Color Theory, Subtractive & Additive

MORE PAINTING HOW TO's: www.muraljoe.com
Mural Joe expands on color theory to include subtractive and additive applications to your paintings.

[@christinecarlson4071]

I love how you combine your left and right brain to explain everything, it's like a math and science person is teaching color, light and paint theory, and I love it!! You are brilliant and talented and a wonderful instructor. Thanks so much for sharing with us!!!

[@Bangy]

Well, if you think about it, a painter is just an optical analyst and manual ray tracer.

[@jjk2one]

I started thinking about the moon and the tides

[@hilarion244]

Dude thank you..... You are giving away gold. Thanks for the important and concise info needed to achieve lifetime dreams for those who haven't found proper documentation

[@jonpaulsonbass1]

dude, you are a genius... this seems like such a simple concept, but you have an understanding of it that I can't even comprehend....

[@alishadurbrow9254]

I have got to say that the videos about color theory have been the most useful to me personally. I really enjoy your other videos, but these ones helped me to understand what I was doing and why it worked. Thanks for that.

[@timothysnave]

I've seen a ton of "color theory" videos and this is the first that actually had some unique, helpful information. Thanks!

[@jjk2one]

"The ocean looks blue because red, orange and yellow (long wavelength light) are absorbed more strongly by water than is blue (short wavelength light). So when white light from the sun enters the ocean, it is mostly the blue that gets returned. Same reason the sky is blue.

[@Alamothy]

You are a talented artist and an excellent teacher - thank you so much for sharing your vivid perspective with me and making your 'big-picture-techniques' available online. You are inspirational!

[@roman2011]

After all my years, i finally understand additive and substantive colours. Thank you!

[@karollipinski76]

What a physical sense and didactic talent.

[@pastelslimbox4294]

ABOUT THE WATER BEING BLUE... or not, my research thought me that it's all about the nature of blue light. Being the shortest wave lenght in the spectrum, it also is mutidirectional. Water will ABSORB all of the light wave lenghts (not reflecting them) except the blue which escapes the water 'trap' thanks to it's multidirectional nature. I painted a concrete swimming pool white and the water is always blue, regardless of the colour of the sky !

[@CloveriCat]

I'm in love with your channel. Thanks for sharing all this knowledge, I've learnt a lot, you are a great teacher

[@miker.2540]

This is the best color theory video ive seen so far. Ive watched 12 of them :) Thank you Joe.

[@nazaninlabafian675]

You are the best teacher that I have ever seen. I am from Iran.

[@alexkhrulyov4636]

Hello from russia! I like to listen to ur explanation. Learned a lot from u. Thnx

[@keithbarnett3055]

To answer the question "What is the color of water?" from the Q & A: Water is effectively transparent but with a couple of caveats. *First* , the surface of water can work as a mirror when you are looking at it from an short or long angle. The more direct (a straight line of view) you look at water the more transparent and less reflective it is. From a more acute or obtuse viewing angle it will work same as a mirror and reflect what every colors surround it. Blue sky equals blue water, overcast sky equals grey water. The *Second* thing water does is absorb light starting at the infrared wavelengths and the deeper the water the more colors it will absorb red, then orange, followed by yellow and so forth. As the colors of light get absorbed the deeper the water the deeper the blue the water will *appear*. In shallow water, the first color to be absorbed (removed) from light will be red, which will result in water the appears to be greenish-blue. The more water there is, the more colors will be absorbed by the water which will give water a deeper blue color. In addition, as colors are absorbed by the water, those colors will not be present to illuminated plants and animals on the floor, which is why a red lobster will appear grey or black on the bottom of the ocean. The red light was absorbed by the water and therefor no red light to illuminate a red lobster.

[@lucillerox6751]

You make this so easy to understand. Thank you for these great videos.

[@n_s_3231]

very very helpful videos~ love your tutorials and the way you paint, the way you explain~

[@LynZel]

You should have a donate button. I really appreciate you videos

[@kmuileung8098]

Marilyn E yutb

[@banisarkar411]

Fantastic descriptions! Lot of thanks.

[@marisabeaird6357]

Thank you Joe! Great tips you share!

[@mariakellner2221]

Loads of valuable information,tfs.

[@paulaneary3662]

Thank You so much for the valuable info. Keep up the good work. Thanks again for reading my comment, you are very kind. I am saving my recycling money to buy one of your how to paint water videos. Living by the beach I just have to learn to paint water well and you have been a great help!! I hope you are on KZbin for a long time!

[@ZurqConcepts]

great artist and teacher. everything was explained very well

[@donnaburney2231]

Wow - I have never heard it explained from the different systems Thank you Joe -

[@johnsanford2134]

great video, its helped me a lot before i paint a mural

[@innokreativearts4570]

You Rock Mural Joe!....My student loans would have been worth it if you were the teacher for all my classes!

[@marcusmariemoylan]

HEY JOE MAN I LOVE YOU YOU ROCK!!!!

[@joygilley12]

This is deep.... Thank you I learned so much . You have a brilliant mind. How did you learn all this information.

[@sbfarmer8]

I would love for you to explain how color mixing can be duplicated from the impressionistic periods ike a seurat or van gogh. i love your vids.

[@ayasalem6424]

your videos are very helpful could you tell me what kind of paint that you use

[@Varifyr]

So inspirational.

[@tusharsawkar9731]

Water is actually colourless but looks blue because it is the shade that refracts as the light hits

[@MrMhacsi]

hi joe, the last gray is the result of mixing the green with the purple plus a little orange ?

[@tommykho4348]

this one subject has been my consideration for years, some says subtractive color mixing is happen everytime a color of light hit an object.... when the object is got same wavelength with the color of the light, those wavelength will bounce to our eyes, and that is how we see color. some of this is happen to be true, for example, if you shine a yellow light through a blue object, it will appear no color but only lighter, because it subtractive, and both of them got no same wavelength. it also say that in subtractive mixing blue and red mixing will appear black, same reason got no same wavelength, but that is not happen if you shine a blue light to a red object. its somehow more addictive result (which is purple) than subtractive (black). i wish i get a video demo colorful light behavior when beam to any colorful object, just to make sure that subtractive mixing is happen. but every video always show light beam through a color filter (an transparent object), not to directly to an solid color object.

[@ottovombaum2993]

Hi Joe! To your color theory. I have seen for long times as a rotating disk as colors mix on it. You can make something like a drill with a disc painted with the basic colors. If you start this disc your brain mixed the sequencing color. Is an illusion. I hope you understand my english. Greetings from Germany :-)

[@jimytms5179]

hello mural..thank u so much for ur explaining & I have one question.. now if I want to get any certain color I want by mixing the primary colors, how can i know what colors to mix? sorry if u have already mentioned that in ur videos but I'm not really good in English but I can understand often ur talk by writing it & translate ,but don't worry I will understand ur answer & thank you :)

[@lisengel2498]

Maybe you could Call it rainbowcolour theory ? And I came to think of glazing techniques in painting and the importance of transparency and the opposition oppaqueness - but you do a really great job explaining the different color theories - truly inspiring

[@connielentz1114]

What type of paint are you using? Acrylic? or alkyd?

[@rjuriklodhbrok546]

Hi MuralJoe, thanks for the great videos..I don't understand one thing though..you say subtractive color theory is used with the transparency of objects whereas for reflections the additive color theory is used..but how can that be considering that you mix reflections using paints (eg. pink berry + green leaves = brownish reflections)? While in another example, a yellowish sky and a blue water produced a gray reflection?! Why the two different results/theories? Thanks a lot!

[@rutbrea5140]

I would like to understand better this process. I was wondering how to make the color yellow. I know by mixing yellow and blue one can get green, and mixing red and blue one can get purple, etc. etc., but how can one get yellow by mixing colors? Yellow always came already made from the fabric, but I have never seen the color yellow made on a painting. It would be interesting? Can you do that Joe? Thanks for your expertise video. They are very interesting.

[@2424dawn]

How do you make cyan? Like a bright teal.

[@shp9826]

Gold

[@maryroberson9583]

loads of valuable information. you need to stress that yellow and blue if mixed to high can make a saturated green when using white in water or leaves. in leaves it would look great. in water they need to blend towards the lighter hues of yellow or white to cancel out a lot of green details. you paint with acrylics and fast drying paints so they don't really get a chance to mix more than you want them too. you should really stress color control for drying time too because people who use oils and slow drying acrylics also watch your programs to learn. I use slow drying acrylics because I do a lot of detail work but I love your program because it gives me perspective on how to go big and make things in a painting look real. keep up the good work. I like the fact that you added the color wheel and how it plays out in any painting for what the eye sees or doesn't register as color. great video keep them coming please.

[@HenkJanBakker]

Great explanation. Practical en effective. Loved it. But on the black and white theory you seemed to be missing a bit. So here is my 2 cents on the subject: Frequency is how wide the wave is. [The color, or in sound the pitch.] The amplitude is how high a wave is. [How bright, or in sound how loud.] The rainbow shows us practically the range of frequency we can see with the naked eye. Black and white are the ends of the range of amplitude we can see with the naked eye. Using black (real black) brings down the amplitude. 'Scientifically' speaking black is not considered a color because it has no amplitude. It flat-lines. to our eyes it's a dead 'color'. Literally. In that same mode of reasoning white isn't a color either. It's *any* color so 'loud' we can't see what wavelength it is. Our eyes just register it as 'a lot'.

[@zulfikharalikhan4861]

Joe, I would like to see a video wherein you are making some mistakes while painting and then correcting them.. Say kinda bloopers.. Can my wish be fulfilled :)

[@welsdarte4021]

Dude you are really genius. I want to meet you.

[@simeontodorov8657]

So can we say that additive color mixing is when the light just bounces off of the surface and subtractive is when the light travels past the surface? Thanks!

[@muraljoe]

Yes! but the two scenarios are not exclusive. They happen together to give surfaces their unique looks.

[@olafriveros6751]

Mural joe,you are the big painting,my english id bad. subtitulos spanish please

[@MrRustedHero]

So when light shines through an object it get more yellow but when light shines onto an object it gets more white?

[@muraljoe]

Yep, that's pretty much it. But it works better to add the next color toward yellow than to just add the yellow.

[@sherrylotfy1948]

Hi joe🤗

[@foxyrollouts]

your brush got a good wash ;)

[@caralynmcauley6679]

Wòw you turned handsome!

[@jimdalgetty]

Water absorbs colours other than blue.The blue is reflected.It is the same for the sky.

[@josta8488]

Your videos are very helpful, thanks so much for posting them. However I still cannot understand why the red light combined with the green light gives yellow light while from the colourwheel it looks like they are opposite colours and should result in white/gray. Would you please explain it?

[@dianapavlova2982]

Hi, I'm not muraljoe but I think I can answer your question. Combining red light and green light gives yellow because they are lights. They have a glow. Paints though don't, they have no shine and so when you mix opposite paint colours you get mud or grey. I hope that makes sense.

[@muraljoe]

Thank you Diana. That's true. Let me add that even though red and green seem opposite, they are not opposite because they are both primaries. two primaries make a secondary. Red and blue-green would be opposite and result in gray. It can be confusing to get used to the light color wheel instead of the paint color wheel.

[@josta8488]

+muraljoe Thank you Diana and muraljoe! It's indeed quite confusing mostly because it's something diffrent from what i knew. I therefore would like you to explain it using the simple example: if I see the red shiny apple reflecting saturated/bright green leaf should I use gray colour to paint this reflection?

[@muraljoe]

You would use a yellow that is between the darkness or lightness of the green leaf and the red apple because green and red light make yellow but a reflection tends to be an average of the two colors in brightness. So that just means you add a little brown to the yellow. Or black. Black just turns yellow kind of green. The less saturated with color your apple and leaf are, the less saturated(grayer) you want your yellowish reflection to be.

[@josta8488]

Now it really makes sense! Thanks so much for taking you time to explain it!

[@zahria]

Thank you! But what you call grey - to me looks caramel. I have to think about this for a whilexand make a wheel i guess. Thank you very much!

[@bertfarry3793]

The reason water is blue is blue has more energy then the other colors and tend to go deeper in the water, yes violet is a higher energy but the oxygen atoms absorb that energy. The higher the frequency of electromagnetic wave the more energy it has. That why Gama waves are the most powerful energy fields in the universe also the highest frequency

[@12178733]

Muy lindo el video solo que quiero en español.

[@skylimitua]

woah, he just used colors the way they work with leaves and the shit he drew looks like leaves without having the smallest thought of shaping it like leaves.

[@kimberleeann14]

if black is the absence of color. then why is the color black hotter out in the sun? I thought black was hot because it was all colors in one.

[@TheHolyFox123]

Because its not reflecting light so it absorbs all the energy of the light that touches it. But since it holds the enegy it heats up more than the slow radiation of white light

[@brylidan]

i dont speak english, my head hurts but i wanna understand

[@brylidan]

can someone explain me this please ? as if im a kid

[@ponchuffyxxx]

What is your mother language?

[@jeanluc4604]

hello I, I am your videos for a long time, unfortunately I do not understand English so I wonder if you could subtitled your lessons in French advance thank you

[@daveenglish5394]

Bon chance, mon aime

[@hilarion244]

Or teaching

[@marye8624]

Love your paintings but this explanation video I watched 3 times and it still doesn't make sense.

[@leiflarson1]

paint an actual painting and explain all this.