Colour gradients

Was trying to explain this concept to someone and didn't really know what to search for. I know I've seen other people do better and clearer writeups on this concept, but I wanted to do a quick and dirty reference so I wouldn't have to spend hours searching for them hahaha.

I should also mention! That the gradient I made for method 2 is actually technically made by method 3 since I added a gradient towards black one one end and a gradient towards white on the other. So its really made with 4 colours. But I wanted to show a full range of values for each set of colours for comparison, since that's how you would likely use them in your own work. Just keep that in mind!

Anyway, note that this is mainly for DIGITAL ART and mixing colours in that medium. This is because of how colour calculating algorithms work. And that can also vary from program to program slightly, some programs calculate slightly higher saturation mixes of colours when making gradients for example. I knoooow there's an awesome and in depth discussion of that somewhere on DA but yeah I couldn't link it to you, sorry!

In traditional mediums, colours don't always mix so predictably. Sometimes mixing two colours will give you something you didn't expect (ex: in some paints cad yellow + ivory black = bright green) so you have to learn how things work in the medium (and brand or brands) you are using.

ALSO note that you dont always want vibrant colours. What sometimes comes across as a "muddy" colour can other times come across as a "neutral" colour (which are really important!) The difference basically comes down to if it looks purposeful or not. Another great fix for muddy looking painting is just painting over the muddy area with one solid colour--dull or vibrant, whatever looks best. This works for traditional work too usually (not so much with watercolour, though, for example).

There's a lot more to picking colours than what I've described here. Lots of experimenting helps, especially if youre the type of person who finds bunches of words unhelpful.
(aaaand lastly there's also more methods to digitally blending colours than I mentioned here, like blending mode layers, which use different calculations)


Wooo yeah. If anyone knows of any better writeups or articles on this subject please feel free to send me a link.

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more studies: fralea.deviantart.com/gallery/…