Color Theory for Permanent Makeup Artists: Tips for Beginners

The tattoo artist must be an artist. It would seem that driving pigment into the skin is not so difficult, anyone can do it. But where, then, does a huge amount of blue and crooked eyebrows, black lips and other horror movies come from?

Color theory for permanent makeup masters - in the ABCs of the Beginning Master .

T - Color Theory

It is not necessary to have an art education, diplomas do not matter. It is important to have enough knowledge and skills. To create something beautiful, you need to have a sense of beauty, and it appears when a person learns from the best, receives a lot of correct information.

In addition to a developed eye and good taste, the master needs knowledge in the field of color. For what? To understand what colors suit and do not suit the client, how this or that pigment will behave in the skin, how to avoid unnatural shades.

It is necessary to develop an idea of color, the master must foresee the result, as if looking into a magic ball. But only you will have to look not into the ball, but into the bottomless storehouse of knowledge and experience.

Most often, you have to work not with a pure pigment for tattooing , but to prepare a mix. Ready-made color solutions from manufacturers usually do not satisfy all needs. And in order to properly mix pigments, you need to have a clear understanding of your actions, and not guess what will come of it.

A color scheme

Isaac Newton is considered the first to propose for convenience to arrange all the colors of the spectrum in the form of a circle, where cold colors are on one side, warm colors are on the opposite side, and dark colors are opposite the light ones. This scheme has found application among artists, makeup artists, designers and other professions. Any three colors located next to each other are combined with each other. Any two colors on opposite sides of the color wheel combine but contrast, such combinations are used to set accents. There are other color schemes as well.

Monochromatic combinations are combinations of colors that differ in the saturation of one color. Values are most easily represented as a scale, from lightest to darkest. Saturation, or the strength of a color, is often determined by the amount of pigment and or how much "darkness" is present in the color. Monochromatic color combinations are easy to work with and produce a visually soothing and graceful result. In tattooing, monochromatic combinations are used to create gradients, highlights, and visual volume.

The so-called "genderless" color is the result of mixing contrasting colors located on opposite sides of the color wheel. Using the principle of mixing contrasting colors, you can neutralize an unwanted tone, for example, fight against cool tones in the skin. Carefully! When mixing opposite colors, you can get "dirt", instead of the desired pure color.

The most common color errors, such as red and blue eyebrows, and purple lips, are corrected by obtaining a "genderless" color.

For the master, it is important to understand not only the reaction of pigments to each other, but also the behavior of the resulting color in the skin . In fact, the color of the pigment is mixed with the color of the skin, and the final result also depends on the depth to which the pigment is driven in.

Some more theory

There are three primary colors - red, yellow and blue. They cannot be obtained by mixing any colors. The next, second order of colors are the colors obtained by mixing the primary colors. Third-order colors are colors obtained by mixing primary colors and second-order colors.

Colors obtained by mixing black and white are not considered true hues, but are used to lighten or darken the base color. Adding black - the color takes on a darker shade of that color. Adding white - the color becomes lighter, i.e. takes on a lighter shade of that color. But this only works for artists who apply their colors to paper, canvas or other surface. Tattooing is done differently. After all, the pigment partially comes out of the skin, the shade changes over time. The extreme degree of lightness of black is blue. And the addition of any, even the minimum amount of black pigment to darken the color will inevitably "give blue" in the skin. For example, when making dark brown eyebrows, do not add black pigment to the mix, so that after a while you will not get a blue tint. As for diluting the color with white pigment for lightening, it will inevitably give a yellowish tint in the future.

You can darken a color by using a darker shade of the same color. When mixing, be especially careful. It is advisable not to use too many shades, it is better to choose two, and get an intermediate option between them.

A professional is distinguished by the fact that he can foresee the result of his work, predict all possible problems. In addition, you need to be able to choose what will suit the client. For this, there is an approximate scheme with appearance color types and colors that will look good.

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