CLASS FOUR
Analogous Colors And The Properties Of White
ANALOGOUS COLORS
As I mentioned in the beginning under color terms, Analogous colors are colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. Typically about 4 colors next to each other. Yellow-Green, Green, Blue-Green and Blue would be an Analogous palette. Restricting your palette in this way can create beautifully harmonious paintings, and as a student of color theory, you can learn a lot by limiting your palette as well. (Hopefully you began to discover this in CLASS TWO with Complements.) We really have to think about the color temperature of each color (as well as our old friends Value and Intensity) when we don’t have that many colors to work with. Here are a few paintings using this concept. You will see other colors not strictly within the analogous palette the artist has chosen, but the predominant colors are analogous.
USING WHITE IS A BIG DEAL
COLOR THEORY RULE
WHITE both DULLS and COOLS a color
Have you ever looked at an oil painting that looks “chalky”? The colors seem dull and not vibrant? Or it looks like a cloudy day when it was supposed to be sunny? Even acrylic painters can have a similar problem with duller more pastel colors instead of bright ones. Less experienced painters often lighten their colors with white to indicate a light source. A better option to keep your colors more intense is to lighten your color with a lighter analogous color, or to simply use the analogous color as the case may be. A blue shirt in the sun, for instance might be Ultramarine Blue in the shade and Manganese blue in the sun. An apple may gradate from Alizarin Crimson to Cadmium Red Medium, then CR Light, then CR Light with Orange...all this before ever adding any white! Of course, you may still need to add white, but consider doing it after you have tried the other options.
Why? BECAUSE WHITE WILL DULL YOUR COLOR AND ALSO COOL IT. So if you are trying to show a warm sunny red sports car, Alizarin with just white in it will not look like warm light is hitting it. Actually it will pretty much look like Pepto Bismo. You are cooling it and neutralizing it (dull) instead of creating warmth and vibrancy. Make the car Aizarin in the shade and Cadmium Red light in the sun and BAM! You have a Ferrari!
To the left is a detail of a painting where I used a range of analogous colors to show the darks and lights of her dress. The result is a vibrant yellow dress. No “chalky” or pastel feeling.
CONCLUSION: Adding white will cool down your color and neutralize your color. Try using analogous, lighter colors first when mixing a lighter version of your local color.
MORE ON WHITE
AERIAL PERSPECTIVE - USING THE DULL AND COOL PROPERTIES OF WHITE TO OUR ADVANTAGE.
You have all heard of perspective drawing...don’t worry I'm not going THERE in this class. (wink) There is another way to create the feeling of perspective especially in landscape paintings and it is called Aerial Perspective which is the technique of making objects in the distance lighter and generally duller and cooler. Our atmosphere has moisture in it, and that typically creates a mist in the air, even if it is a warm day. This “mist” makes mountains and subjects further away from us appear lighter and generally cooler. This is why the rule “Lights go back and Darks come forward” is generally true (although not always) especially in landscape work.
Since white both dulls and cools, it is the perfect pigment to add to your colors to create this effect as seen in the example below.
“Cinnabar Hills” Melinda Cootsona
PROJECT 4
Use Analogous Color For Your Next Painting
VIDEO PASSWORD: Project4
Follow me as I paint a landscape using an Analogous color palette and all of the “Theories” that we have covered so far. Even though the colors are limited to mostly greens and blues I use Value, Intensity, and Color Temperature to create the illusion of depth.
I continue to use a palette knife in combination with the brush in this demo, applying the paint thickly in areas and cutting into the trees and objects to give them shape.
For your project choose four colors next to each other on your color wheel and work predominantly with them to create an Analogous painting. Remember the color ”rules” we are working with. Try using a palette knife if you are interested and it is new to you.
After years of landscape painting I can make up a simple composition like this one. You can copy this painting, or the concept or choose a different photo from this course. And, of course, you can always use your own subject matter!
The colors I used on my palette for this demo (going clockwise) are:
Permanent Green Light
Viridian
Sap Green
Ultramarine Blue
Manganese Blue
Titanium White
Lemon Yellow
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Cadmium Orange
Cadmium Red Light
Quinacridone Red
Analogous Painting Inspiration
Throughout the classes I provide PINTEREST BOARDS for a specific relevant topic. Click on the logo to see the examples gathered.