When we observe the myriad colors of the natural world, we never think, Those colors just don’t look harmonious! Natural light and color never fails to be convincing. But how do painters, in the synthetic world of their two-dimensional paintings, maintain that same sense of harmony and color cohesion? How can they convey a mood, an atmospheric effect, or a particular color of light?
We begin by drawing from nature’s palette. We borrow her hues and value relationships, her temperatures and chromaticity. Yet, that is only a starting point. Inevitably, we discover that to achieve the effects we are after, we also have to modify colors in an informed way. We need to apply some kind of overarching plan to our color—a color strategy.
In this chapter, you will learn how a complete color strategy is made up of three types of color relationships: hue interactions, value contrasts, and relative saturation. We’ll analyze several paintings to see how each of these work to produce different harmonies, colors of light, and moods.
DEFINING THE COLOR STRATEGY
All landscape painters strive for harmony, that unmistakable sense that all the colors in the painting cohere and work well together. Harmony is typically defined as a “pleasing arrangement of colors forming a consistent whole.” The color strategy is the organizing principle through which we actually achieve “pleasing” and "harmonious."
A color strategy is a formula for color interactions, a collection of colors that relate in specific ways to produce a desired effect. Landscape painters rely on a strategy to help guide their color choices and ensure that they form landscape-like harmonies.
A color strategy seeks to answer the landscape painter’s eternal question: what particular colors, interacting in what specific ways, will be able to convey a mood, a time of day, or a particular color of light?
CONTRAST: THE ANIMATING FORCE OF THE COLOR STRATEGY
Contrast of color—or the differences between colors—is the animating force of the color strategy. Whether those differences are subtle or great, they give life to our color relationships and to our paintings. Are hues similar and related or do they contrast? Are the values closely related or is the contrast strong? Are the colors saturated and intense, or are they neutral and gray-like? Or a combination of both?
In the artificial world of our paintings, contrast of color is the means at our disposal for making our colors interact in ways that simulate the effects of natural light.
DEFINING STRATEGY IN TERMS OF HUE, VALUE, AND SATURATION
When painters talk about “color strategies,” they are usually referring to the color relationships found on the standard 12-step color wheel: monochromatic, analogous, complementary, split-complementary, and triadic. More precisely, these relationships refer to hue interactions. They define the ways different hue families interact with one another.
As vital as hue interactions are, they do not form a complete strategy on their own. A complete strategy also involves two other essential aspects of color—value contrasts and relative saturation.
These aspects of contrast act as the levers that control the overall strategy. When delicately balanced, they are responsible for every moment of color magic ever produced on paper or canvas. Controlling these relationships allows us to bend color to our will and produce the effects we are after.
ASPECT OF COLOR CONTRAST: HUE INTERACTIONS
WHY HUE INTERACTIONS MATTER
The first aspect of color contrast is the hue interaction. These are the standard relationships we are familiar with from the color wheel. They define how different hue families interact with one another and are largely responsible for the forces of attraction and opposition we find among colors. Are the colors closely related, with tight bonds, as they are in analogous harmony? Or do the colors differ from each other as in complementary relationships?
HUE INTERACTIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF SIMILARITY OR DIFFERENCES
Painters often think of hue interactions as all there is to a color strategy, without considering any other aspects of color. They will say, This is analogous harmony or This is a complementary relationship. In fact, a painting is often a complex blend of different types of hue interactions. We see this in Brent Cotton’s When Days Are Short (here). There is a strong analogous harmony at work. Yet, there is also a small complementary accent. Does this make it a complementary painting? Or is it analogous? In fact, it is both. For this reason, it is also helpful to think about hue interactions in terms of similarity or differences.
Identifying a hue interaction by name (analogous, complementary, etc.) is helpful, but not as important as recognizing whether that interaction is based on similarity or differences.
HUE INTERACTIONS BASED ON SIMILARITY
MONOCHROMATIC
ANALOGOUS
Monochromatic and analogous are hue interactions based on similarity. Both form very cohesive and unified harmonies because their colors are so related.
HUE INTERACTIONS BASED ON DIFFERENCES
SPLIT- COMPLEMENTARY
COMPLEMENTARY
TRIADIC
Split-complementary, complementary, and triadic are interactions that rely on the differences between hues. They also create harmonies, but do so through contrast and opposition.
THE POWER OF ONE: MONOCHROMATIC
THE POWER OF LIGHT AND DARK
THE POWER OF KINSHIP: ANALOGOUS HARMONY
ANALOGOUS HARMONY WITH CONTRASTING ACCENT
THE POWER OF OPPOSITES: COMPLEMENTS
If harmony implies an agreeable relationship among colors, then how can a pair of complements, with innate opposition and vibration, be considered harmonious? Because colors that vibrate aren’t necessarily disharmonious. In fact, most painters find this type of hue interaction desirable. It creates a type of contrast that can simulate the brilliance of light through color. Complementary colors are the most potent type of hue interaction.
ASPECT OF COLOR CONTRAST: VALUE
WHY CONTRAST OF VALUE MATTERS
Value is the second form of contrast involved in the color strategy. As we saw in chapter 1, value is the relative lightness or darkness of a color. Its importance cannot be overstated. It is largely responsible for conveying a sense of light, depth, and volume. Painters often think of value as working independently of color. In fact, color and value are dynamically interrelated.
The value of a color has a direct effect on the expression of that color’s chromatic identity. How light or dark a color is will affect how much we can perceive the color as actual color.
By adjusting the relative value of colors, painters are able to suggest light in different ways. Some painters rely on strong value contrasts, so much so that the hue itself plays a secondary role. This is called value-priority. Other painters flip the balance between color and value with a color-priority approach. By keeping values more in the midrange and increasing their saturation, color contrasts can do more of the work in suggesting light. Painters can also cleverly combine both approaches.
VALUE-PRIORITY
COLOR-PRIORITY
ASPECT OF COLOR CONTRAST: SATURATION
WHY COLOR SATURATION MATTERS
Color saturation is the third aspect of contrast at work within the color strategy. When discussing saturation, painters are typically referring to the overall color saturation of the painting. For example, the colors in an Impressionist painting will have greater overall saturation than, say, a Tonalist painting, which works with less saturated colors. This is one reason why saturation plays such an important role in setting the emotional tone of a painting. An Impressionist painting, with its lighter-valued and more saturated colors, can fill us with joy; a Tonalist painting, with its darker tonalities and neutral harmonies, can invoke a contemplative mood.
Of course, individual colors within a painting may also vary in saturation. Without varying saturation levels, our color relationships would be one-dimensional. Every color would be the same pitch.
Because color has such emotional resonance with us, there is often a preference toward saturated colors. Yet, these bright colors are just one aspect of a fully balanced palette. Less saturated colors are another dimension and serve as a necessary counterpoint to saturated colors.
BALANCING SATURATED COLOR WITH NEUTRALS
SATURATED COLOR AND RICH DARKS
THE HARMONY OF NEUTRALS
If the goal of a color strategy is to help build color unity, then low saturation or neutral palettes may be considered one of the most effective means of achieving that harmony. Neutral colors have a special power—they naturally agree with other neutral colors.
An absolute neutral would be a perfect gray, with no color bias at all. As painters make the colors in their paintings increasingly neutral, the colors begin to harmonize through a common association to neutral gray. This is beautifully implemented in David Curtis’ painting on this page.
Neutral colors cast a spell of binding. Hues that might otherwise clash in a saturated color field are calmed down when neutralized and better able to agree with each other.
CONSIDER: A neutral harmony does not mean the absence of color. Although neutrals don’t shout as loudly as saturated colors do—they prefer to whisper—they are more than capable of forming harmonious relationships. As the paintings by Renato Muccillo and David Curtis in the following pages show, neutral colors are also beautiful colors.
DISPARATE COLORS BROUGHT INTO HARMONY THROUGH NEUTRALS
THE NEUTRAL HARMONIES OF TONALISM
Renato Muccillo, Valley Fires II Oil on panel, 8" × 6" | 20.5 × 15 cm
HUE INTERACTION: SIMILARITY VALUE CONTRAST: LOW / MEDIUM / HIGH SATURATION: LOW / MEDIUM / HIGH
Renato Muccillo works in the contemporary Tonalist tradition. Tonalist painters rarely dip into saturated colors; instead, their palettes are laden with earth tones and neutral colors. When the harmony produced by neutral colors is used in combination with strong value contrasts, it’s a prescription for both dramatic and unified light. Muccillo’s tonalist palette includes just four colors plus white: NAPLES YELLOW, SAP GREEN, TRANSPARENT RED OXIDE, and ULTRAMARINE BLUE. The use of so few colors (a limited palette) also supports the formation of unified harmonies.
REVIEW QUESTIONS: THE COMPLETE COLOR STRATEGY
When developing a strategy, are you remembering that the strategy isn’t only about hue interactions (e.g., complementary, analogous, etc.)?
A complete strategy also involves value contrasts and relative color saturation. How do these affect the overall color composition?
What hue interactions are at work in the subject?
Hue interactions are responsible for the forces of attraction and opposition among colors. Are the hue interactions based primarily on colors that are very related or colors that that differ widely? Or a combination of both? Is there more than one type of hue interaction at play?
Are you taking advantage of temperature differences or building all-warm or all-cool strategies?
Cool versus warm is an important aspect of color contrast. Temperature differences add variety to the color tapestry.
How do the value contrasts affect the overall color impression?
Are the value contrasts very strong? Or are the values very close? How does a color’s value affect the expression of that color’s chromatic identity? How light or dark a color is will affect how much we can perceive the color as actual color.
What are the saturation levels of the colors?
Are there lots of bright and saturated colors? Is the overall strategy based on neutral harmonies? Or a combination of both? How does the saturation level of the colors affect the illusion of unified light? Where might you need to increase or decrease the saturation?
Are you following the colors you see in the subject too closely?
The success of a color strategy is not measured by how well it matches the original scene, but by how well the painting works as a painting. The color you see in the subject is only a starting point. You can depart from what you see in nature (or the photo) in service to the painting.
EXERCISE: ONE SUBJECT, DIFFERENT STRATEGIES
OVERVIEW: There is no better way to experience the potential range of the color strategy than to paint the same subject using different strategies. You may not have a set of photos of the same subject with distinct color harmonies, which means you might have to be inventive with your color choices or even borrow strategies from other paintings. A color strategy is mutable and flexible; you can make almost any color scheme work as long as the color is convincing in the context of the painting. (See “Convincing Color, Believable Color”.)
TEMPERATURE, AN ASPECT OF HUE INTERACTION
Temperature describes the “warm” or “cool” attributes of colors and is considered a form of color contrast. Temperature differences may be subtle, as they are in the yellow/green pairing, or they can be strong, as in the yellow-orange/blue-violet pairing. Temperature differences are an important way painters add variation to the color tapestry. Each of the hue interactions also reflect temperature differences.
CONSIDER: Temperature is a relative measure. A color is never cool or warm on its own. A “cool” color is only cool when placed alongside a warmer color. And a “warm” color is only warm when placed alongside a cooler color.
EXERCISE: COLOR- AND VALUE-PRIORITY, SIDE BY SIDE
OVERVIEW: One of the most essential lessons every colorist needs to learn is this: how does the value of a color affect how much we can perceive the color as actual color? (See “Why Contrast of Value Matters”). In this exercise, you will do two paintings of the same or a similar subject. In one, you will use a value-priority approach; in the other, a color-priority approach. This is a demanding exercise. You have to be willing to make changes to the colors you see, whether you are working from life or a photo. Kim English, a master at conveying light in the urban setting, demonstrates.