A COMPLETE guide to COLOUR THEORY for TATTOOISTS

[@JohnDoe-cq3ii]

How foolish of me to think I was about to go to sleep

[@Lonersink]

Me & u both

[@kathsan08]

Literally same right now 😅

[@christolmet1660]

Haha me too😂

[@fujitattooz5127]

im not alone !!! 😂

[@zekysantangelop]

i've been binge watching PMU videos over color theory to understand darker skins and pastel tones, from car desing to painting, drawing, cinema, even industrial desing, neuromarketing and fashion, to start getting a grasp over colors, this video is something else under the belt to have at hand...really nicely explained and enjoyable, thanks for making the sunday morning coffee much more entertaining you guys...

[@1EyedJack51]

I was taught to take a photo of your colors in black and white to assist in finding strong contrasting colors that pop against each other. I was shocked to realize colors I thought would work simply did not but this method really helped my work !!!

[@Wegmanbng]

Amazing! After 15 years of Black and Grey realism i finally want to start with colors! This helped me alot and i just downloaded the color theory ebook from the site!

[@tedwallen4056]

Have you ever read the book, Blue and Yellow Don’t Make Green by Michael Wilcox? If you enjoyed this video, you should definitely check that book out. Like said in this video… we hardly ever start with a “pure” blue… so grabbing any blue to mix w yellow won’t necessarily give you green at all. Awesome video! Lots of great info.

[@thatmombielife]

As a painter, graphic artist AND tattooist; I always love me some color theory!!! My bf is a musician as well 😂 I love the conversation on color theory and I’m grateful for listening in. And I’d pay for your knowledge.

[@ThatTattooShow]

That is awesome!

[@matiasvaccaro453]

This is the kind of stuff that designers that learn tattoo need! thank you so much

[@ThatTattooShow]

Happy to help!

[@Canigetanawwwwyyyyeeeah]

a chat about hands and tattooing thicker skin would be a good one. just when I see your hand Paul. looks awesome. and you rarely see them done so well.

[@ThatTattooShow]

Great idea! 👍

[@heatherwhiteley3556]

It took a month for me to comprehend that Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are the best primaries for pigments and paints, and I psychologically reacted to arguing about primaries as if I was having a fight with the person explaining it to me. I guess paradigm shifts are painful! I don't know much about tattoos, but I was searching for a video for a student that could explain how tattoos use color theory, and I appreciate what you've done here!

[@ThatTattooShow]

Thankyou! Yes change can sometimes be a head melter!

[@Ms_Smith87]

Chris’ lamp is gorgeous ♥️

[@BetterTattooing]

It’s amazing how you both are talking about highly scientific stuff, without getting scientific, and nailing a lot of it. Some was a wife but holy hell I appreciate this discussion. So much more approachable than the classes I do about the physics of light and melanin 😂😂. Going to binge watch y’all’s stuff. Thanks for making this

[@ThatTattooShow]

Thankyou! We try to make content that is accessible first. Our thought is that there’s of plenty of deeper resources out there once you have an overview and a basic understanding. It getting tattooists convinced of the benefit of the info in the first place that’s key to helping them in there future learning that’s key 👍

[@BetterTattooing]

@@ThatTattooShow well said👍

[@briankennedy9059]

Most in depth color theory video specifically tailored to tattooing I've found on KZbin yet!! Thank you guys for all your time and effort! Definitely joining as a member!! So glad and lucky to come across your podcasts, etc! So much information and insight to be gained for the beginning tattoo artist with every video you put out or pod cast! Solid gold! Thanks again guys for the videos and all your time and efforts put into them! Love y'all!

[@ThatTattooShow]

Our pleasure!

[@tattoostudioleitmotif4703]

Very helpful mates! Cheers!🤘🤘

[@spiritsfromsomewhere]

This was really helpful, I was colouring a rose and I felt it lacked contrast and as you pointed out, it was lacking a purple shade to contrast with the yellow green I've used on the leaves, fab video!

[@ThatTattooShow]

Glad it was helpful!

[@b23photography5]

Very informative and colour wheel now on order!! Thanks guys for taking the time to share your knowledge.

[@ericcraw9265]

Many thanks . As always.

[@ThatTattooShow]

Thank you too!

[@ericcraw9265]

@@ThatTattooShow got a purple handed preacher shirt ta day😎

[@devilandsun.tattoo]

Amazing, let´s dive in this topic ❤️‍🔥🤘

[@bzerkt_tattoos]

Such a great video

[@ThatTattooShow]

Glad you think so!

[@mantizz7722]

this makes a good point becouse thinking about colours from a painters point of view and then aply it to tatooing will only give weird results. you need to tattoo colour from a tattoo ink point and how they beheave in relation to ichother. for me adding greens or oranges to mute or cool or warm a tone upp and ti works fone with paint....well it is not a 100% that it will work te same with tattoo ink on the skin. i personaly find it easier to work with reds and its tones than with lilas or blues. and creating depth is easier for me in black and grey and have controll and feel like it works like i want it too. ones i have to deal with colors that is when i stutter and dont feel as solid.

[@JamieLeeKnott]

Best episode. Great insight

[@saxbend]

Without knowing much else about colours, I find CMY more satisfying as it uses all three secondary colours while RBY is two primaries and a secondary, so it would be strange if that were a route to all colours.

[@dreddbrown_tattoo]

What a great lesson. Thank you guys for the wealth of knowledge. From all of us in the us, yo bro.

[@ThatTattooShow]

Our pleasure!

[@Julio-jf3zu]

This is pure gold

[@roytumbelaka]

Thank you soooo much Paul!!!

[@firbolg]

Very cool video! I just discovered your channel and loving the vibes! 🤘 My background is in mechanical design and engineering so not art related at all. Now I'm retired (disabled) and trying to reconvert myself to draw "art". I'm done quite a bit of free hand technical drawings but this is a brand new world for me! I have much to learn and I'm eager to do so!

[@ThatTattooShow]

Stick around, you'll be welcome to hang with us - p

[@elainegrossingerstattoostuff]

Merci! Good morning! Finally got the time to watch. I am a painter and consider myself a colorist in painting. I use colors to create contrast and composition and love to play around with hue and tones and purity and etc. I had the utmost difficulty transferring those skills and knowledge to tattooing. This video got my confidence back up to play around with colors again but on skin. I hit a wall with skin tone. It is not a white canvas, skin has a color and I didn't want to mess up my tattoo because i couldn't figure out the skin undertone. Maybe an idea for another video? I believe that magenta and cyan are the red primary and the blue primary. Yeah red is pink and cherry red is technically orange. Hope i have the time tomorrow morning to watch with my coffee.

[@ThatTattooShow]

Great idea! Skin tones? Hmmm… thinking cap on ;) p

[@i8farming477]

Hi Guys amazing show and I’ve ordered my colour wheel after watching and downloaded the book from tattoo smart😊. I’m new to all this and just learning (old dog new tricks)😂 I’ve always been into art and I see it as just learning to use a new pencil/paint brush. So appreciate all your help to make these videos for the community 👏👏👏 Many thanks Rob

[@maxkomarov9439]

Great information thank you guys for putting this together

[@ThatTattooShow]

Our pleasure!

[@BabyJesus66]

Great info. 👍

[@AZTattoo]

A premier....yo bro! 🎉

[@saitama4782]

Brilliant class guy’s amazing as always ❤

[@ThatTattooShow]

Thanks again!

[@cauldroncoven9914]

Not me going to college for 3 years for art and graphic design and being taught nothing on colour theory 😬 been a self taught tattoo artist for 8 years now and I’ve learnt more myself than I ever did being taught

[@Ornate_Dave_TattooArt]

Screw you paul, my painting colour theory is not wrong 😂 I recall a guy that paints a lot of skys, though I've forgotten his name, using the CMY palette system and I always thought he was full of crap, and still do 😂 no, in reality I think both systems can actually work beautifully side by side and after watching this episode I realise that I do that, tending to use the primary method for colour mixing and the CMY method especially when it comes to optically saturating colours by placing them next to each other. Brilliant episode full of useful information, especially about creating colour plans to elevate a tattoo. I've always preferred a split complimentary above anything else in painting and I'm sure I'll use it a lot in tattooing when I have the skill to do so. Out of curiosity, do any tattoo ink manufacturers display their pigment codes anywhere for their colours? That information would be really useful for things like predicting colour shifts when mixing. Thanks a lot for this episode, it's really great and put across really well.

[@briankennedy9059]

Just came across this today and is gold! But one question, and it might sound dumb... But if a "hue" is any pure color, then would the secondary colors be considered hues still since they are technically mixed hues?

[@tbabyzink]

Once mixed it’s no longer pure

[@cerchiniosimon9466]

Its true i became a tattooist first now i want to go to art school to paint

[@chrissajdik]

Schools for fools

[@kojayhs8230]

Fucking awsome video guys really really awsome

[@ThatTattooShow]

thank you

[@simonsowden1]

Yooooo brooooo

[@AZTattoo]

I dont use color ink very often if at all. I started tattooing in the 90s in prison lol 😆 when i got out i got apprenticed and didn't like doing color tattooing. Never have. Ive seen some bad reactions to color inks. They have put nasty crap in ink over the years. Heavy metals, cadiums etc. I just think black and gray work is the most amazing. BOLD WILL HOLD ...maybe i can learn something here today. But ive never been a color fan. And i probably suck worse than anyone out there and ive not tattooed any one in years and I still like coil machines and eat nothing but red meat ( keto infact lol) so what the hell do I know? Im here for the show to watch my 2 favorite tat-ooooh-ist (brit accent)

[@badcrow6693]

If I use water to make grey wash, in theory I could do the same with colors, so why isn't this common practice?

[@badcrow6693]

@@stuartkaplan76 so technically it CAN be done assuming that was the desired outcome, shading for example. I assumed that because colours do not last as long as black they would tend to be absorbed even quicker if diluted.

[@CaidArts]

🙏

[@mallorytye]

And I just got fusion inks. Fml

[@bdee1084]

Who has the purest color

[@bdee1084]

Where’s the flash

[@BennyParcher]

Magenta can not be made

[@ThatTattooShow]

True

[@BennyParcher]

@ThatTattooShow I didn't realize teal couldn't really be made either. I figured some blue green and white should make it Maybe? Thank you for your content 🙏

[@tjjoker6563]

hue

[@badcrow6693]

I say Gam mit not mut And Giff not Jiff Tomato Tomato

[@chrissajdik]

Strawberry vanilla