Hope you guys find this coloring exercise as useful as I did. It really helps with getting those colors just right in your pencil drawings. Check out the free worksheet template here: www.kirstypartridge.com/colour-theory-worksheet

These are nice exercises. I would also recommend trying the same thing using yellow, cyan, and magenta as your primaries. I find that those three colors make more vibrant secondary colors, and makes for color wheels with more even increments.

in college, I got tired of hauling around a big bag of colored pencils. Even now, I just carry around a true blue (cyan), process red (magenta), and yellow prismacolor, and just blend them, like how an inkjet printer would.. I'll only bring in additional colors if I need special effects (deeper blacks, intense red, sodium vapor light, etc). Hugely improved the quality of my art.

This is one of the best and most informative video on color theory for colored pencils I've ever seen. Thank you Kirsty for sharing.

Oh my goodness, I have painted with acrylic for years but still have problems with my color mixes and how to make my paintings improve. I do believe watching this video has helped me to understand color theory in a way I never could grasp before! Thank you so much, Kirsty! You are an amazing instructor!

This is like my entire semester of Color Theory uni class in one video.

Being colour blind i struggle no end with colours nicely named pencils and pens are a big safety net for me.

I’m absolutely blown away! You’ve rejuvenated my colored pencil fascination. This is the easiest to understand color theory/colored pencil tutorial I’ve ever seen. (I’ve been around for a hot minute.) Thank you for this, I’m truly grateful!✨🙏✨

This video is so timely for me. Thanks for posting on how to blend with a 12-color set. The last two days I've been hunting around for videos like that and they are few and far between! Most other channels will say they're using 12 pencils, but then they use 12 obscure pencils from their set of 150. See, I'm on a two-week small-set challenge. So yesterday I gave up on tutorials and just decided to DIY. I've got to say I'm really proud of myself! I coaxed all kinds of muted, realistic colors out of my $3 "kids" set of 12 from Walmart. Give small set art a try, folks! (If anyone is curious, the pencils I found are Staedtler Design Journey. They remind me of Goldfabers/Polychromos. They're fantastic for the price!)

The best tutorial on color creation for art in any video I have seen. These principles can be applied across the board for many medium! Great work!

I am a complete beginner and I know you have saved me so much pain and suffering by just sharing these tips and the worksheet. I am thankful to you Kristy

I did have trouble with colour mixing because every tutorial I saw would use many different colours so it was really confusing , but now I get it , playing with colours does give you knowledge and fun 😊 I really missed you Kirsty tbh

I am not an artist… well not a schooled or educated artist. I never went to school. I’ve never been to a class of any kind. But over the last couple years I started painting and drawing. I just felt the need to do so. I love it. I’m not bad but there are times I don’t know how to achieve on canvas or paper what I see in my minds eye. This has been so incredibly helpful. I’ve watched other videos but they were so confusing. This was simplistic and easy to understand. Thank you soooo much. Sincerely. Thank you. Stay well. Stay safe.

Wow, I have been doing these exercises since I started color pencil 13 years ago! These are really helpful! The only suggestion I make is for the color wheel, try to use only five pencils: white, black, magenta, cyan, yellow. The primary colors on this color wheel weren't the best for mixing, especially that warm red. Anyway, thanks for sharing!

It's amazing how you can create so many different versions of the same colour!

I agree with the comments below: this has to be the best Practical colored pencil/color theory video I've watched. I feel smarter after watching it! Thanks for sharing.

Great exercise. I’ve been doing these type of exercises for years. I would recommend trying the same thing with a mid yellow, cyan and magenta, brighter mixes. Also, try doing a split primary colour wheel, that is a warm and cool version of each primary. So much fun learning how colours mix. I do heaps of different colour wheels with different sets of three starting colours..

As someone who uses watercolors, it’s always interesting to see what people have to do with other mediums. I also find that even with watercolors, people still struggle with mixing colors and understanding color theory because of having premade colors in their palette. I learned some basic theory on my own from just using the Daniel smith essentials set of colors! It was a palette of 6 colors, 2 kinds of primaries, cool and warm tone

Of the videos I have watched explaining this, yours is the best. You broke it down and explained every part in a way a person can understand. Thank you. I hope you have a video combining all those colors to create the picture.

This has been the best color theory instruction I’ve ever seen or read. I have adhd. It’s hard for me to keep focused when people over explain things. You did perfect! Kept my attention entirely and I’ve retained the information. Thank you!

Thank you for a very nice discussion of color mixing. I'm familiar with color mixing in other mediums but haven't yet worked much with colored pencils. The idea of choosing which color to put in a sandwich layer (beyond just layering colors) was something I hadn't considered - it makes a lot of sense when considering how the color shows up through underlying layers and reflects off upper layers. 🙂

Thank you, this is exactly what I needed! I really appreciate all the time and effort you’ve put into creating this template. Than you so much.

Years ago I read a book called The Paradox of Choice. It’s about how having an abundance of options ironically limits us. They referenced a study where a vendor at a food market had 24 different types of gourmet jam for customers to sample, and they offered a coupon to everyone who tried the jam. The catch was, they could only choose one flavour to buy. On another day, they repeated the experiment with just 6 varieties of jam. They found that even though the larger display attracted more customers, those who tried samples on the second day were more likely to purchase a jar of jam. This was thought to be because on the first day, there were too many options and customers got overwhelmed. They found themselves deliberating over which flavour tasted the best, which one had the highest quality ingredients etc, then many gave up and walked away without purchasing anything. When the sample size was limited, customers were more certain about what they wanted as they had fewer options to choose from. I think the same theory applies to your coloured pencils. When we have too many choices, we can limit ourselves. It’s best to stick to the necessities when possible. Your artwork is beautiful by the way!

This tutorial was GREATLY HELPFUL!!!!! Thank you for taking this valuable time to show the importance of creating varied colors, shades, or shadows. I plan to print out the guide you put together. Once again, thank you💜

Kirsty, Thank you for producing this tutorial! It is an excellent companion to the "Picking Perfect Colours" guide that I had previously downloaded from your website. That guide was informative for me last summer, when I was creating a personalized colored pencil drawing for my brother's graduation gift. 😊 But it is an even further blessing to have this video, in which you walk us through some of those same concepts in a thorough, conversational manner. I think these resources complement each other so nicely - since I love having things written down for reference (like the downloadable guide), yet I also benefit from having someone there to walk me through the process (like you do in this video). I appreciate that you have made both of these available! (Side note: When I clicked on this video, I wasn't expecting it to be such a thorough tutorial. To me, it seems like this video should be subtitled something like, "Color Theory Basics in Practice." 🤷🏼‍♀️) Thanks again! ~ Chelsea P.S. I hope this verse encourages you today: 😊 "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

This is the most sensible explanation of color I have ever heard. Thank you!

Brilliant and easy to understand. One of the best videos of any topic I've seen on UKposts. Thank you

This is one of the greatest tips you have given me. Thank you so much. Ive been out of drawing for three years due to illness ect but now im looking forward to starting up again using this tip. TY so much again

You cropped up in my recommendations again after years, and I'm SO glad you did! I forgot how incredibly jaw-dropping your art is. It's better than anything I could have imagined. Also, you're the person who taught me to draw, and I've sold three pieces now. Thank you!

Thank you. I started 8 weeks ago with color pencils, and the drawing always looked different than I imagined and wanted, and also changed the look/color over time. After watching this video and understanding the color wheel, me next drawing came out exactly as I wanted / expected. All in all, this was full of great advice.

I cut my Bristol smooth paper to 8.5 X 11" and fed it through the rear feeder on my Canon printer. Set the paper to Card Stock.

This is wonderful and applies to most mediums! I'm definitely using this with all of my students, thank you so much!

This is the best color theory video I’ve seen. It makes so much more sense to me now. Thank you so much!

This is may be the best explanation of the why and how of color theory I've seen on UKposts. . . and I have been looking.

Thank you Kirsty you made it very easy to understand I have struggled with color and certainly mixing. Light bulb went off with this lesson. THANK YOU

I recently started drawing using coloured pencils inspired by you... Beforethat I used to draw water colours... But after seeing some tutorial vedios my skills had improved a lot... Everybody appreciates my drawings now... Thanks a lot mam🙏🙏🙏

This video is crazy, it covers just A LOT of color theory applied to colored pencils… 🙀 Since you were using the amazing Polychromos here, one advanced technique that I enjoy using with them to lighten my color is applying my eraser to it! Depending on the paper etc this can lighten the color while still retaining the coverage obtained with lots of layers - super cool. I find it most useful for adding small highlights though, especially with a tiny Tombow Mono Zero eraser! 😺

Thank you for this Kirsty. I've been learning to use coloured pencils for realistic colouring, and have just started posting a few videos of my efforts. It's an old adage that less is more, but I think you clearly show that in many cases, using less, but using them well gets results. I will be using your worksheet to help me on my next set of images.

I must say that your presentation brings even more clarity with color theory 4 me. Thank you ever so. It is your presentation. Very giving. Very gently. And a whole lot of patience. Best day now.

This info is VERY helpful. I will be coloring the worksheet you gave us ALOT. Thank you!

Great clear explanation, recommend to anyone with adhd. Thank you 🙏🏼

Wow! I've seen a lot of these color things before, but seeing this all together just felt so revolutionary! Thank you! Going to try this tomorrow with my watercolors. This really works for any medium!

Brilliant! I just came upon your video and learned things I don’t ever remember being taught in art class at school a hundred years ago … thank you!

Thank you so so much, i just today purchased I THINK all the sketching tools I need.. all but the wisdom and knowledge which often CANT be bought. I appreciate your free assistance, the color wheel sheet will truly start me out on a great creation

THIS. VIDEO. Oh my gosh!!!! I am so fortunate to find you!!! I have learned SO much. Not only about colors; the layering technique. Can’t wait to download the work sheet. Watching from the Great Northwest of the U.S.❤

Just downloaded your coloured pencil worksheet. It's a game changer! Really made me think how to use different combinations of colours to achieve the look I want. I've recently started a botanical drawing course and the ultimate goal of this course is to use watercolour. I've never mastered watercolour so, for the time being, I'm sticking to my pencils! Thanks again for all your advice - really appreciated. Ann Australia

You did a great video! In combination with my experience at digital drawing and using the color tools, I can finally apply this to analog drawing. Thank you

Wow. Just wow. I have always understood the color wheel (I thought) but the way you explained everything makes me realize I didn’t really get it. This is so incredibly helpful. Hopefully this will help me with picking colors which is my biggest struggle. Thank you!

I see you are using FC Polychromos. I just bought a dozen Polys of my favourite earthy colours to try out these "hard" pencils after seeing someone use them in layers. Coming from a Prismacolour background I favoured the "buttery" type but was intrigued at how well the Polys laid down pigment with the lightest touch. Once I got them, I was blown away by them and am a new convert. So I was contemplating what other colours to get and considered basic colours for mixing, and here you pop up with this great tutorial and template. Thanks! I will still get a few more "ready"colours for the ones I would use a lot, but it's good to have options for mixing the in-betweens without wasting money on sets with dozens of bright colours I would never use.

This was THE most helpful color wheel explaination I've ever seen. Thanks so much!

Such an amazing lesson! Thank You SO much!! Really giving me skills to create, layer & blend!! YOU ROCK!! You are an extraordinary teacher! Your wonderful free gift is on it's way to help me grow in being a colorist!!

Very good video on color. Blending colored pencils is hard compared to mixing paint, but a rule of thumb in pencils is to sharpen pencil as fine as possible in first layers and put down lightest colors first

Best color, explanation, video, exercise I have ever seen. This is a life-changing video for me. Thank you so much.

Brilliant , simple but so easy to follow. I will be applying it to my paints as well. Thanks for sharing this great technique.

One of the best videos ever about colors

A couple of critiques that I hope you don't mind. The tertiary colors. You keep flip flopping them. Yellow Green then Green Yellow. Red Purple (Volet) the Purple Red. Secondly, you touched on it at least twice but you never clarified. The closer you hold a pencil to the tip (Front) the heavier the hand, thus the darker the value. The farther back you hold on the pencil the less pressure you apply (a lighter hand) and the lighter the value. There's also overhand grip vs underhand grip for value control. One last addition is the "Pinch" method for creating gradient values. Pinch (Apply pressure) and you will have a darker value and then as you shade (up/down/left/right....whatever direction you are shading) gradually ease up on pinching and your values will also get gradually lighter. This will help with the shading process and in creating gradients.

The BEST color theory video 💯 it finally makes sense to me , thank u !!

I am learning and have watched so many videos trying to learn color. This video finally made sense to me, I get it now!!!!! Thank you!!!!! This has helped soooooo much!

This is so wonderfully helpful. I can not thank you enough ❤

Great tutorial as always Kristy! I love this type of exercises.

This is awesome.. looking forward to doing the sheet, thank you!

This really helped to clarify the issue I've had the most problems with: how to choose the colors to layer.

Wow. This is fantastic! Thank you for creating and sharing.

Wow this just blew my mind thank you for sharing!!

Amazing! Looking at the colorwheel this way, with the worksheet makes it clearer. I also appreciate the freebies. Going to subscribe to your channel

This is gorgeous and awesome! Color theory actually made sense to me 🤩 thank you

That is why i like watercolor! These exercices are obvious but I didn’t think about doing that with pencils !

Wow! You really did a great job teaching this! Thank you so much for sharing. 💖

Finally i found a tutorial that's suits my needs to understand how color works a transition from graphite to color pencil is somewhat challenging and now i found this video i learned a lot from all of your tutorial thanks. And Also i tried to take the artist quiz on the link and I'm surprised that all results are correct😊

Wish I'd had this exercise years ago. This explanation/demonstration really resonated. Your videos are always terrific, this one especially so. I teach college courses in both Botany and Environmental Biology. I require colored pencil drawings in both. Going to share this and others of your videos. Thank you!

This was such a clear explanation of how to make the colours. Thank you!!

Wow, great tutorial, you have explained the mysteries of colours in a way I can understand, the worksheet really gave me the ‘eureka’ moment I’d been looking for. Thank you so much

This is so interesting and informative! I'm working on a colored pencil work right now, and recently we did a color wheel just like this with acrylic paints in my art group, so it's wonderful to have an equal demo in colored pencil. Thanks so much!

This is exactly what I have been looking for.

After 4 months you are back 😀 always love to watch your videos 😊

What a good teacher you are. This was great.

This was incredibly helpful. I have such a hard time with colored pencils due to blending methods and finding the right color with what I have. It seems like something I should have known all these years but it just never would click in my head for color pencils. I also thing the quality of paper makes a huge difference for color this many layers, along with a really good white color pencil. It is possible with cheaper pencils but a little ,ore patience and technique is involved. Thank you for sharing this knowledge.

Wouah, thank you si much sharing us those techniques, it is very useful.😊🌹

This has been the most beneficial and informative art skills video I’ve ever watched! Thank you!!❤

WOW...that's pretty amazing! thank you for sharing.

Such a helpful and inspiring video lesson, packed with tips and ideas, thanks a lot, Kirsty!

Thank you for this color work sheet. Excellent tutorials.

Wow - what a great presentation. So helpful. And your Worksheet is GREAT! Thank you!

Thank you for this delight\ful and very HELPFUL guide! With my color wheel, I feel equipped to recreate any color I need!

You are such an amazing artist and art teacher! I always learn so much from you

That was a very good exercise and thanks for the worksheet - big help!

Thank you for this. Very informative for we who have struggled with our colored pencil work.

How do you know whether you are starting with the TRUE primary colours. I could be wrong but my understanding was that primary colours are not necessarily what you are starting with if you’re using an inexpensive set of pencils, crayons or paints. I noticed that your pencils had colour names. The correct blue had a specific name as did the red and yellow you picked. The blue was labeled Ultramarine which I recall being the correct primary blue, I had to slow the video to 0.25 x normal speed in order to catch the frame where you showed the names on the pencils, which I also recognised from somewhere. Scarlet red and Cadmium yellow were the other two. I haven’t watched all your other videos so perhaps you have covered this elsewhere? If not, please could you clarify whether this is important when doing a colour wheel. The worksheet looks excellent and I look forward to practicing the exercises. Thank you.

This is a masterclass, thank you.

Wow this is GOLD. Thank you!!!!

This was very informative- thank you! I'm staring to like using colored pencils but I don't know how to use them properly. The worksheet is a good starting point for me to learn how to use colored pencils. I also find the worksheet useful for other mediums I use, like watercolor and oil.

Thank you ma'am, i am a beginner and this is very helpful 🙏😊

This was so incredibly helpful!! Thank you for sharing your knowledge ❤

Thank you for making this video!

I love colour theory, thanks for this.

I’m working on a drawing for art class and I was doing this already. It might be the best thing I’ve made so far. I really want to buy Bristol board for personal projects now. I love just layering a bunch of different colors and seeing what happens. I’m drawing a peacock so I’ve been using a lot of blues and greens, and I’ve thrown in purple too for hue variations.

Such a great video! I am mostly a watercolor painter, but these concepts still apply! Wish I had known this when I was a beginner! Honestly, I think I am going to print your color chart and color them in with various trio's of primaries, just for relaxation! It feels like just what I need right now!

Can’t wait to get colouring again. Thank you!!

It's lovely, it reminds me of the exercises I did a lot of times from Parragon's books.

Brilliant information, Miss Kirsty, thank you for sharing