Colours are FRIENDS with their neighbours and LOVERS of their opposites.
Using colours effectively can lift a mediocre painting to new heights.
Colour is relative and strongly influenced by its surroundings. It’s useful to learn which colours work most effectively next to each other.
There are age-old recipes that just WORK!
For this reason, I encourage everyone to do this exercise at least once:
PLAN A THEME AND MAKE FOUR SMALL PAINTINGS USING ONLY
burnt sienna + ultramarine blue+ white
orange + any blue +white (eg. cadmium orange + cerulean blue )
purple + yellow +white ( eg. cadmium yellow+ deep purple) or ( yellow ochre + magenta)
red + green+ white (eg. cadmium red + sap green) or (viridian green + alizarin red)
These are lovely examples by students, Fiona, Suzanne, JP, and Alice.
Start by mixing the darkest dark you can with what’s available, and then adjust all the tonal values in the painting accordingly. If you’re tempted to sneak in a black, don’t, it will scream like a false note in a perfect choir!
This exercise aims to help you think in terms of
‘WARM’ VS ‘COOL’
‘LIGHT’ VS ‘DARK’
‘SATURATED COLOUR’ VS ‘ MUTED COLOUR’.
Here is a quick run-through of colour basics:
Red, Yellow, and Blue form the Primary Colours. Primary Colours can not be mixed with other colours.
The secondary colours are Orange, Green, and Purple. These are made by combining primary colours.
Colours that are opposite from each other on the colour wheel are called complementary colours.
As opposites on the colour wheel, Primary colours are "in love" with the Secondary colours!
We now have six colour groups which form the general basis of our colour wheel. Each colour has a neighbor, and each has an opposite.
From the above wheel you will see that:
- Red is neighbors with Orange and Purple, and opposite of Green.
- Yellow is neighbors with Orange and Green, and opposite of Purple
- Blue is neighbors with Green and Purple, and opposite of Orange
These lovely examples done by former student, Gerrie Knipe, and show how effectively complementary colours work together: each panting was only painted with the different complementary pairs and white.
On using complementary colours:
- Due to the vivid contrast between the colours, two complementary colours will activate each other on a canvas. This can even go as far as creating a shimmering effect
- By using an object’s colour’s complement in its shading, the object will be highlighted as its colour is pushed to the limit ( eg: When painting a red apple, use green in the shadow.)
Colour Schemes
-Using complementary colours side by side is a dynamic way of creating a focus point
-Using neighbor colours (Analogous) will ensure harmony in your work
- When mixing complementary colours, a wide range of greys – and also developing from this: browns – can be created. Mix in white to create a neutral beige.
Here are examples from some of my students, Elmarie, Tersia, Rina, Ann, and Andy. It is important to note that complementary colours stay effective even when you are using different shades of primary /secondary colours.
The first column depicts shades of purple and yellow, the second column red and green, then blue and orange, and the last column is an added exercise in ‘Old Master Winning Recipe’ of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna (which is an earthy complementary mix of blue and orange! That’s why they look so similar on this chart)
These Proteas painted by Natalie are a good example to show how colour has tonal value and if if you use them correctly you’ll see it easily when you convert your photo on your phone to monochrome. This is also a good tool to check if you’re still judging your colour correctly.
THERE IS SO MUCH TO LEARN FROM THIS EXERCISE!
Try it, and if you do, send images. I would love to see what you’ve done!