I don't fully understand the color wheel..

[Junior Mints]

I've always just taken whatever color looked good and threw them together in Painter 8. Well after realizing that my art sucks. I thought I should do more investigation on whats wrong. I've read pretty much everything on concept art about color theory and color wheels, but i still misunderstand a little. (haha.. actually a lot. ill be very greatful if you actually can read through my questiosn without falling asleep)

1. Just to make sure, is this correct?.. value is the amount of white or black added to the same color. Hue is just any color that looks different, and intensity/saturation is how rich it is (with value remaining the same).

2. When you go from high chroma to low.. saturation is changing but value is staying the same, correct?

3. I dont fully understand what the gray circle next to the color wheel represents. I know that the grays on that wheel match with the colors on the color one, but i dont know how this would be useful or what purpose it serves.

4. what "Rules" are there? when i first read it was my understanding that you either use high chroma and no dark colors, or low chroma (low saturation, right?) and you use only greys. but then i saw a tutorial that said use black with high saturated red (it wasnt a highlight either). I guess bascially i dont understand how you find which colors you use with the chroma level you decide on. say i chose the middle chroma level for earthly tones.. does that mean i can use colors only in that saturation level but just different hues? what about blacks and whites? this is my most posing question, so if you can answer any of them i would appreciate this one :)

5. In this image, taken from a tutorial in the tutorial/techniques thread

http://www.rev-art.com/lemenimages/color5.jpg

he says try to take it down to 3 or 4 values. I see that he assigns numbers to alike colors in that picture of the still life. but i have 2 questions.
First, when he says keep it at 3 or 4 values, does that mean he keeps the values the same and changes only the saturation to get the other colors that have the same number (for example, would he change only the saturation to get the apple, cloth and the wall).
Second, if this is true, then how come if i go into painter and leave the value the same, and move only saturation or hue, i cant get the other colors of the yellow apple, wall or napkin. I have to change the value too (if i am correct that value is adding black or white). it seems he would have had to use more than 3 or 4 values.

Im just utterly confused :( i feel like such a retard.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could help me, i really want to keep going on my art but this is a barrier at this point and i dont have anyone in real life to explain it to me.

sorry for all the stupid questions, i know there are a lot

[Sammy]

It seems like a lot to take in, well... that's because it is.

Like complext mathimatical equations, there are people that spend their whole lives trying to unlock the secrets behind color.

You're on the right track to understanding, but 90% of that track is applying and practicing it.

Utilize the mixing pallett in painter, bring all your colors together. experement, when just using the plain color wheel people have a tendency to go all out when all they need is a subtle change.
Do some some still lives, get some reference photographs and rip the colors - see what makes the image.

It helped me to understand the subtleties of color by doing some simple-easy paintovers of photographs - hovering over the image droppering/ripping colors (use the alt button) ... it helps to realize "Oh yea, to establish this shadow all that is needed is some gray" ... reference and imrove your eye.

check out Mullins - the dude is crazy good with color www.goodbrush.com
look at how painterly his matte-paintings are - with his understanding of color he can paint a building in 4 strokes.

in the end it's all about the subtleties.

[tinyhands]

Junior mints- maybe i can clear some stuff up, since i take classes with ron. When he says break things into 3 or 4 values he means everything in the picture needs to be broken down into 3 or 4 values. This simplifies the picture down. This is more of a compostition thing more than anything. The more values we have in the picture the more fragmented the picture becomes. So sometimes a little sacrifice comes into play, where you'll have to start grouping things together more. Some objects may be slightly lighter and darker in value but if their close then group them together to keep in that 3/4 value range. And as far as chroma goes.... If you go "high" chroma there has to be a minimal amount of contrast. Its kinda like if you added black to a really colorfull picture, it wouldn't work, it would fall apart. And if you go "low" key of chroma you can have more contrast, but less color. Take a look at the color wheel again. Even though all the colors are different they already have and inherent value to them. Take yellow as opposed to blue. Yellow is quite lighter on the value scale, where as blue is really dark in comparison. As far as black and whites go, those are just tints to grey down color. I think you just having a hard time seeing value more than anything, and how color translates to value. Its really really tough. My suggestion would be try these exercises with real oil paint and get away from the painter program. Anyway hope this helps if even a little. Check out all of fredflickstones tutorials on this site, they help out alot.

-tiny