it looks good, it is good.
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I like mixing mediums because I want to experiment with their properties and interactions. An effect is often more desirable than a specific color. The hue is not even the priority unless I want a specific highlight in the work.
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Today’s technology, nontoxic pigments and no-harm options let me dabble with everything. I learned about primary colors in primary school. The true test of me creating an image will always be with graphite and charcoals. Drawing, values, shading, implied edges, and the psychology of seeing are a never ending challenge for me. Relatively, color is easy.
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I like a pre planned chosen or limited palette based on the reference and my focus. I typically select two warm, two cool, a yellow in the middle of those, white and a grey that matches the “average” value of the final work. If I have a series of works then the limited palette adds cohesiveness. If the work is a drawing or uses less medium then I pay more attention to the surface color and texture. Custom prep and gessos can save a lot of time later, especially since I don’t have a budget that lets me buy the best readymade supplies. Home Depot beats Michael’s on many levels especially when I want to scale up my art.
When I try new mediums, I aways buy red, yellow, blue, black and white. Then, after i've dabbled a bit, i increase my stock by adding Prussian blue, cadmium yellow, magenta.
Thank you! Your Overview helped me greatly to get clarity in choosing the right acrylics starter kit for my daughters (7&9yo) without falling off the fence on either side. I can still remember the frustration of my school gouache pallet never producing anything near a true violet, so I was already dead set on including magenta. Your video helped me understand both the pragmatic and the essential roles of the other classic hues. I think I will go for 12-18 colours including Gold, Silver, black, white, both magenta and primary red, diverse classic blue shades and several yellows (because a single yellow never goes a long way anyway) plus a couple of good go-to composites in skin, leaf and earth tones to save both the kids and the bright colours from becoming needlessly exhausted in excessive bottom-up-blending efforts.
Wow, fantastic video. It very much changed how I thought of the tension between RGB and CYM. Thanks so much!
Thinking about the video it seems like foundational hue is a alternative way of thinking about primary colors.
Well in reality, the logic of primary colors in subtractive spectrums is kinda misleading as all subtractive spectrums are a result of how they reflect light which is controlled by the additive spectrum. Of course we all know that red, green, and blue are the primaries of light but that doesn't mean objects that specifically reflect those colors function the same when mixed. So in that regard it's hard to really set in stone a primary colors for paint other than primary hues for a color space.
This was an amazing video that really cleared up a lot. I was getting so frustrated trying to make the perfect magenta, and I just couldn't. Thank you so much for sharing!
Wow! i love this video! It's the only video that truly sheds light on the whole RYB vs MYC controversy.
Our eyes see colour using 3 groups of cone cells, each group is dedicated to one colour red, green and blue. And amongst the groups we see purple and other colours thanks to all three groups of cones cells, if you lack some or all of the cells in one of the groups you are colour blinded from seeing either reds, greens, or blues but if you lack two of the groups of cone cells then you see in black and white. So the primary colours that our eyes biologically use is rgb
Look at a 4 primary color wheel with Red Yellow Green and Blue. Isn't it an even and smooth transition of colors?
We have 3 cones but our eyes and minds are wired to perceive 4 signals from these. The fourth signal is Yellow, from a ratio of the others. Our minds use these 4 signals to notice the transitional ranges and weigh them between their two adjacent colors.
@CrossingTheStreetArt yellow is not it's own signal. the reason you see yellow is because your red and green cone are being activated equally at the same time.
@@CrossingTheStreetArt only 3
Those primary triads are both in the opaque watercolour boxes used in teaching art here in Germany and that's what most kids around here learn colour theory and mixing with. Those twelve colours that are usually in these ( there's actually a German norm regulating which colour have to go in them ^^) are also what I feel most comfortable with :) So especially when I started getting in transparent watercolours I was completely confused when there were no magenta and cyan in the box I got 😂 So I bought them as additionals. And an actual orange and violet, too 😜
I'm convinced that color and which color's are considered primary have more to do with the rods and cones in the eye and how the brain interprets and integrates the information received. We typically have red, green and blue cones. It is interesting that these are the compliments of yellow, cyan, and magenta that are often considered the true primaries. Each cone doesn't just register one wave length but is sensitive to a range of wave lengths in bell shaped curves around the color that characterizes it. The sensitivities of the different type cones overlap and signals are integrated within the brain to perceive a range of colors. The wave lengths range from about 740 nanometers on the red side to 380 nanometers on the violet side of the spectrum. We perceive this in the classical color wheel form because the red cones start to pick up harmonic sensitivity to violet light at about twice the frequency of red and integrates it with adjecent blue cones. It is also interesting that we tend to perceive more shades of violet and less shades of red.
Also, yellow is deduced by our eyes/minds and is treated as its own cone. Look at a 4 primary color wheel and notice that it has a completely smooth transition while some colors seem to get squished together on the standard color wheels with 3 primary colors. If we want a color wheel that's true to our perception, it has to have these 4 primary colors.
thanks for this, i am just starting colour theory in design, and i'm glad to learn this in the early stages. :)
Glad it was helpful!
Red, Blue and GREEN are the primary colors of light, fun fact!
Hello Florentino, being a beginner using oils has been very interesting, it’s very forgiving unlike other mediums only I’m handicaped by being red-green colour blind, but still manage to have successful results.
Your tutorials are very informative and helpful for me and wish to thank you for this.
I don’t copy but try to use ideas and modify or improve where I feel it’s needed so it may look similar but still at the same time an original.
Yves.F.Colliere
Good on you to paint despite your color blindness, you can translate the world with your own unique vision and your own unique expression, that's amazing. Keep it up ! 👍🎨
@@FlorentFargesarts I was wanting to send photos of some of my paintings I’ve done but I don’t see a way ?
Yves Colliere
I will buy tomorrow😅:
UIlramarine Blue
Phthalocyan Blue
Cadmium Yellow
Brunt Umber
Quinac. Magenta
Cadmium Red
Titanium White
Lamp Black
The equator does have a physical meaning. The prime meridian is a better example of an arbitrary line
Your videos are pure treasure! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience!
Glad you like them!
Am I the only one that just gets lost in the luxury of watching the closeups of the colors being mixed? 😅
@@mountainside26 I am this
Nice video! I still think cmy is the best option for people that need to work with a limited color palette for a reason. e.g. some people can't afford a set of 20-30 different colors since they can get expensive quickly. So instead of buying ryb and black&white they are better off buying cmy and black&white. Also many students are limited by their art teachers.
Also I think the main problem is that, like you said, most people aren't aware of the true definiton of "primary colors" and then there are for example art teachers who get upset at their students bc they fail at mixing a vibrant purple or pink. Imho we could improve this situation by teaching children about both options but still telling them that they can obtain a larger range of different colors by using cmy rather than ryb.
In the end tradition isn't everything.
I love the RYB system, because it's so easy to explain to kids, helping them get creative with a limited palette. Sadly, kids, but even some adults tend to use colours straight from the tube, without thinking of mixing them. RYB gives a very good start to the joy of creating art.
MYC is less intuitive.
I taught my sister cmy. Cmy is wayyy more simple to understand and explain. The cmy color wheel is more accurate. I ditched ryb because I didn’t understand it. Cmy was easier to use and I knew how to mix colors better. My sister , who’s 5 rn, knows the difference between Blue, azure and cyan. One of her favorite color is azure but not blue. If you want to teach ryb to kids, ok. But I honestly recommend cmy
I don’t understand this argument. CMY is just as intuitive as RYB (if not more so since it is accurate). The only reason people claim cmy is difficult for children to understand is because they underestimate children’s ability to learn new things.
In the history of "primary" colors, the Renaissance artist's "basic colors" (as described by Alberti or Leonardo) were not three but four - red, yellow, green and blue.
This is my first ever YT comment. I would get kinda frustrated when I heard other artists saying you can mix any other color with just Red, Yellow, and Blue. But you explained it perfectly for me to understand. Its actually just about creating the widest Gamut that can encompass the most amount of colors, not just being able to create every color imaginable.
I am an artist who would want to paint with cmyk and do not care about the tradition over the scientificness and range of the gamut, but everyone has the right to do use their gamut however they want due to their purpose!
I have just the basics in both Oils and Acrylics, as most other colors can be mixed from them, therefore, I save more $$$ by not buying all sorts of colors I may not use at all. Oh, as an update....Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are used in printing Color Photographs in the Darkroom. I use to develope my own B&W and Color Film, including printing from an enlarger with a drawer for the filters
"From there you mix every other color in existence."
Not necessarily. Not fluorescent. Not metallic, etc.
Great video! You put in to words what I have always felt about primary colors. Great content like usual :)
Finally a youtube artist who doesn't think cyan and magenta are all there is. Very balanced look, thanks.
The only thing I would question is using the word "cyan" in the spectrum of light. Lots of other people do it too. Blue green is what usually would be called that part of the spectrum when mixing primaries of light (blue and green, the primaries of light).
Cyan is the name of a specific pigment that happens to be a greenish blue. The name is based on the chemical makeup. We'd probably not use cerulean or turquoise or ultramarine as names of the spectrum either.
Thanks for the great video, love your approach to painting.
The rainbow spectrum of light, it doesn't have terribly much to do with colors as we use, other than that small bands of that spectrum appears to us, as having that color. So I agree with being careful not to confuse the colors in that spectrum with real colors. They are not the same things. The color 'Cyan' contains the entire spectrum of that rainbow, except the red part.
A "Cyan" is a color that lack, or have a very small red component reflected or transferred. It's not based on any chemical makeup. It's based on it's light absorption spectrum. The origin of the word "cyan" is the Greek "Kyanos", which was a dark blue enamel. "Cyan" became used for minus-red, subtractive mixing colors, some time around 1880. It's entirely analogous to Yellow, lack of blue, and Magenta, lack of green.
The reason the chemical component "Cyano-group" CN (triple bonded), as in Copper Phthalo cyanide for instance, is named thus, is probably because people who died by HCN poisoning became blue. The medical term "cyanosis" refers to the condition of blue coloring of skin. But I don't know that, so is pure speculation on my part.
Fun fact, many colors traditionally and habitually called "blue", are actually stronger Cyans than Blues.
@@Vermiliontea I think that the makers of color printers use magenta, yellow and cyan as primary colors, because they define a primary color as one that absorbs one, but only one, of the primary light wavelengths, and reflects the other two.
That’s true about the light spectrum. We can see the range of colors in the spectrum by looking at a rainbow 🌈 or a prism, but that doesn’t include all of the colors that we see elsewhere in nature. For example, there are hues of purple and pink that don’t exist in the spectrum but can still be obtained by mixing colors from the red end and the blue end of the spectrum.
Beautifully explained.
Merci pour vos vidéos très informatives et très agréables à écouter, bonne continuation !
I find that if you mix red with green paint, you may indeed get something of a yellow hue, but it won’t be a bright canary yellow but more of a muddy shade. So a figured that’s one of the reasons why yellow is considered a primary color, because it’s better to just let it stand on its own rather than to obtain it by mixing.
I think you could get green by mixing yellow with either blue or with cyan, but mixing it with cyan would give a much brighter green than mixing it with blue. Maybe the reason a lot of artists prefer to use blue as a primary color rather than cyan is because they prefer the darker green, because most of the things that occur in nature as green are of the more dark green like grass and leaves.
Look at a red, yellow, green, blue primary color wheel (4 primary color wheel). It'll have an equal transition between all the colors.
yellow and blue actually cannot ever make green if you're using a sensible definition of what those colors are. so yellow is when your red and green cones are activated. and blue is when just the blue cone is activated. therefore, mixing yellow and blue means that all 3 cones are being activated, so you perceive no actual color. the only reason why blue and yellow can give you green is because the pigments we use are inaccurate. but that doesnt mean we should continue describing colors inaccurately. yellow and blue are complimentary colors based on how the human eye scientifically works. therefore, mixing them does not give you green. it gives you grey.
@@perperperpen Thats because most blues you can buy lean towards cyan. An actual secondary blue, some people would describe as almost violet and that blue is on the opposite site of the color wheel to yellow.
Another set of colours that can also be considered "primary" are colours like unique yellow, blue, green and red from the colour opponent process.
Love this knowledge, thank you for sharing it with us all❤
Excellent video
I learned recently that while "wavelength" is a physical quality of monochromatic light (like from a laser), "color" is a perceptual quality. Light doesn't become color until our brain interprets it.
ur lighting is very good
What about red green blue?
Those are the color that our eyes use for primaries, our eyes only have cones specialized for a range of reds, a range of greens, and a range of blues, then every other color we see is because they activate 2 cones at a time and our brain mixes them
Great video. CYM always seemed criminal to me
Actually, RYB is outdated.
Thanks for sharing this video. I've been an artist for almost a decade now, and i'm finding this discussion more and more intriguing about "primary colours".
To me, primary colours are colours you cannot create by mixing other colours, AND being able to create all other colours.
So Red, Yellow and Blue cannot be created by mixing colours.
So the remaining 3 colours (and from there changing the shades of all 6 so go through the other thousands of shades of each colour, unless you consider those other shades of colours, other colours each, unto their own), are Orange, Green, and Violet.
Obviously red + blue = Violet, magenta etc.
red + yellow = orange
yellow + blue = green.
And Cyan being a shade/mix of blue-green, is made up of yellow and blue originally.
Chartreuse Is a greeny yellow. (that some people consider a primary colour, but it's Really been mixed with light amount of blue to get the greenish tinge).
And Magenta is just red and blue mixed to the right amount.
So Cyan, Magenta and Chartreuse are colours that can be created mixing colours.
That's why i consider Red, Blue and Yellow the main, real, primary colours.
Thanks for sharing your views on all of this stuff as well mate. Very well spoken and explained. :)
I always like use the analogy of the ambiguity of color to say why i like something, because sometimes i over complicate my self trying to explain why i like something or why i dont, or why something happende, or what something mean, and i always remember that i have a favorite color for unknown reasons and im fine with it, i think life would be simpler if i live by choosing things as randomly as colors “just because” , and also think that shows your true nature, its like a portal to your soul cause of the pureness of the election :)
Offset printers use black, blue, red and yellow. To get a pure red, they add yellow, so that it does not look pink, because the white of the paper will bleed through the red.
If you place a mirror in water, and face away from the sun, you get the sun to reflect back to you, then you will see a sphere, with the top third is red, the middle third will be yellow, and the bottom third is blue. Curiosity the colors will sag and drip down, but not mix.😊
I don’t know, cyan just looks like light blue to me. In a couple of company’s paint lines i notice they sell “primary cyan” as just PB15:3 + PW6. Not even adding green.
I mean if the blue has green in it it’s cyan if the blue has red in it it’s magenta
Great video, thanks. Coming from the Movie/Broadcasting world, I deal most commonly with additive primary systems, RGB. But the particular R, G and B are carefully defined and are different for every type of television standard, motion picture projection standard, etc. And the complete Gamut that the human eye can see is not triangular, which means that there are no three *visible* colors that can reproduce all colors that the humans are capable of seeing. So no additive or subtractive system of 3 primaries will ever be able to make *ALL* colors. (look up the cie 1931 color model.) But due to technological limitations, three is about the best we can do.
There is a system that can mathematically represent all colors that humans can see. This is known as the XYZ color model. It works a bit differently. X and Y are the left/right up/down graph familiar from high school math and the color gamut triangle is drawn onto that graph, so that any hue can be described with only two values X & Y. The non-triangular human perceptual gamut can be drawn on the X,Y plane. The Z represents the brightness. This is a three dimensional space. In modern color systems, the R, G & B primaries are defined by their X, Y, Z position in that space.
Of course that still doesn't answer the question about what the "true" primary colors are... Honestly they are whatever works for you in your particular situation.
Sun Tzu - "there are five primary colors"
I actually paint watercolors in CMYK and tbh you can't mix a true magenta or cyan (in the intensity a printer uses) with RGB. Doesn't matter for most picture though.
There are soooo many definitions thought in schools that are not correct!!!!
Just a matter of time for people to find out
There are artists out there who are absolutely stubborn in their insistence that RYB is all anyone needs to know. Why's that? Tradition. I've even met designers who work strictly with Web and print, yet repeat the RYB notion despite predominantly working with RGB and CMY color spaces.
There's a lot of inertia regarding the concept of primary color, and I wish people in the art/design space would recognize that the information they subscribe to, while not necessarily wrong, is incomplete.
Gracias. Voy a usar este video en mi clase.
"this is not true because if we use a red, we can mix a red" literally the dumbest sentence I've heard in idk how long. It is impossible to mix a primary color, without using that primary color, making it... you guessed it, a primary color.
Your videos on color theory are fenomenal! They are really helpful and also clarified a lot of misconceptions for me. Do you have any thoughts on skin tones and color temperature? I feel that there's a lot of misinformation on the internet regarding warm/cool colors and warm/cool undertones. Do you ever consider undertone when mixing skin tones and consider temperature when choosing a color palette (and how it will match the skin tone)? Thank you!
how does this tie with RGB? I don't understand why paints on paper mix different from light color.
Paint makes color by absorbing light and bouncing the one of the colour you see, if you mix 2 paint both absorb a little bit of the other and the rest goes to your eyes, thats why they get darker.
Light makes color by emitting light, if you mix 2 lights they don't absorb eachother, they add to each other, thats why they get lighter.
Thats why you cant use light color for paint.
then, the reason behind using RGB for light is beacuse they're the color that our eyes see, our eyes only have cones specialized for a range of reds, a range of greens, and a range of blues, then every other color we see is because they activate 2 cones at a time and our brain mixes them
Gracias,tus cursos vienen con subtitulos en español?
Why not just use all six?
Then what would you recommend as a good set of colors to create a palatte (one that has a large gamut on the wheel)?
So what set of colours for an oil painter gives the widest colour gamut? What colours to put on the palette?
i use cmy when painting
Samee
I don't know if I'll ever understand this.
Hi, I see from the video you can mix red and cyan from 2 other colors. What about yellow? If not would that make it the only primary color?
The problem is that you can't get a good violet from blue and a warm red.
Reed yellow blue are additive colors (light) cyan magenta yellow are subtractive that they absorb light to give off color
Actually…RGB is the “foundational primaries” arbitrarily and optimally chosen to explain Conceptual Theory. In fact the mixing of colors in “light” is indeed within the “subtractive” realm because we define subtractive in relation to physical materials color mixing and we are passing light through color filters. Light mixing therefore, is an additive system along with a negative system simply because it goes both ways by controlling Luminance and filters. Our “Subtractive” material paint mixing model is imperfect as well yet we are simulating both additive and subtractive directions. Irregardless of all that…CYM is NOT even “foundational primary” in the Theoretical System. They are “Secondary Foundational in both additive and subtractive” within THAT model.
Thank you for the video. The content was superb, but the delivery was slower than watching paint dry, with a lot of information being repeated.
"From which all of the colors are created."
No, because they don't create themselves.
4:37 I don’t think that is true because if that was the case, then you would be able to pick any 3 colours and label them as primary, unless one of them was a literal mix by the other two. There is another misconception that really bugs me, and it’s the ‘brown’ thing. It bugs me when people say ‘shades of brown’ because brown is not its own colour, it is simply a darker orange. And the reason why cyan, Magenta and Yellow don’t make every colour of pigment is because the sources are impure. It is impossible to get any colour with 100% saturation and 100% value in paints, inks, or any type of pigments. However, you are right about most of the painting bits, adding more colours to your ‘primary’ gamut will instantly make the amount of colours you can make higher. I would recommend to add cyan, magenta, yellow, white and black to your gamut first, then add more colours. Adding more can never make it worse.
"then you would be able to pick any 3 colours and label them as primary"
This is the point he's making: For any gamut there will be some amount of primary colors. So if you pick those colors as your primaries, you'll end up with the that very gamut.
"unless one of them was a literal mix by the other two"
Yes. This is why the definition includes the second point.
So when you say "I don’t think that is true", I think you should re-evaluate exactly what is being defined.
"Adding more can never make it worse."
This REALLY depends on what you define as being "good" or "bad". From a technical printer engineer's perspective, more colors will be better. From a painter's perspective.... well if you don't need the color for YOUR artistic purpose, why bother?
@@dr1303 ik that now, but still, he’s incorrect about the part where he says you can make cyan and magenta by mixing pigments. Pure cyan, magenta, yellow and white pigments create every colour. They just don’t exist in nature
Great video!
LOL ...UR THE BEST ...DONT BELIEVE ME.....BELIEVE REALITY ❤
I saw you of a NOVA episode!!! Congratulations, that's so cool!
Oh wow! Thank you Florent. I’ve been trying to understand this for ages.
This video is SO EXCELLENT, I'm going to share it with ALL my artist friends.
I've considered my ideal primaries, and came up with: Veridian, Pthalo Blue, Magenta, Cad Orange, Process Yellow and maybe Lemon Yellow. With those five or six, I can get super saturated hues.
I find that purples and oranges mixed from any red tend to be more muddy than I'd like, that's why I decided on an orange as a primary, and mixing secondary purple from Pthalo and Magenta.
If I need a red, then I might add a Cadmium or Scarlet Lake. The red I got from mixing orange and Magenta wasnt quite as Ferrari-like as a pure red.
That brings us to seven primaries.
Red is already not a primary, so yes, mixing it with anything else will equal mud.
I should note that the ‘blue’ in red-yellow-blue is really a color between ideal blue and cyan, an “azure”
Hello Florence. I Buy this informatión and one course in gumrod, But I need subtitles in Spanish, is possible?
I want some other courses, but with this option. Thanks For this resourses, finally i understand the color and My limitations
Thank you Florent! Really2 helpful
Considering our eyes have red, green and blue receptors, all primary definitions that don't use those colors are not based on anything definitive. Just use what works, keeping in mind the hue, value and chroma relationships between the colors you use.
Did you attend an atelier ?
Although i agree with what you said entirely, I wanted to point out one main aspect of color that i think really makes sense here, you told us to look at our image that we are going to paint and then decide the gamut and consequently the colors. However, i think, color is relative, no two people look at a flower and think of the exact same color and this is because of experiences, i think the aim should not be to accurately copy what you see but to show others what you see with the colors you like, you don’t have to necessarily copy color to make a good painting, an expressive painting is much more meaningful compared to a photorealistic one. Also, you might not always have the tubes that you need for that gamut and being able to improvise and make something even better is what interest me in painting. Your work is great by the way, hopefully i can enroll in your paid courses soon.
True, but
‘Photo realism “ is no less meaningful. Often we do this because the real beauty that inspired us in the first place is exactly what we see.
The human eye is red deficient do to red being a large weak wavelength, and the refraction of the eyeball shifts everything to the blue wavelength. Red Yellow and Blue are the correct primary colors.
I learned that when you know what you're doing... You only will ever need...5 sticks of paint ...tubes. 😉
You mixed red but what colors do you mix to get a primary yellow and primary blue? Your mixture to make Cyan- can I use that in my inkjet printer? Why not? You just demonstrated you made the primary Cyan paint similar to Cyan ink. You’re argument states paint and ink are all the same right?
Dear brother I have been following your videos for sometimes. You have a great in-depth knowledge about colours and colour theory. You are a fantastic painter and I really love your paintings. It really requires great study and pains to make such wonderful videos. Hats-off !!! Keep going.
We have 3 cones that detect 3 ranges of light ( except our red cones detect 2 vastly different ranges of light, but since the signal is coming from one come, they both appear red), BUT our minds DEDUCE 1 more. Red green and blue are what our cones detect individually, but YELLOW is deduced based on ratios of the those signals. AFTER that, we notice the transition between those 4 colors.
This is why some color ranges seem squished while others transition slower on color wheels that use 3 primary colors.
Best to use Reddish-Magenta Bluish-Cyan and Indian-Yellow/Slightly orange yellow! Those are the True primary colors.
RGB are the real primaries 🔥
Think you just blew my mind lol I like this , it does change everything wow
I was wondering though: does magenta actually exist?
Oh, this is the question of wavelengths? Is there a single wavelength of light that a human eye would perceive as magenta? It's definitely an interesting question!
It's not a spectral color, so there is no single wavelength of light that you can see as magenta. Instead, it's how your brain interprets a mixture of red and blue light. In music theory, you'd call it a chord.
@@beezany exactly. Note artists like Seurat who used tiny dots of single colors close to one another (pointillism) to create these broad ranges of colors and textures on a canvas because they knew that the relationships the colors have play off of one another when viewed from a distance. Zorn had an extremely limited palette but managed to create works that had diverse colors based on mixing and how the cools and warms played off of one another when placed close together. Then you had people like Sargent who had ginormous palettes of every color imaginable, but he could paint a dress in two brush strokes lol.
All color is
‘“imaginary”
Color is the language of the psychology of the brain relative to how your eyes receive light wave signals-physiology and physics. No two people see a color exactly the same.