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Contrasting Color

2/16/2014

For the last three weeks we have been looking at how the artist can use color to make statements more powerful by using contrasts.

These include the interplay of complementary color, warm and cools, color values, and intensity.

Let's just take one quick look at each of these::

Complementary colors when placed next to each other cause the eye to center on the place where they meet. Using a great deal of one color and adding a small amount of the complement will help direct your viewer to the place you find most interesting.

Warm and cool colors, when played against each other create interest within the picture. Once again, a large amount of one temperature with a contrasting area of its opposing temperature will draw the eye.

Color values contrast in the same way that black and white do.

An intense color - from the outside of the color wheel - will interplay with gray or neutralized colors to direct to the point of interest.

This week we will begin by creating a color scheme for your next painting. Color schemes help organize your work so it flows together and you don't become lost in your painting. Often we work adding color to our work and at some point become lost without knowing exactly where to go next. Having a scheme will help eliminate this.

This doesn't mean that you are locked into what you originally planned. But it will serve as a map that will help direct you to where you are going next.

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Warm and Cool

2/9/2014

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What are warm and cool colors?

On the color wheel the dividing point is a line from red violet to yellow green. The colors on the reddish side are warm and the colors on the greenish side are cool Sometimes this is expressed by saying that warm colors are found in fire while cool are found in water and sky. Red violet and Yellow Green can be either warm or cool dependent upon the colors around them. from Stephen Quiller.

      Warm colors advance and cool colors recede. This allows the artist to express depth by cooling the colors as the landscape moves away from the eye.

      Warm and cool may also be used to show form. Colors that are nearer the source of light - assuming that light is akin to the sun - are lighter but also warmer while colors in shadow are not only darker but also cooler. Manipulating the color of an object will help you express the form of an object.

     Then, just to make things more interesting, each color can be either warm or cool dependent upon the colors next to it.   So a purple which is normally classed as a cool color is warmer than a phalo blue which is warmer than a turquoise blue.    Likewise, a yellow is warm but when placed next to an orange, it is cooler. So colors are relative according to their neighbors.

    A good exercise to train your eye is to take all the reds you have on your palette and make swatches. or you can try mixing several reds. Cut these out and arrange them according to which are warmer and which cooler.

   And if we want to make things even more fun - we can substitute colors with others that are cooler or warmer and in the same value.   For example we might add a pale peach on a green pear to show where the sun touches it. Or a dark turquoise on areas in shadow.

There are two ways we might use this information to make our paintings more effective.

    We've seen how contrasts help make our work more interesting to the viewer. So the artist may dance between warm and cool to create contrast, establish rhythm, and show point of interest.

    Or the artist may choose either warm or cool colors to express a mood. Generally cool colors are more peaceful while warm are more exciting.

Another good exercise is to make two small paintings of the same object. Paint one in all cool colors and the either in all warm. Compare the two to see the difference in mood.    Then paint the subject using both.   Which is more effective to what you are trying to tell the viewer?

   The more you work with this concept the more your eye will begin to see the way nature uses color temperature and the better able you will be to see the difference in color swatches and be able to make selections from them.

Somerset Autumn pastel on paper

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Moving on to Complements

2/3/2014

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So I'm hoping at this point you have discovered that a color has a 'family' of an endless number of 'colors'.

When we look at a color wheel, we can see that one color - in this case let's use Blue - has a wedge of colors that we can still call 'Blue'. It reminds me of when I was a child, one of my greatest possessions was a box of 64 crayons. At that time there weren't creative names for the color but a concrete representation of what the color really was. Actually it was an early education in color theory. There was the color Blue, then Blue Blue violet, then Blue Violet, then on the other side , Blue Green and Blue blue green. In other words, the color Blue extended from where the Blue met the Violet on one side and where it intersected with the color Green on the other.

     But the color family also extends as far as to the point where it meets its complement. In blue's case - orange. And when there is an equal amount of blue and an equal amount of orange there should be 'gray'. I say, should be, because there are variations in pigment, brands, and so on. But any true color plus its true complement should produce gray.   Also there are steps of color between the true hue and central gray - called neutrals and looking much like brown or earth tones.

     Finally any of the colors in the wedge may be changed by adding either black or white, making them darker or lighter. In the case of watercolor - the light would be either more water or gauche. And the dark something like a neutral tint or addition of a darker color.

     That said, there is a wedge created of colors that all could be labeled 'blue'. We'll be talking more of why that is important in class. But it gives the artist a good tool to use in choosing color to express themselves.

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Contrasting Color

Warm and Cool

Moving on to Complements

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