Understanding color starts here.

In this course, Will Terry demonstrates how to light an object, how shadows work, and how to apply these principles to complex forms. Will Terry demonstrates and explains key aspects of color theory as it relates to art.

How to effectively apply light and shadow to objects is essential knowledge every artist needs to know. Learning how to use color is essential for painters, illustrators, photographers, and anyone who wants to convey ideas visually.

In this class you will learn:

  • Primary colors, secondary and tertiary colors

  • Tints & shades, hue, chroma, and brightness

  • Complementary colors and their relationships and unique attributes

  • Color schemes and how they appear in nature

  • Warm and cool colors and what to mix to warm or cool a color

  • What is grey and how is it affected by temperature

  • Additive vs subtractive color

  • What colors to buy at the art store

  • Vibrating colors

  • How colors change in shadow and light and how to get rich color mixing in your paintings

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About the Instructor

Illustrator Will Terry

Will Terry has been a freelance illustrator for 26 years. He got his start working for magazines and newspapers in the Washington D.C. area. His early clients include publications such as Time, Money, WSJ and ads for Sprint, Pizza Hut, Fed Ex, and Master Card. He has illustrated about 30 children’s books for a number of publishers, including Random House, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, and Penguin. When he's not mountain biking, hiking, or snowboarding he works out of the svslearn.com office in Provo Utah. 

Course curriculum

    1. Introduction

    2. Workbook PDF

    3. Additive vs Subtractive Color Mixing

    4. Color Terms

    5. Color Value

    6. Exercise 1: Color Wheel

    1. Color Harmony

    2. Exercise 2: Increasing harmony

    1. Color Temperature

    2. Warming and Cooling Colors

    3. Exercise 3: Changing value

    1. Color Psychology

    2. Exercise 4: Painting emotions

    1. Creating Rich Brown Colors

    2. Optical Illusions

    1. Which Colors Of Paint To Buy?

About this course

  • 21 lessons
  • 2 hours of video content
  • 13 Videos
  • 2 Downloads

Reviews

5 star rating

Perfect!

Alex Diaz

This course is a must! It is such a great class with lots of important information. This revamped class is a huge improvement over the old version. Will Terr...

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This course is a must! It is such a great class with lots of important information. This revamped class is a huge improvement over the old version. Will Terry explains things clearly and to the point. I did love it and will come back to it again.

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5 star rating

Wow!

Carol Kohn

This class was amazing. If you asked me last week if I knew color, I'd have said color was the one area that I was confident I knew well - that was until I t...

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This class was amazing. If you asked me last week if I knew color, I'd have said color was the one area that I was confident I knew well - that was until I took this class. I learned so much I can't thank you enough.

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4 star rating

The Magic of Color

Zion Husmann

A very informative class on color.

A very informative class on color.

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5 star rating

Colour Knowledge!

Bethany Rule

This is exactly what i needed to know but didn't know:) So many gems of info in this course. Thanks for the effort that goes into these videos. My creative s...

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This is exactly what i needed to know but didn't know:) So many gems of info in this course. Thanks for the effort that goes into these videos. My creative self is loving the valuable knowledge that you guys are sharing in all these videos. :) Beth

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5 star rating

Great class about colors, shades and contrast

Michaela Heimlich

There are two classes, old one and new one about colors, I think both have their appeal. Learnt a lot, the most about cool and warm colors and contrast.

There are two classes, old one and new one about colors, I think both have their appeal. Learnt a lot, the most about cool and warm colors and contrast.

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5 star rating

Magic of color

Claudia Fiebig

This course was so helpful. THANK you, Will.

This course was so helpful. THANK you, Will.

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5 star rating

Very useful insights

Chetan Vij

The best part of this and other sessions on SVS is that the audience gets an insight into How an illustrator *needs to think/visualize*. My take aways: 1...

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The best part of this and other sessions on SVS is that the audience gets an insight into How an illustrator *needs to think/visualize*. My take aways: 1. Simply mixing black for dark and white for lighter colors would make it dull. This was an important take away for me. Am on a self learning and discovery path :) and find this very useful. 2. Think "Warm and Cool" colors rather than dark and light :). Am sure this would help a lot for painting closer to realistic art. 3. Found the use of the Photoshop color wheel done very effectively in the session. I have a much better understanding of the colors now. Thank you Terry and Jake for simplifying colors for me. Am really excited about my discoveries in the video :)

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5 star rating

Great class!

Shannon Biondi

I took this class as a way of easing myself into other courses like 'Painting Colour and Light'. Having never studied art before and being a total beginner w...

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I took this class as a way of easing myself into other courses like 'Painting Colour and Light'. Having never studied art before and being a total beginner when it comes to things like colour, I found it very informative and learned a lot. I thought the information was presented very clearly and was structured in a great way. It made sense, got to the point quickly and was very clearly laid out in a way that was simple to follow. Thank you Will!

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5 star rating

Absolutely great!

Hannah Olsson Vilson

As always, Will Terry does a great job explaining things even for a "graphite only girl" like myself trying desperately to learn about colors. :)

As always, Will Terry does a great job explaining things even for a "graphite only girl" like myself trying desperately to learn about colors. :)

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5 star rating

Awesome color class!

Alexandra Hall-Pinner

Wow! I love how Will expanded this. It's even better and more straight forward than my college color theory course! Color, light and perspective are always t...

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Wow! I love how Will expanded this. It's even better and more straight forward than my college color theory course! Color, light and perspective are always the courses I'm trying to learn from. This is a fantastic color class; leaves nothing to mystery.

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5 star rating

A must for people afraid of colors

Alexis St-Laurent

I've never really had an understanding of color and that class really goes to the core of it. I'm only sad that I missed the actual night so I could ask some...

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I've never really had an understanding of color and that class really goes to the core of it. I'm only sad that I missed the actual night so I could ask some questions.

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4 star rating

Color Theory Basics

Diego Lopez

They mentioned it a the start that this was a basic lecture on the fundamentals of color theory. Very basic and straight to the point, although there are ...

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They mentioned it a the start that this was a basic lecture on the fundamentals of color theory. Very basic and straight to the point, although there are lot of questions that pop up after completing this since this is a set up for the 'lighting and shading' then the 'Painting Color and Light' videos. I would have been very disappointed if I spent $30 instead of the subscription for this video. Overall, great information presented in a quick manner, with info you can find anywhere else for free or you've most likely touched on before. "Theory" is definitely emphasized since we see the perception of the instructor's theory to color.

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