Understanding color space is the most important thing an artist can do.
A little bit of everything, by Carol L. Douglas. Thatâs the incredibly cool light of a midsummer day.
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Color is a word with radically different definitions depending on its use. In optics, it refers to
the unique way in which the cone cells in the human eye are stimulated by electromagnetic radiation. How an object reflects or emits light gives it its unique color.
In common parlance, we think of red, green or blue as colors. In art, however, those arenât colors. Colors have three attributes, all of which you must understand in order to navigate color space successfully:
Value â How light or dark is the pigment?
Hue â Where does the color sit on the color wheel? All colors fall into one of the following hue families: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. Within those families, however, are many subdivisions.
Chroma â How much intensity, or âpunchâ does the color have?
Doe drinking in the woods, by Carol L. Douglas, has warm light and cool shadows.
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Since color has three attributes, it exists in a three-dimensional color space. However, weâre used to looking at it in two dimensions, in the form of a color wheel. I think the Quiller watercolor wheel is the best color wheel, since it shows you where neutral pigments fall inside the hue families.
Still, the conventional color wheel doesnât take value into consideration. Every pigment has its own natural darkness or lightness. Dioxazine purple, for example, is very dark coming out of the tube. Lemon yellow is very light coming out of the tube. That does not mean that dark colors are cool and light colors are warm, however. Consider burnt umber. Itâs very dark, and itâs also very warm.
Winch (American Eagle),by Carol L. Douglas. There was definitely some warm light that winter day.
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Thereâs a misunderstanding that mixing across the color wheel darkens pigments. Only with certain greens and reds does this work. Mixing across the color wheel gives you neutrals: grays and browns.
We call the hue families of green, blue and violet âcoolâ and the hue families of yellow, orange and red âwarm.â Within each hue family, there are warm and cool variations. Gamblin has this nifty chart of warm and cool pigments so you can see where your paints fall.
White, black, and grey are chromatic neutrals. Raw umber is fairly neutral. Naphthol red and phthalo blue are very high-chroma colors. In general, modern pigments are much more intense than the mineral pigments of the Renaissance.
Cobequid Bay Farm, by Carol L. Douglas. Warm evening light translates to cool evening shadows.
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It works to sort colors this way. I use a system of paired primaries which gives me a great, high-key mixing range. However, the whole idea of warm-vs.-cool is a painterly convention. Itâs best to not have this discussion with a physicist, who will tell you that you have it backwards. He may be right, but that doesnât mean he can paint.
Iâve written about the color temperature of light here, but thereâs a simple rule that helps. The predominant shadows will always be the opposite (across the color wheel) from the color of the light. On a sunny day, the light will be cool and the shadows will be warm. At dusk the light will be golden and the shadows violet. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, but itâs a good place to start.
Breaking storm, by Carol L. Douglas, courtesy Camden Falls Gallery. Iâm potting around on this boat this week, teaching watercolor. Wish you were here!
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I strongly recommend this video from Gamblin, which organizes color space in three dimensions. Itâs also full of information about the history of color.
Thereâs no internet (and darn little cell phone service) out in Penobscot Bay. After this post, my blog is going dark for the week. Donât be alarmed! Assuming there are no pirates, Iâll be back next Monday.