Most of us learned about this color pattern in school, but there's so much more to know about this beautiful pairing! The complementary color scheme consists of opposite colors on the color wheel: purple and yellow, magenta and warm green, etc. 

Did you know that no matter which complementary pattern you choose, mixing the colors together will dull them down and neutralize them?​ If you add equal parts of each color, for example, blue and orange, you'll get brown! This ability to neutralize makes this color pattern so interesting; it's how you can paint a beautiful, dynamic beach scene with just white, blue, black, and orange!

​That's also what makes this color palette simple to work with because as long as you understand how the colors will interact, you can create a gorgeous color scheme with them!

One of my personal favorite color patterns is the analogous pattern! This pattern consists of the colors grouped directly next to each other on the color wheel. What I love most about it is that no matter which colors you mix together, they all feel harmonious and tend to stay vibrant. They may neutralize a bit, but not to the same extent as complementary colors.

This color pattern can feel really dynamic, especially when you play around with the contrast between light and dark in your work! Palettes using this pattern can also feel playful and bright due to its vibrancy. You have to be a bit careful with this pattern, though, taking extra care that your colors have varied light and darkness. Otherwise, everything will all look too similar and feel flat. Palettes like this are where a strong understanding of contrast can come in really handy. If you'd like to dig deeper, check out our Foundational Studies Course 1!

In the course, you'll learn how to balance light and dark to create a beautiful piece of art. You'll also learn how to shade pieces to add dimension, control your paintbrushes, and mix different values properly!

The final color pattern we're going to discuss today is split complementary. It's made up of one color on the bottom and its complementary, as well as the two colors on either side of the complementary, making a Y shape on the color wheel.

This makes the color pattern very visually interesting and allows for a little more range than the other two patterns we've previously touched on. Like the complementary scheme, this palette can neutralize itself, but like the analogous pattern, it also has an excellent capability of vibrancy! I'm an avid user of this palette because of its range. What I love about it the most is there's just about nothing you can't do with it! You can paint portraits with it by using red, orange, yellow, and blue. Yes, blue! The blue can easily neutralize the brighter, warm tones and give you a gorgeous, rich skin tone. 

​Our color theory course will take you through choosing colors for the subject of your paintings and how to avoid muddy and dull colors when blending. You'll also learn a fourth color pattern to complete your palette repertoire!

Behold, the brush of all brushes, the classic round brush! This brush can fill, line, detail, and blend, which is exactly why I believe that if you only own one kind of brush, this should be the one! That's also why we include this brush in our painting kits!

Flat brushes are an absolute dream for filling in large areas of solid color, which is my personal favorite use for them. Another great thing about them is that you can also use them to get really crisp edges on your painting, especially when using a soft body acrylic paint.

These brushes are the perfect choice for softening and blending paint, especially for subjects like clouds, skies, and skin. And while it's not its selling point, they can also be used to fill in large areas of color. 

Fan brushes are the kind of brush most of us either love or hate. Still, it's undeniable that fan brushes are great for achieving textures that other brushes can't as efficiently. If you'd like to learn more about using fan brushes specifically, check out our post about them!

This brush will help you to pull lines with ease. It can take a little getting used to because, at the start, the length of the hairs can feel unstable, but the biggest tip we have for this brush is to pick up a fluid acrylic medium! This will help the paint flow for precise, smooth lines.

Like the round brush, the angle brush is a versatile choice, from coverage to blending to details and getting gorgeously crisp edges just like the flat brush; it's a smart pick for your painting arsenal!