Colour Wheel & Colour Matching 

Colour Matching is one of the most important elements of Make up Artistry.  

Below I have filled out a colour theory chart to help with understanding the Principles of Colour. I have further explained the main theories giving some examples. 

I feel learning these basic principles are essential and have really helped me in a number of ways, I find that I almost always need to mix colours when performing a make over. In body painting & face painting I rarely have all the colours that I need so I use the colour wheel to help me achieve what I want. 

In this example to the right I have added white to create a pale delicate parma violet colour from a very heavy Grimas Purple paint. Ive been careful not to add to much white to prevent it from being chalky.

Complimentary Colors

Complimentary colours lie directly opposite each other on the colour wheel. These are helpful when you want to create a strong contrast in any make up look. This can be really striking on the catwalk. 

Harmonising Colours

Complimentary colours can be used to tone down down each other. So if my red was far to bright by adding blue this would help to tone down the brightness.


Here is my example of Harmonising colours, these are colours that share a pigment on the colour wheel. Blue shares a pigment with Green because it is yellow and blue mixed together.  So in this example the two colours next to each other appear well blended because they harmonise. 

Bibliography

Delamar, P. (2003). The complete make-up artist. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press.