Color and It's Theory
by Matt Smith
Color and its theory are one of the most complex issues artists face. You practically need a P.H.D. to understand the science of how the eye translates and the brain processes color. That’s why my friend and fellow artist, Randy Dutra said, “For the artist, color is the final frontier.” (Because it’s so nuanced and complex.) With this in mind, I want to cover a few straightforward thoughts on what to consider.
“Ask your self is that the color I actually see or am I painting what I know? For instance, greens off in the distance are rarely green but our brains identify the distance as plants and plants are green.”
One of the issues we have as landscape painters is we’re often dealing with huge expanses of land under a very intense light source. We can’t duplicate that on a canvas, so we have to use the tools at hand to represent it. One of those tools is color. The more intense color becomes, the more it looks as though it’s influenced by a strong light source. The more it comes forward, the warmer the color becomes. Grey color recedes....as do cool colors. These are simple concepts, yes, but they are more complex than you may think. For example, when do you use a warm cool over a rich grey when painting the background? How about a neutral green over a warm blue to suggest the atmosphere? The truth is they can be very subjective. If they weren’t, everyone’s paintings would look the same from a color standpoint.
When laying your palette out consider the above points. Apply the colors of the prism (natural light) when selecting your palette. “ROY G BIV”. RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, INDIGO, VIOLET. (ROY G BIV downloadable below) Lay them out on your palette in that order as that’s the natural transition of color as it recedes while under natural light. Consider a warm and cool of each of the primaries and green so you can begin to think of light and shadow and foreground and background. This will force you to address these principles in a more thoughtful way. And, you’ll see it as you go because it’s right there in front of you.
Remember to consider the basic principles of color when fine-tuning your choices for your palette. Hue, value, intensity, and temperature. How can you expand those colors out (based on those four principles) so you have more room to work within? Be thoughtful about it. Base them on your choices rather than someone else’s. Base them on your needs and personal color preferences. Experiment and be willing to make changes to those initial choices as you gain experience.
You may LOVE color but keep in mind, too much color is no color. You must have those grays for the more saturated colors to sing. Those warms need to be there for the cools to read, just as the darks set the stage for the lighter notes. In other words, when you’re mixing your warms think about the cools. Rich color.....think about the grays. Consider mixing your grays with complements rather than starting with grays. You will learn more about color this way. Plus, you’ll have the advantage of celebrating broken color. Broken color is color that isn’t fully mixed so the eye averages that mixture (optical mixture). It makes for a much richer look. Consider ratios when you mix with complements. Avoid 50%/50% mixtures or the color will likely die on you. Instead, start with a 95%/5% mixture...or a 98%/2% mixture. It oftentimes doesn’t take much to do the job of neutralizing a particular color, so sneak up on it.
“You may LOVE color but keep in mind, too much color is no color. You must have those grays for the more saturated colors to sing”
Always ask your self is that the color I actually see or am I painting what I know (or think I know)? For instance, greens off in the distance are rarely green but our brains identify the distance as plants and plants are green. Keep your shadows cool in comparison to your lights. If you want to bring the reflected light up in a shadow, don’t discount the value of that shadow. Avoid the earth colors in the distance (except to grey other colors). Stay clean! Messiness creeps into every mixture you have and is a painting killer.
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