Make your Paintings POP!

To continue with our week-long look at color, I thought that we'd see today how to use color to make your paintings POP!

In yesterday's post, I talked about how you can use color to unify your work. Although there are ways to both unify and still "pop" with color, and I advocate doing both, today we will explore the pop factor.

I am not talking about pop-art, but instead about how to play certain colors off one another to make a visual impact with your work.

In the example above, a photo of my dog that I manipulated and digitally painted, I changed her reddish brown color to a yellow orange, and then used an aqua and blue combination for the background. I did this because yellow-orange and aqua (marked with red dots on the wheel below) are opposites on the color wheel- complementary colors- which tend to look really dynamic when used together in the same painting. You can see that I also marked the blue and yellow that are shown across from each other as well. I also used them in the same piece.

How about trying out a small painting utilizing color opposites on the wheel to give it a dynamic punch?! Choose any two colors directly acroos from each other on the wheel and use them as your main choices. Let me see what you come up with!

Unify with Color

This week, we are talking about color and it's power in our artwork. Let's focus today on how we, as artists, can use color to unify our work and make it great!

I believe that there are three ways that we can use color to unify a painting:
1. To use an analogous (or similar) color scheme throughout the painting
2. To work with a limited palette so that your mixtures of colors are all related
throughout.
3. To use each new color in many places in the painting to keep it working as a
whole.

Let's look at examples of these concepts in action!

First, take a look back to the color wheel that we all grew up with, shown above.

I mentioned yesterday that you might want to consider Don Jusco's color wheel as a better model for paints and mixing, but for general use in relating colors to one another, we will use the standard 12-color wheel that we are all familiar with.

If you choose colors within 3-5 positions from each other on the 12 color wheel, you will end up with an analogous color scheme, and it will look great- just like magic!

A twelve color wheel includes the primary colors- blue, yellow and red, their mixes (or secondary colors)- green, purple and orange, and the colors mixed by the secondary colors (called tertiary colors)- blue green (aqua), yellow green (lime), blue purple (violet), red purple (magenta), yellow orange and red orange.

Here's an example of one of my photos, which falls into the analogous color scheme, since it uses yellow orange, yellow, yellow green and green- colors within four spaces of each other on the 12 color wheel. Do you see how it all looks harmonious? No great secret. I just exploited the analogous color scheme that nature provided and I photographed!


Now, let's look at two examples of a limited palette in action. In the first example, not only is the palette limited to three colors, it is also nearly monochromatic. In the second example, linked here, notice how the artist got a full range of colors out of only three watercolor paints and the white of the paper. In contrast to her cool three-color palette, my painting below uses a warm earthy palette of burnt sienna for the red, yellow ochre for the yellow, and ultramarine blue (fairly neutral) for the blue, which was only used to mix with the burnt sienna to make a dark neutral shade, and not used as a blue on its own.

Finally let's look at one last example, to illustrate how to use color throughout a painting to unify it. The idea behind this concept is that when a new color is added, you use it in many places in the painting, so it looks as though it has a purpose. Notice in my acrylic painting below, titled Dutch Pollarded Willows, I have used yellow in the horizon line, in the grass, in the trees in the road and even in the sky.

Today, try a small painting using one of these principles or combine ideas to create a unified painting of your own. Do a little watercolor sketch or an acrylic quickie right in your sketchbook, and note how it compares to other work you've done. Give it a try- I think you'll like it.

Jump on the Color Wheel

Let's assume that you are all pretty familiar with what is known as "the color wheel" in art. Although you may understand the idea of the relationships between the colors, do you fully understand how you can use the relationships to your advantage when painting?

There are many versions of the color wheel, and lots of controversy seems to crop up about which is best to use. Sir Isaac Newton is credited with coming up with the first version of the color wheel, when he identified six beams of color in light, and then looped the ends together to show that the system was complete- a circle.

But Sir Newton was talking about LIGHT and we need to know how it all works with PAINT (or pigment). If you want to be as smart as Sir Isaac Newton, you can read up on all the theory that is out there on color and decide for yourself. But I'm guessing that you'd rather just paint instead, so I'll try to give you an idea of a few of the main schools of thought on which color wheels work best, and link to more info, if you'd like to read more, and you can choose a color wheel to use when mixing your paints.

Here is a lot of information on the color wheel from the excellent artists' website Handprint.com. If you read through even a little of the information, you will see that it is the opinion of the author or authors of that site that there are huge problems with the color wheel that most of us are familiar with (You know, the one with red, blue and yellow as the primary colors). The Handprint site is concerned primarily with watercolors, so keep in mind that the white of the paper is used as white in examples on other pages there that you may explore.

There is some additional information here and here on other ideas about color and color theory.

But perhaps the best look at how a modified color wheel can be used with the paints that we use as artists today is a color wheel that has been designed by an artist named Don Jusco. He makes his color wheel available as a free download here, if you'd like to try it out. Basically, the colors have been moved around, so that when you mix a color with its complement- the color directly across from it on the wheel- the result will be a neutral gray or black. In the popular version of the color wheel we all grew up with, when you mixed complements (yellow with purple or red with green), a mucky, yucky brown was generally the result. On this page, another from his site, here is a comparison of many of the different color wheels in easy-to-read language.

Today, why don't you try a small painting using Don Jusco's color wheel as the basis, and see if it helps you? In the last link before this sentence, he talks about making the shadows on a red tomato, by mixing cyan with the red. I know it sounds weird, but try it! Do a little painting with something red, and see if you don't get much better neutrals by mixing a cyan-like color with the red than the traditional opposite or red- green.

Share your results with us!

Weekly Theme-The Power of Color

How can you use color more effectively in your art to get a feeling across, make a statement or to guide people to look at specific places in your pieces?
This is what we are going to take a look at together this week- the power of color.

Whether you are an accomplished artist or one just starting out, everyone can benefit from a review on how to master the use of color better.

We all know the basics (recite this in a monotonous tone of voice with me): "There is a color wheel." "Red, blue and yellow are the primary colors.".....


But learning to work beyond the color wheel, with it as the core, will make your work sing, and put YOU in charge of what you want to get across in your work. There is no monotony on learning how to do this!

This week, we will take a look at the color wheel, understanding that there are many spin-offs and revised color wheels and systems, created by people who have studied the way color works, and artists who have used and modified them.

We will also see how color can work to unify a painting, both in the types of colors used together, and how and where you apply them.

We will look at setting up a personal color palette, and the idea of working with a limited palette, which tends to unify your work. We will also look at how color can create excitement in your paintings, and direct viewers on where to look.

Each day, I promise I won't give you a "blah, blah, blah" lesson on color. I will try to use my witty and charming repartee' (ha!), and give you examples of what I'm talking about, as well as links to other stuff on the net that you might want to check out about color. I'll also throw out a fun idea related to what we talked about every day for you to try on your art journal or on canvas or paper- something quick- to illustrate the lesson.

Come along with me this week, and learn how to use the power of color to make your work even greater!