Color Theory - Choosing and Mixing Shadow Colors

Hey there all! Got another color theory video for you today!

It occurred to me while I was watching this that I wasn't sure I was clear about the saturated vs. muted thing, so just in case...your shadow should be more muted than your base color. There are exceptions where this isn't the case (reflected light, or some OSL effects), but in general, our eyes expect to see the shadow as more muted/greyed out than the base color (or "local color" as 2-D artists call it). So if your main color is greyed out or brownish, double-check that your shadow is not only darker, but also as or more muted as far as saturation goes.

Otherwise, enjoy! These are the simpler examples but I'm happy to have been able to show the "fails" where the blue and purple didn't work as well because of the amount of other pigments, especially white, in them. I'm also happy to have been able to showcase the talents of my favorite, Brown Liner. :) If you use artist tubes, some of the darkest burnt umbers are similar to Brown Liner. You can try other dark browns if you don't have the Liner, but make sure you don't choose one that's too black (Reaper's Walnut Black is an example of one that's too black).

All right, I'll leave you there! Happy painting!

--Anne