Colour theory can sound far more complicated than it needs to be.

You might picture colour wheels, rules to remember and lots of technical terminology, but when it comes to coloured pencil drawing, even a basic understanding of how colours work together can make a huge difference.

It can help you create richer shadows, more vibrant colours and much more realistic drawings – and it can stop you automatically reaching for the black pencil every time you need to make something darker!

For me, colour theory really starts with one simple thing: learning to look at colour a little differently.

So rather than getting too technical, let’s look at a few simple ways you can start using colour theory for coloured pencils in your own drawings.

1. Look for the colours you don’t expect

One of the biggest things I teach when it comes to realistic coloured pencil drawing is to draw what you can actually see, rather than what you think should be there.

Take a black dog, for example.

Your brain tells you: black dog = black pencil.

But look a little closer and you might find blues, warm browns, yellows and soft greys within that black fur. You’ll also see colours reflected from the light and the surroundings.

The same applies to almost anything you draw. A red object isn’t necessarily made up of only red pencils, and a shadow doesn’t automatically mean black or grey.

Once you start looking for those less obvious colours, you’ll begin to notice them everywhere.

And this is where understanding how different colours work together becomes really useful.

2. Get to know complementary colours

A great place to start with colour theory is complementary colours.

These are colours that sit opposite one another on the colour wheel:

• Blue and orange
• Red and green
• Yellow and purple

Because they’re opposites, they interact with one another in really interesting ways. You can use them to add richness, control vibrancy and create beautiful, colourful darks.

Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Blue looking a little flat? Try orange

If you’re working on a blue area and it needs a little more depth, your instinct might be to reach for a darker blue or even black.

Instead, try experimenting with its complementary colour: orange.

You don’t need to put a great streak of bright orange through your blue! Start with the tiniest amount and see what happens.

You could even create that orange through your layers by introducing a little red and yellow.

As those colours interact with the blue underneath, you can create a much richer and more interesting colour than you might get from simply adding a darker blue.

Need a rich shadow in red? Try green

The same principle can be used when you’re creating shadows.

Red and green are complementary colours, so bringing a dark green into a red area can create a gorgeous deep, rich shadow.

This is one of the reasons I try not to automatically reach for black whenever I need something darker.

Black absolutely has its place, but shadows are rarely just black or grey. They’re influenced by the colour of the object, the light and the colours surrounding it.

So next time you need to make something darker, have a look at your colour wheel first. Its opposite might give you exactly the richness you’re looking for.

3. Think about how colours change each other

Colour theory isn’t only useful for making things darker. It can also help you create more vibrant colours.

Let’s go back to red.

If you want a brighter, warmer red, adding more of the same red isn’t necessarily going to get you there. Instead, you could introduce a little orange or yellow.

We know that red and yellow create orange, so when those colours begin to overlap in your layers, the colour changes.

You might see this in your reference photo too. If a red reflection falls across a yellow object, for example, you’re likely to see orange appearing where those two colours meet.

Different reds and yellows will create different results too, which is why experimenting with the pencils you already own can be so useful.

Rather than thinking about each pencil colour individually, start asking yourself:

What will happen when I layer this colour over the one that’s already there?

That’s when colour theory becomes really useful in your actual drawing.

4. Build colour through your layers

This leads nicely into something else I talk about a lot: layering and blending.

Personally, I don’t really think of blending as a completely separate stage in a coloured pencil drawing.

For me, blending happens as we layer.

If I put a little yellow over a red, those colours begin to interact. If I introduce green into a red shadow, each gentle layer changes the colour underneath.

As you gradually build one colour over another, they begin to soften and work together, creating transitions and colours that might not even exist as a single pencil in your tin.

Rather than thinking, I’ve finished layering, now I need to blend it, pay attention to what each new layer is doing to the colours underneath.

And don’t worry if you don’t get it right with the first colour you choose. That’s one of the lovely things about working in layers – we can keep making little adjustments as we go.

5. Have a play before you use it in a drawing

The easiest way to understand all of this isn’t to memorise it.

It’s to try it.

Grab a spare piece of your usual drawing surface and a handful of pencils and make yourself a little colour theory practice sheet.

Try layering:

Blue + orange
Red + green
Red + yellow

Then change the order.

What happens when you put yellow over red? What happens when red goes over yellow instead? What does a tiny amount of orange do to your blue? How does a dark green change your red?

Try different pencils too. A warmer red combined with yellow might give you a completely different result from a cooler red.

There’s no pressure for any of this to look pretty. In fact, I’d encourage you to make a mess!

You’re simply learning how your pencils behave together – and that’s knowledge you can take into every drawing you create afterwards.