Enhancing Color Harmony
from Eric Jacobsen
Color harmony is an essential part of painting, but it’s often overlooked. People focus a lot on design, light and dark values, and warm versus cool colors, but using complementary colors is just as important. If a painting has a dominant color—like a bright blue sky—it helps to include its complement to create balance. For example, blue works well with touches of orange, and green benefits from the presence of red. This contrast makes the painting more visually appealing because our eyes naturally look for balance. Since this balance isn’t always present in a scene, it’s up to the artist to create it.
Being outside and learning to see complementary colors is an exciting experience. Once you start paying attention, you'll notice them everywhere. In the painting above, Eric used mostly blue tones and balanced them with shades of orange. The deep blue sky stands out, while the warm orange trees in front create a nice contrast. In real life, the trees were yellow, but Eric chose to make them more orange instead. This small change makes the colors work together because orange complements blue more than bright yellow does.
“Since this balance isn’t always present in a scene, it’s up to the artist to create it.”
Eric reminds us that we shouldn’t hesitate to adjust a color if it enhances the painting and strengthens color harmony. A slight shift in tone can make a significant impact, and being open to these adjustments often leads to more successful results.
Study the world of color, composition, and technique as Eric shares his wealth of knowledge and experience through his video series or mentoring course: