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The picture looks like secondary, tertiary and some beyond- with tints (add white) and tones (add the complementry).
I like the colors use in the image.
Some people have an eye for color and don't give it much thought when they put colors together.
Sometimes artists will purposefully use a limited palette. Choosing three colors and only use those and anything that those mixed together would make.
It's a common mistake to add black to darken a color. If one is painting an image of a blue door and there is a shadow cast across it, the blue where the shadow is, is darkened by adding a small amount of orange.
Are tones what my friend calls "shades"? What I think of as how dark it is? There is also a "flatness" to those colors. Some colors are bold. They jump out at you. Those colors do the opposite. Noisy as the theme is, the pictures is not noisy because of how they did the colors.
So, as a rule, you avoid adding black to a color? Adding orange to blue will darken it as it is in that picture?
'Shade' when it comes to color is really non-specific and is for the layman.
'That's a lovely shade of green' - which is any green, could have white added, could have some blue added.
When taking about variations of the same color, it is tints and tones and then the value of those tints and tones. Value is how light OR dark the color may be.
In the image you linked to, in the background there is a 'shade' of red-orange at the bottom of a 'row' of the same color that gets lighter in value. The artist could have gone the other way and made each shape darker.
Do you have any paints? It's fun to play and helps in understanding how it all works.
Choose a pair of complementry colors and white; do a swatch of one and do a swatch of another (about a 6 inch square). Next add a small amount of one color (or just white) to a bit of the other color- don't add it to your main color supply, start a new 'pool'. Mix a number of batches of different quantities of each color. Once they dry, cut out 1.5 or 2 inch squares form all the swatches and play with them, rearrange them and such until you have an arrangement you like. Then glue it down.
Ill get a picture up of one I did....brb.
Oh yeah- and yes, avoid adding black. Black is actually all colors together so in essence when you have red and add black, you are adding more red, and blue and yellow.
'Shade' when it comes to color is really non-specific and is for the layman.
'That's a lovely shade of green' - which is any green, could have white added, could have some blue added.
When taking about variations of the same color, it is tints and tones and then the value of those tints and tones. Value is how light OR dark the color may be.
In the image you linked to, in the background there is a 'shade' of red-orange at the bottom of a 'row' of the same color that gets lighter in value. The artist could have gone the other way and made each shape darker.
Do you have any paints? It's fun to play and helps in understanding how it all works.
Choose a pair of complementry colors and white; do a swatch of one and do a swatch of another (about a 6 inch square). Next add a small amount of one color (or just white) to a bit of the other color- don't add it to your main color supply, start a new 'pool'. Mix a number of batches of different quantities of each color. Once they dry, cut out 1.5 or 2 inch squares form all the swatches and play with them, rearrange them and such until you have an arrangement you like. Then glue it down.
Ill get a picture up of one I did....brb.
I've never tried it myself. I just study what others with talent have done and ask the old question "How did you do that?" Sometimes, with paintings, I ask "why?" Art appreciation, perhaps? Maybe I'll try some. Thanks.
Oh yeah- and yes, avoid adding black. Black is actually all colors together so in essence when you have red and add black, you are adding more red, and blue and yellow.
Here is the image I said I would post.
Thanks. Are they water colors? They look like it. There is another thread here I want to look at. It shows works some of you have done. Haven't gotten there yet.
Another way to know the complement of red, or other colors. Stare at something red, then shut your eyes and blink... Green will appear in same shape as the red you were staring at.
Another way to know the complement of red, or other colors. Stare at something red, then shut your eyes and blink... Green will appear in same shape as the red you were staring at.
Hmmm? I have a book called "Color in Art". It is divided into sections, one section to each color as chosen by the author. Why he chose what he chose (including black), I know not. However, the first section is about red. The first two pages are a very bold read with the introduction printed atop that. He only did this to the red for some reason. On all his others, he made a separate page of lighter color for the introduction.
Nevermind all that. I cannot read that introduction on the red at all. Do you suppose, if I stare at it long enough, it will turn a green that I can read.
Nah! No matter. We used to do what you suggest with black and white images. I shall try it with other colors and see what happens. Sounds like fun.
As mentioned earlier, the simple explanation is that a color's complement is it's opposite. Opposites on the color wheel are very useful for several reasons. A painter can juxtapose complements and find that they enhance each other. Yellow looks more brilliant yellow against a violet and vice versa. But, on the other hand, of they are mixed they dull each other out. Think of it this way, as a professor I had in college once explained - Colors, pigment colors, are all impure. There is no such thing as a pure pigment. Even the primaries in pigment (red, blue, yellow), always lean toward one or the other. EG: Red is never pure red, it is either a bluish red, or a yellowish red. To see what I mean, take two red objects and hold them up next to each other. In light, color can be pure, and mixing all 3 primaries (magenta, cyan, green - I think?), will end up with white light - they cancel each other out. In theory, that is what complements are trying to do when they mix...cancel each other out.
If red, blue, and yellow were pure, in theory the mixture in balance would end up negating all visual color. This ideal concept my professor dubbed "The black hole of color." But, since there is no purity in pigment - we get dulled color and eventually mud if not mixed with care.
All complementary pairs have some mixture of the three primaries - take the basics Red/Green is Red/Blue &Yellow. Orange/Blue is Yellow & Red/Blue. And deeper using the tertiaries - the Blue Green/Red Orange pairing is also a combination of the three primaries on either side. A warm always pairs with a cool - fire and ice in a way.
There are so many subtleties to color one could think about and experiment with it for years and never lack for revelation.
As mentioned earlier, the simple explanation is that a color's complement is it's opposite. Opposites on the color wheel are very useful for several reasons. A painter can juxtapose complements and find that they enhance each other. Yellow looks more brilliant yellow against a violet and vice versa. But, on the other hand, of they are mixed they dull each other out. Think of it this way, as a professor I had in college once explained - Colors, pigment colors, are all impure. There is no such thing as a pure pigment. Even the primaries in pigment (red, blue, yellow), always lean toward one or the other. EG: Red is never pure red, it is either a bluish red, or a yellowish red. To see what I mean, take two red objects and hold them up next to each other. In light, color can be pure, and mixing all 3 primaries (magenta, cyan, green - I think?), will end up with white light - they cancel each other out. In theory, that is what complements are trying to do when they mix...cancel each other out.
If red, blue, and yellow were pure, in theory the mixture in balance would end up negating all visual color. This ideal concept my professor dubbed "The black hole of color." But, since there is no purity in pigment - we get dulled color and eventually mud if not mixed with care.
All complementary pairs have some mixture of the three primaries - take the basics Red/Green is Red/Blue &Yellow. Orange/Blue is Yellow & Red/Blue. And deeper using the tertiaries - the Blue Green/Red Orange pairing is also a combination of the three primaries on either side. A warm always pairs with a cool - fire and ice in a way.
There are so many subtleties to color one could think about and experiment with it for years and never lack for revelation.
It's great to be an artist.
A great explanation. (And I also didn't want to sound nitpicky, but wanted to correct all the people writing "complimentary"... I see at least one poster has already done so.)
I personally really like blue juxtaposed against orange, but that is subjective... complementary colors don't necessarily "go together," but when set against each other, enhance one another. Each color will appear more vivid next to its complement. Red and Green may "clash" (although I'm not so sure that they "clash" as much as we all just have too many Christmas associations with those colors.) But each enhances the other. When mixed, you get a duller color. Knowing complements is a great way to understand how to darken or dull a color without adding black, which tends to muddy things.
I personally never bothered with studying full color theory, despite having a degree in art. (I have a bachelors degree from a liberal arts college, not a BFA, which is probably how I did not need to take a color theory class.) I think it can be extremely important for some painting styles/techniques (such as Old Master-style oil painting with many layers of glaze) but less important for others. But basic color theory is extremely important for everyone.
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