Color Theory 2
Color theory can be broken down into two parts: the fundamentals, and the application. If you haven't already, feel free to check out Part 1, where we cover the basics of hue, saturation, value, and color harmony. If you're already comfortable with those concepts, you're in the right place.
In this article, we'll be going a step further: exploring how color behaves in context, how to build atmosphere in your pieces, and a full walkthrough of how to set up and correct colors in your illustrations.
Part 1: An Extension to Fundamentals
Before we dive into application, let's go over a few key fundamentals that will make the color picking process a lot easier.
First, it's important to understand that color never exists in isolation—it's always influenced by its surroundings. One color can look completely different depending on what's next to it. For example, it can appear brighter against a darker background, or darker against a lighter one. When used intentionally, this interaction between colors can create a sense of depth and dimension in your pieces.
Another concept worth knowing is aerial perspective, as you can see in the image below. You've probably noticed this in real life: objects that are further away tend to look lighter, less saturated, and closer in color to the background. Applying this in your illustrations is a simple but effective way to add atmosphere and a sense of distance.
Part 2: Applying New Concepts
Now that we’ve gotten the basics down, let’s take a look at how we can use these fundamentals in our artwork (that is, how to set colors up).
Keep in mind that this is how I do color: it isn’t necessarily the right or wrong way to do it, just how I apply these fundamentals to my art! Keep experimenting until you find the process that works best for you.
Let’s begin with a quick sketch and local colors. Local colors are the true color of an object as it appears in neutral lighting (without the influence of shadows, highlights, and reflections). I recommend you put down your local colors on one layer.
Before choosing any colors, ask yourself: “What atmosphere do I want to convey in this illustration?”. For this piece, I wanted to create a warm, serene feeling. Since the character is submerged in water, turquoise naturally dominates. So, to bring in the warmth I was after, I turned to its complementary color: a warm orange-yellow.
You can apply this same thinking to any piece. Start by choosing a dominant color that reflects the mood, meaning, or message you want to convey, then pair it with its complement to create contrast and balance (Check out Color Theory 1 for more information on color meaning). Think of these two colors as the backbone of your piece––everything else will build around them.
I recommend creating a mood board or inspiration board that reflects the atmosphere you want to depict. Above is my inspiration board for this piece. You can include photos, artwork, anything else you desire. This will help guide your color choices better!
Now that we’ve figured out the main two colors that we want to use, let’s begin setting up our colors. First, set a layer to multiply, fill it with your dominant color (here, turquoise), and adjust the opacity to your liking.
Then, on the same layer, paint in the areas of light with its complementary color — or the areas of shadow, if your dominant color is lighter in value than its complement. The goal is to carve out your basic light and shadow using just these two hues.
Next, let's make the shading more interesting using analogous colors. Using a brush with pressure opacity (like the round brush), select your shadow color, shift the hue slightly to a neighboring color, and paint it into the shadow areas. Since my shadow color is turquoise, I added some greens and blues. The value stays the same, but the shadows immediately feel richer.
Do the same with your complementary color. Shift its hue slightly and apply it as a transition between the shadows and light. Orange’s neighboring colors are red, pink, and yellow, so I added these in to create more warmth.
Finally, create an Add layer on top and paint in light using the same main color from the Multiply layer (orange in this case). This pushes the lighting further and adds a nice glow.
Now that the base lighting and shading are complete, let's amp up the atmosphere. Create an Overlay layer and fill it with your dominant color, adjusting the opacity to your liking–– this helps tie everything together and creates a sense of cohesion.
Then, paint your complementary color into the focal points of your piece to draw the viewer's eye. Since the character is the focus here, I concentrated the orange around her face, and added hints of it across the rest of the piece.
From here, feel free to add more Overlay layers and experiment with colors beyond your two main ones. I used some purples, yellows, and additional turquoise to add more depth. Don’t be afraid to try random colors or different combinations, this part is really just about having fun and seeing what works!
As a finishing touch, consider adding special effects like a vignette or flashes of light to further push the contrast.
And with that, your colors are set up and ready for rendering! Learn more about rendering here.
Part 3: How to Color Adjust
After rendering, you can do final color adjustments to your piece and make the colors more fun and eye-catching. This step can really transform a piece and give it more life!
If you work in grayscale, check out Value 2 to learn how to go from grayscale to color. However, if you’re unfamiliar with digital art, I recommend you check out this article beforehand.
On the right is one of my pieces before any color adjustments. It’s fully rendered, but there’s a lack of contrast and the character doesn’t stand out against the background. Instead of completely repainting the piece or spending more time on drastic changes, we can use various tools to easily manipulate the colors and bring everything together.
So, let’s push the colors using these adjustment tools!
Firstly, select all of the layers and group them. Then, duplicate the group, and merge this second group down into one layer. Duplicate this layer––this’ll be important for future use.
3a. Use the Curves tool to make your colors more eye-catching.
Next, open up the Curves tool. The Curves tool is available on Krita, Medibang and GIMP (free), as well as Clip Studio, Procreate, Photoshop, and iBis Paint X (paid). If your program does not offer this tool, go to section 3b (layer modes)!
In simple terms, it’s a way to control how bright or dark different parts of your illustration are. The left side of the curve controls your shadows, the middle controls your midtones, and the right controls your highlights. Pulling the curve up brightens those areas, while pushing it down darkens them.
On top of that, you can adjust individual color channels—red, green, and blue—to shift the overall color balance of your piece.
Notice that the majority of this illustration is yellow and gold, but the character has purple hair. Going back to complementary colors, yellow’s complement is purple. So, it’s a good idea to include more purple in the illustration to balance things out.
To do so, I first adjust the blue channel to emphasize purple highlights while pushing the yellows to become more saturated, then adjust the red channel to make the purples warmer.
There’s a lot of color schemes you can adjust to, so experiment with the sliders and channels until you’re satisfied. Don’t be afraid to exaggerate the colors or try unconventional combinations!
Then, change the opacity of the color-adjusted layer to your liking. Choose an eraser brush that allows for pressure opacity (I like to use the soft round brush or airbrush), and erase out parts of the color-adjusted layer to your liking. Since the main focus of this piece is the character, I erased parts of the architecture to make it less saturated and draw more attention to him.
From here, the process is just rinse and repeat. Take the duplicate layer of your non-adjusted piece you set aside earlier, drag it above your current color-adjusted layer, and apply a new Curves adjustment with a different color scheme. Erase out what you don't want, then repeat––duplicating, adjusting, and erasing––until you're happy with the overall result.
3b. Layer modes can create contrast and help enhance the colors of your piece.
After completing adjustments with Curves, you can push the colors even further with layer modes (read more about them here). Add brightens colors, Multiply darkens areas and emphasizes shadow, and Overlay both lightens and darkens images by shifting the mid-tones, adding saturation to the piece.
Use these layer modes to bring more attention to the focal points. I used Add to brighten the architecture behind the character, making him stand out against the background, and Multiply to darken the foreground elements.
With Overlay, I used pinks, oranges, and yellows to bring warmth into the piece, further enhancing the atmosphere.
Through adjusting colors with Curves and layer modes, you’ll be able to make the colors of your piece much more interesting and cohesive!
Learning color theory is all about experimentation—there's no single right way to do it. These concepts we covered are just guidelines to help you make more intentional decisions with your colors. The more you practice, the more natural it'll feel. Keep experimenting, trust your instincts, and enjoy the process!
References
- King, S. (2016, November 6). VisionShift - Sonia King Mosaic Artist. Sonia King Mosaic Artist. https://mosaicworks.com/gallery/architectural/visionshift/
- Pinterest. (2017). Pin on Enhanced acrylic pours. Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/104356916352866800/
- Pinterest. (2025a, July 27). Ocean Orange. Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/24980972929414225/
- Pinterest. (2025b, December 18). Orange Underwater. Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/12596073953829600/
- Pinterest. (2026, March 5). Jellyfish. Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/36239971996411153/
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