How Chinese Colour Theory Changed My Art Forever (the truth)

A video months in the making. We’ve all been told to follow colour wheels, complementary pairs, and “rules” that promise perfect palettes. But what if those ideas are holding you back?

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0:00 Intro
0:28 Qi Yun
3:27 Sui Lei Fu Ca
5:40 Hui Se Xi

In this video, I’ll break down how Chinese artists approach colour theory in a completely different way, focusing on emotion, energy, and story rather than hue matching.

Whether you paint in Photoshop, Procreate, or Clip Studio, this will completely change the way you think about colour and storytelling.

If this helped you see colour differently, drop a like, comment your favourite insight, and share it with a friend who’s stuck in the colour theory trap.
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And of course, it’s not that complimentary colours etc is completely useless, it’s just that it feels like most education available here on colour theory just solely focuses on aspects, and don’t end up discussing the other concepts discussed in this video!

And yes of course there’s western artists that use these concepts as well, the point of this video is just to share some things I learned whilst studying Chinese artists to hopefully help some other beginner/intermediate artists out 🫶

Artists featured: WLOP, Wenjun Lin (thumbnail), Tppo (editing inspo), Chen.l, Ruohung, 玖酒Ritsuki, Minli, Guweiz, Dongjing, 摔饺的跟头, 人虫虫春一, Sam Yang, Kalliopi Lyviaki, Loish, 龙樱RyoSaku主页, Ahmed Aldoori, Kelogsloops, 犬薇深夜制糖厂, Ilya Kuvshinov, Marco Nelor,
叶不羞羞羞羞羞羞, Cynixy, Dayia

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