[_zaphod_]

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 at Conceptart.org

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

[Mikko K]

Not sure if I can be of any help to you but I'll try.