Easy artist colour theory for you to understand how to use colour practically in your art.

​Colour is one of those things that attracts us to creating art – it’s exciting and emotional and it gives our drawings life and personality.

It looks so easy… so why is it sometimes so damn hard?!

Let’s start by looking at some easy ways to add colour to our art –

• some ways to create realistic looking colour
• easy artist colour palette ideas
• using colour to enhance your drawing
• adding colour with markers – there’s a separate PDF resource for this here…
• adding colour with markers – there’s a separate PDF resource for this here…
• adding colour with coloured pencils or watercolour pencils – there’s a separate PDF resource for this here…
• adding colour with pastels – there’s a separate PDF resource for this here…
• adding colour with oil pastels – there’s a separate PDF resource for this here…

In this blog post, we’ll learn techniques for using colour to add form, depth, light, shade, and shape to your drawing – as well as the excitement of colour!

This is important, because as well as being an expressive tool to give emotion, feeling, and excitement to your artwork, colour is also a tool that you can use to give your artwork shape, depth, and form.

In the earliest parts of our drawing, we spend time looking at our subject matter and not our page so that we can draw the outline correctly…

We’ve done lots of hard work with our basic line drawing and may even have added texture and shade (mark making) with pen, pencil, or charcoal. So now we have that already in place, it’s the time to really immerse ourselves in the colour on the page or canvas.

You can apply the following ideas to any medium that you choose to use to apply colour to your artwork.
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And you can adapt the ideas to suit your own style – and I would encourage you to do so.

Choosing colour for an artwork or design can be a really fun part of the creative process, but sometimes the sheer amount of colour choice available is just a little bit overwhelming, so here's a few tips I've learned over the past few years to help...
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Of course, if the artwork or design is of flowers, animals, or birds I find the the natural colour of the flower, animal or bird is a great place to start, but for more abstract designs, or ones where you don't necessarily want the colours to look true to life, you can start by picking colours out of a favourite photo...
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Here are some I tried from some of my own holiday snaps...

Last month, we were looking at understanding pastels (the different types of pastels, including oil pastels, and the different pastel techniques).

Today, we're making a more specialised pastel journey, looking at oil pastel techniques...

Oil pastels are less messy than traditional pastels and lots of fun with rich colours and textures that you can create with very expressively.

I do enjoy using oil pastels and I find I create with them quite differently than with my usual pens and markers.

In this Oil Pastels free PDF download we'll look at:

• oil pastel techniques including lines, shading and sgraffito technique
• oil pastel ideas
• oil pastel drawing demos

Would you love to have a go with pastels but aren't sure where to start?

Are you confused about which types of pastels to choose or uncertain about how to get those lovely blended colour effects?

Then my new Drawing with Pastels free PDF lesson is for you!

Understand:

• different pastel types
• how to use the different pastels
• pastel techniques

Follow my pastel drawing demos to learn the techniques and find a pastel style to suit you...

My colourful 'Garden Wrens' artwork was inspired by seeing a tiny wren flitting about in the colourful Acer leaves in my back garden (while I was doing the washing-up!)... it was a wonderful moment as we so rarely see the little wrens that we suspect have a nest in thick ivy behind our plum tree...

Such a sweet little bird and a real treat to see in my own back garden!

I create my artworks digitally in Adobe Illustrator - but I start them the good old-fashioned way - with pen and paper...

We all know someone who's a big fan of florals... these five gift ideas are perfect for flower lovers who also love colourful and contemporary style...

One of my most popular phone case designs, this pretty pink daisy design is perfect for that stylish someone...

• For selected iPhone, Pixel, and Galaxy models
• Tough phone protection
• Easy installation
• High-quality printing
• Made to order

Buy it at ArtsCase

Colourful gift ideas for animal lovers - cute stocking-fillers with character to delight your loved ones...

A dinky framed art print, ideal for desks, mantelpieces, or wall display.

• Size: 4" x 4"
• Choice of 4 frame colours
• Complete with shatterproof acrylic cover and rear dust cover
• Printed onto high quality 120lb paper
• Made to order​

Colourful and contemporary 'Puffin Perfection' artwork...

After a holiday on the north-east coast of Britain where I was absolutely fascinated by these amazing puffins, I wanted to create a puffin artwork to celebrate these colourful and unusual birds who find their homes on our north-eastern cliffs and rock-faces.

They really do have the most amazing colourful beaks - they don’t even look real, do they?
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I created my puffin art from pen and marker puffin drawings, plus drawings of sea-thrift flowers and rocks, that I combined digitally in Adobe Illustrator…