You Need to Stop Worrying About “Colour Theory”: The Ineffective Practice of Unintegrated Practice
I focus primarily on how this relates to the illustration practice. This is also a critique of the approach to studying and practicing illustration fundamentals, but ultimately is entirely my own subjective opinion rooted in my own personal experience, as well as observation of other artists online.
Particularly in online internet art culture, there is an overemphasis on the importance of fundamental studies.
There’s a lot of talk on how important it is to do “anatomy studies” and “face studies” and “pose studies” and “colour theory studies” but rarely ever is it emphasised how important it is to actually integrate that study into your artwork. Practice drawing muscles and clothing folds all you want, but if you aren’t integrating that knowledge of muscles and clothing folds consistently into your regular artwork, you are wasting your time on “studying fundamentals”. Learn the major scale, but if you never keep that knowledge and never spot it in other music pieces, what even was the point?
It isn’t uncommon to see artists online talk about “colour theory” as if it were some kind of mystical doohickey they have yet to master. The truth is, “colour theory” doesn’t matter as much as you think it does. And you can easily “master” it if you understand it outside of an isolated context. Colour works in tandem with qualities like composition, lighting, context, literally anything else about an artwork. And honestly, the secret hack to unlocking colour theory is to just ignore the colours and focus on the values. That’s literally it. You can make any colour look good as long as the lights and darks look good.
Skills such as being able to identity qualities that make something look a certain way through keen observation are often dismissed in favour of more “practical” theoretical studies. The result of studying “colour theory” should be a strengthened analytical view on art; your ability to instantly recognise how colours interact in a visual context and how it communicates the overall piece. You “learn” colour theory through being able to identify instances of colour relationships that stand out to the viewer. Likewise, it is paramount to understand how artists interpret gestures and human anatomy situated in the context of their art piece, which, of course, is a skill gained through keen and active observation. This is not to dismiss the importance of deliberate isolated study of fundamentals. It always helps to understand that this colour next to that colour doesn’t always create the contrast you want, or that this muscle attaches itself to that muscle in this way. These are important things to understand. But when art studies are often unintegrated, vapid, or merely uncritical copies of existing things, are you really learning anything?
Another thing I’d like to point out is that I personally take a concept-based approach to all the art I produce, with the technical and fundamental skills falling into place after. I believe that the idea and communication of an artwork will ultimately overshadow the perceived “anatomy skill level” or whatever (because it really is just stylisation, isn't it?). And the ability to communicate the intentions, atmosphere, or message of an artwork are the things that should be aided by a strengthened understanding of art fundamentals. If you draw an eye like that of an .SVG icon, it still communicates that it’s an eye, and that’s what’s important!. (Granted, I am a graphic designer and I don’t care so much for "realistic" illustrations, because I have a baseline understanding of communication and how formal qualities aid that.)
You can begin to improve an ineffective practice by ensuring whatever you learn from fundamental studies gets put to practice in your real art. Naturalise your understanding into your practice. Do not make fundamental studies “boring” or “tedious”. People tend to frame fundamentals as “boring but necessary”, but that only shows that you see theory and practice as two different circles that never overlap. They come in pairs! The venn diagram overlap of Craft and Concept are glued together!
Art is the fullest expression of human creativity, thought, and emotion through craft. At the end of the day, everything is subjective, as is this writing. I believe art should be enjoyable and largely practical. Don’t toil over constantly “having to do anatomy studies” because it’s ultimately unhelpful. Draw something you want to draw, and with enough observation, the muscle memory and mental notes you retain will show through. Your ability to look at things analytically is just as important, if not MORE, than your ability to understand how many heads tall an adult human is. Art is supposed to be enjoyable, so keep it that way!