Make your colours work for you

What is colour and how does it affect your painting?

There is no simple answer. Remove the colour and obviously all that remains is a black, white and grey image. Is that a limited palette? Probably not. You'd have little more than a tonal sketch and unless you were famous and probably dead your painting with have little value. Black and white or sepia might work in photography, but probably not in a painting.

Don't reject the limited palette though. Mixing a greater or lesser amount of just two or three colours

in most or all of your strokes or washes creates harmony. Choose transparent, not opaque colour and you will also avoid mud and produce a refreshing and vibrant work of art.

Colour creates mood. We all know that warm colours are uplifting and that cool colours are melancholic, but there's much more to producing mood than plastering on a wash of red or blue. For instance, is a predominantly cool painting with a splash of warmth a cool painting? Not necessarily. The final result depends on so many aspects. But what is true is that you are unlikely to achieve your intended effect unless you have planned your colour scheme first.

Certain colours complement each other and certain colours contrast. Helped by the fact that orange and green are a perfect complement the photo on the left exudes harmony.

What about muted colours? Does the lack of any real contrast produce harmony? In this case I would say so. Will a splash of warmth work here? A splash maybe; a lorry load probably not. You would need to be careful not to detract from the focal point.

You can make that dab of warm red work for you by giving your focal point a dominant colour to make it stand out. Just be aware that a small amount of red goes a long way, especially when shown against a background of green.

A splash of dominant colour can also work the other way. If you were to paint the photo on the left you would almost certainly remove the phone box, making the cottage the obvious focal point. Leave the phone box in situ, because 'it is there' and it will compete agressively with the cottage for top billing. It would be even worse if the phone box was on the opposite side of the road.

Don't dismiss the power of white. The smallest amount of pure white paper will always shine through. Reserve it for highlights and make it work for you.

Colour also creates contrast. Just as black contrasts with white so will two opposing colours on the colour wheel. Place orange or yellow against red and you will create a relatively smooth transition. Try the same with red against green or blue against yellow and the transition will be hard and stark. The tractor on the right stands out clearly against the green of the grass and the trees. A black or a blue tractor would not have such good contrast.

To highlight an object an artist will often place light against dark and dark against light. Prudent use of colour will achieve the same effect in a subtle way. Every round bob on the left stands out as a result of contrast.

The wall in the photo on the right stands out because of the stark contrast between light and dark; the red flowers do the same because they are set against a green background. Look at the photo and squint. The flowers will disappear long before the sunlit stone wall. Open them again and you will see the flowers are just as prominant. Both achieve a similar effect, but using different methods.

Grey is a cool colour. Grey is the colour of mourning, of formality, of rain clouds and of steel. The non artist will see grey everywhere. The creative mind, however, discerns grey with a leaning towards cool or warm. The artist will understand that grey can be harmonious next to both cool and warm. Storm clouds are a good example. You will often see a mix of  rain laden cool and an area of warm where the sun shines through.  The sea can be cool, but with a ray of warm where the sun bounces of it.

Shadows are considered grey, but the wise artist will use a suggestion of cool or warm colour to his or her advantage. Adding a hint of colour from the object casting the shadow to create shadow bounce will liven up any painting. Shadows can and should be filled with colour. At first glance the water in the harbour appears grey, but on closer inspection you will see a multitude of colours.Would a simple wash of grey improve the reflections. I doubt it.