Draw and Paint Realistic Portraits With Devon Rodriguez Sessions by MasterClass

A SHORT GUIDE TO COLOR THEORY:

Color Wheel
Color theory guides artists as they mix and apply color to their work. “The color wheel is very
important in terms of mixing color and matching color,” Devon says. He suggests painting your
own color wheel, laying in the “primary” colors—red, yellow, and blue—first. To get your
“secondary” colors, mix together two of the primary colors, then lay the new mixture in between.
Your color wheel should feature colors in this order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

RED
P R I M A RY

O CON
S
ND LE
Y

E
R A DA
AR
RP

N G RY
PU
CO

E
SE

W
Y
B L A RY
PR

LO
AR
I
UE
M

EL
IM
PR
Y

GREEN
S E C O N DA RY

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Draw and Paint Realistic Portraits With Devon Rodriguez Sessions by MasterClass

A SHORT GUIDE TO COLOR THEORY:

Color Wheel Template

Print out this blank color wheel template (standard printer paper is fine) and then
begin mixing and applying colors to each of the six wedges. Try to replicate the color wheel
on the previous page, going in order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
Once you mix the primary colors (red, yellow, and blue), blend these hues to create the
secondary colors (orange, green, and purple). Mix red and yellow to create orange,
yellow and blue to create green, and red and blue to create purple.

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Draw and Paint Realistic Portraits With Devon Rodriguez Sessions by MasterClass

A SHORT GUIDE TO COLOR THEORY:

Hue
“Hue” refers to the name for a distinct color, often illustrated on a color wheel as the
three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue), three secondary colors (orange, green, and purple)
and six tertiary colors (red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-purple, and
red-purple). Every shade you mix will fall into one of these twelve hue categories.

REEN YEL
LOW
O W- G Y PRIM
LL TIA
R AR
YE TE
R Y

Y
EL
LO
N Y T W
E R E -
E DA R
T
N

O RY
R
G

R
O

IA

A
C
E

N
S

G
E
N

SE
EE

O R N DA RY
RY

CO
- GR

ANG
TIA
B LU E
TER

GE E
RAN
A RY
PRIM
B LU

RTI
D-O
A RY
E

TE
RE
B
LU T E

D
E RT

U E
-P

R
A

IA R IM
P R
Y LE
R P

PU E
RPL PL
SE E PUR Y
CO
N DA RED - IA R
RY T
TER

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Draw and Paint Realistic Portraits With Devon Rodriguez Sessions by MasterClass

A SHORT GUIDE TO COLOR THEORY:

Value
“Value” refers to the lightness or darkness of your chosen color. For example, if you look
at your range of reds, you’ll see both burgundy and pink. You would say these shades of red have
different values. In order to make a color lighter, you can add white. To make it darker,
you may add any color on the palette that is darker.

Darker Lighter

RED

ORANGE

YELLOW

GREEN

BLUE

PURPLE

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 Draw and Paint Realistic Portraits With Devon Rodriguez Sessions by MasterClass

A SHORT GUIDE TO COLOR THEORY:

Saturation
“Saturation” refers to the intensity of your color. Devon notes that “to desaturate a color,
or to tone it down,” you can add the color on the opposite side of the color wheel.
For example: To tone down an orange, or to make it less saturated, you would add blue.
To make a color more intense, you’d just add more of it.

Saturated Desaturated

RED

ORANGE

YELLOW

GREEN

BLUE

PURPLE

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