"Colors are like jewels: each should be placed as carefully as a precious gem in a setting." Jean Dobie
An effective setting of color will make your color glow but the setting must be subtle and not overpower the jewel color you have chosen.
If all your colors in a painting are 'beautiful', if they all have intensity and are trying to be center stage the viewer's eye will be overwhelmed by the confusion created by competing colors.
How then to make a jewel setting for your 'exquisite' color? Through the use of grayed colors and neutrals. Once you understand how these neutral grays interact with your intense colors, you will begin to create settings for your more intense jewels.
Here is an exercise to try that will show you this principle:
Mix a perfect gray that is neither too warm nor too cool. A good mix of yellow, blue, and red should achieve this. You might have to add a little more of one of the colors and then another but eventually you should be able to make a completely neutral gray.
Now add a bit of blue to make the mix more cool. Paint a square leaving the center open. Do the same procedure adding more red, then yellow to each.
Lets talk a bit about graying color. Do you need to have only one color with lots of grays? Not at all. In the picture above, it appears to be full of lots of color. However, if you look closely, almost all the colors are grayed just a bit. This is done by adding a complement or a near complement to the color you are working with. Only the red-orange is full intensity.
An effective setting of color will make your color glow but the setting must be subtle and not overpower the jewel color you have chosen.
If all your colors in a painting are 'beautiful', if they all have intensity and are trying to be center stage the viewer's eye will be overwhelmed by the confusion created by competing colors.
How then to make a jewel setting for your 'exquisite' color? Through the use of grayed colors and neutrals. Once you understand how these neutral grays interact with your intense colors, you will begin to create settings for your more intense jewels.
Here is an exercise to try that will show you this principle:
Mix a perfect gray that is neither too warm nor too cool. A good mix of yellow, blue, and red should achieve this. You might have to add a little more of one of the colors and then another but eventually you should be able to make a completely neutral gray.
Now add a bit of blue to make the mix more cool. Paint a square leaving the center open. Do the same procedure adding more red, then yellow to each.
Lets talk a bit about graying color. Do you need to have only one color with lots of grays? Not at all. In the picture above, it appears to be full of lots of color. However, if you look closely, almost all the colors are grayed just a bit. This is done by adding a complement or a near complement to the color you are working with. Only the red-orange is full intensity.
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