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Color and the anatomy of a painting

Color is an amazing thing. It is one of the major elements of a picture. If color is off, the result is less than pleasant. There are many ways to go with color.  It is useful to study color theory and the science of color to deepen your understanding.

Using complementary colors

Here is a painting called Fern Lake, eastern Sierra. I have used pairs of complements, red-orange and blue-violet, yellow-green and red-violet, along with tints and shades of those pairs. Complements are opposite each other on the color wheel and always contain all of the primary colors; red, yellow and blue. In Fern Lake, eastern Sierra, other colors may appear as accents, but the predominate theme are these pairs. Like a musical composition, a painting should not be all Allegro. Rests and quiet passages are essential for it to work as a cohesive whole. Neutrals can serve very well for those rests. They provide a place for your eye to linger, and contrast to the vivid and sometimes sizzling effects of pure color. If you mix complements, they tend to dull each other, producing a grayed down or neutral version. Adding those mixtures to white, black, or its complement creates lighter and darker forms, the tints and shades of the neutral.

Pathways for the eye

A painter can use color to create pathways for the viewer’s eye. The calm and harmonious background of Fern Lake, eastern Sierra, acts as a foil against which is placed the dramatic, richly colored spear of a snag in the immediate left foreground. The triangular wedge of duller oranges in the right middle ground forms an arrow pointing back to the snag; the main focus. 

Scumbling

Scumbling can further unit the whole composition. In Fern Lake, eastern Sierra, I used gold and orange scumbling to tone down and push back much of the back and middle ground. The wedge of rock, lake bank and reflection in the middle right of the painting that had leaped forward was subdued. Scumbling is a technique done when a painting or area is dry. A very thin coat of paint is applied using a pretty spare brush, i.e. very little paint.  

A lot can be said on this subject. I have just touched on it here. I will be discussing more on color, and other aspects of painting in future blogs. Please stay tuned.