CLASS ONE

Color and Light: A Little History

Hang on to your hats for we are off and running...There is A TON OF INFORMATION in this first class. I could have divided it into two, but I feel that all of the information is related, and it is all important to your understanding of color in the long run. Trust me as I guide you on this road. It is a bit more curvy than OWN YOUR COLORS PART ONE, but the effort is well worth the journey. And we’re OFF....

THE “INVENTION” OF MODERN COLOR THEORY 

Color is exciting and emotional, fantastical and, well, COLORFUL...right? It sounds like such an exciting topic and, yet, I will tell you that much reading of color theory will put you to sleep faster than a herd of sheep! To understand some of the basics of color, however we need to know where the “theories” came from, and I promise to make it as painless as possible. We need just a little history and science here to get that color wheel rolling down the road, and I would be remiss if I did not include this in your Part Two eCourse. Remember this: A Theory is just something that hasn’t been proven. A “system of ideas intended to explain something.” Artists and scientists have been trying to get it right for years and it continues to evolve. So let's see where modern color theory began...

Please Note: Each video in this course has its own unique password.

• VIDEO PASSWORD: Pink

• NOTE: This video has no sound until the end, just so you know. Also, you may want to pause it as you go to read at your own pace.  The links that I mention in the video are:

PAINT, LIGHT, TEMPERATURE AND THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY

Now that we have a fundamental understanding of the way paint colors work and light “colors” work, let’s start looking at COLOR TEMPERATURE in more depth. I find that this is one of the most confusing elements of color theory to many students. I get asked so many questions about color temperature. Should the shadow be cool or warm?  Should we mix warm colors with warm colors and cool colors with cool colors?  Are skin tones warm or cool?  When do I use a cool?  A warm?  

First let’s take a look at how Paint, Light and Color Temperature Relate.

Paint/Pigment Color “Temperature” and Light Color Temperature are actually two very different concepts.

Let’s start with Light Temperature:

The color temperature of light can actually be measured scientifically by the “visible segment (or segments) of the electromagnetic spectrum” it radiates. (Those colors that were coming through the prism.) So if a light source is “hot” or “warm” it is emitting very few of the colors in the blue end of the spectrum, and if it is “cool,” very few colors from the red end of the spectrum. The important point here is that this light is measurable, even though the color of the light may change throughout the day. 

Don’t let your eyes glaze over yet. I promise this all relates and will increase your understanding of color in the long run. 

Paint/Pigment Color Temperature:

Pigments may lean towards red (warm) or blue (cool) and thus we identify them as warm or cool. These are words made up by artists and paint companies to describe certain colors. However, in a painting (and in how we see) ALL COLOR IS RELATIVE, and the color temperature of a pigment is always RELATIVE TO THE OTHER COLORS AROUND IT. Therefore the color temperature of a pigment is not necessarily consistent from painting to painting and even within a painting.

In other words a Yellow-Green may be considered a very warm color technically, however, when placed next to warm yellows, the Yellow-Green may become the cooler pigment.

Whew! No wonder color is so confusing!

Let’s look at some studies that I did below.

PROJECT “CROSS”

Warm Cross — Cool Cross

One of the many traditional composition “designs” is called a “Cross.” It is loosely based on the shape of the cross, and can be made into a landscape or an abstract or a figure or any number of subjects. In the four paintings below I play with this compositional configuration as abstracts. My intention was to select one color that looked cool in one painting and warm in another. In the two on the left I chose Yellow-Green, and on the right I chose a “Cool Red” (Quinacridone Red). Your first Project is to do the same. Choose a color that you make look cool in one painting and warm in another by how it looks relative to the colors around it. Feel free play with the “Cross Composition” or use any subject matter of your choosing. You may also want to watch the video below first to see me move some colors around, comparing them on different paintings.

RELATIVE COLOR TEMPERATURE EXAMPLES

Don‘t be surprised if this is harder than it looks. Playing with color temperature this way is tricky for me as well (mine are not perfect). Have fun with it and see what you can come up with! We are all learning here! These four paintings are only 6" x 6" each. You can have a lot of fun with color on a small support. You will learn the most if you try a bunch of these.

Looking At Color Temperature And Relativity

Watch this video where I move colors around in different paintings illustrating how one color can look quite different when surrounded by different colors. In this video I particularly focus on Color Temperature. (And I apparently need a new microphone as I sound like I have a lisp and a cold!) You may want to go full screen with this video in order to get a good look at the colors.

• VIDEO PASSWORD: Violet

Here are a few more examples of color temperature relativity in paintings by Paul Klee. If you look closely you can see that some of the reds appear warm in one painting and cool in another, and a few of the blues and greens do as well.

Color Temperature and Shadows

There is one fairly consistent “Rule” about Color and Light, however. Yay!

Cool Light creates Warm Shadows and Warm Light creates Cool Shadows.

If you can identify the color of your light source, you can identify the color of your shadows and also learn to harmonize your paintings more easily. This applies too if you are working intuitively and making up your colors. If you have found that sometimes something feels “off,” learning this concept may help you to identify why, especially if your colors feel “unnatural” or like “something is out of place.”

Obviously this concept becomes extremely important in landscape, still life, and any true realist work. I believe it's better to know the “rules” so that you can know when you are breaking them or at least how to manipulate them!

EXAMPLE: Same cup shot under two different light sources, one WARM and one COOL.

In this example, you can see very clearly the different color temperatures of the cast shadows on the table. You can also see the temperature of the light within the cup to some degree. Where the light illuminates the interior, the Left Cup looks cooler on the inside (cool light source) and the Right Cup looks warmer on the inside (warm light source). AND if you look at the cup on the right you can actually see TWO SHADOWS on the table. The “blue” one is from the incandescent light and the warmer one coming forward is actually from the north light window. Here you can compare the two shadow temperatures side by side!

PROJECT “SHADOWS”

Concentrating on Shadows and Light Temperature

In these videos I demonstrate two different still life paintings with different temperature light sources creating different shadow temperatures. I was not looking at any resource photo or image for these paintings, but I made them up using the concepts we've been looking at here. I did this purposely so that you can feel free to invent the subject matter for this Project as well. Flowers can easily be ‘invented’. we don‘t have to know if they are a specific ‘daisy’ or ‘rose’. Watch these videos and then go have some fun with paint!

VIDEO #1: Warm Light — Cool Shadows

• VIDEO PASSWORD: Warm

• Time = 27 minutes

(Doggie barking towards the end was out playing in the park. Woof!)

VIDEO #2: Cool Light—Warm Shadows

• PASSWORD: Cool

• Time = 21 minutes

NOTE: The photos of these two paintings above came out rather “hot” in the reds. I can‘t seem to get them to show much cooler here. The reds on the right are a bit lighter and cooler than they appear here...a bit more pink with white (thus the cooler light).

Paint colors on my palette in both of these demos are from left to right:  Black, Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Turquoise*, Emerald Green*, Permanent Green Light*, Titanium White, Lemon Yellow, Cad. Yellow Medium, Orange, Cad. Red, Quinacridone Red, Ultramarine Violet*

*Gamblin colors

BONUS “SHADOWS” PROJECT

Grab a white piece of paper and find different light sources in your house. Create a shadow over the paper and see if you can tell if the shadow is warm or cool. This works great if you have an incandescent light and a fluorescent light as incandescent light is warm, and fluorescent cool. The more you study these light effects in real life the more you will learn to see them in your paintings. 

Set up a simple still life under one of these light sources and look for the color temperatures that are created. This can be as simple as a coffee cup and its shadow (like my photos above). You do not need to use complicated imagery, and we are not looking at drawing here, just the study of color and light.

Look for color temperature outdoors as well, even at your next café - lunch, look at the white tablecloth and see what color the shadows are. You will become a color and light expert once you start looking! And, of course you can try this Project outside as well in warm or cool daylight.

And, yes, I know that the shadows in the painting on the left are not completely consistent. For the most part, the light on this box was warm, and the shadows cool. Cool blue shadows appear in the box but there is a dash of warm red in the cool shadow of the tablecloth.  That is called “Artistic License” or “Manipulation of the Rules” at the whim of the Artist! HA! The warm yellows within the box are actually reflected light, however. Look for these subtle color changes when you observe your surroundings.

Some examples of warm and cool light and shadow conditions in paintings.

The Most Important Concept of All:

This First Class is the most “technical” of this PART TWO Session. It is also by far the longest! I realize that there is A LOT of information in this one class. The concepts are not always intuitive and also the actual visual experiences that you may have when observing these "rules" can be contradictory. This individual experience of color is EXACTLY why it can be very confusing to so many people. I know that many of you will have questions if one shadow is warm here or cool there and I will not always be able to answer. Color is relative and how we see it changes as well. For instance are the shadows in Veronika’s painting above warm or cool? I am certain that I could prove the answer either way. 

Don’t pull your hair out by focusing too hard on if a color should be warm or cool. Instead, just have these concepts in the back of your brain and over time you will begin to watch them play out in different situations. I really don't want to be teaching that there is a “right” and “wrong” way to be painting shadows or any other subjects. These concepts are just here to help you in the grand scheme of things. Ideas to think about when possibly something is going wrong in your painting, or when you want to create a certain effect.

The most important concept to always remember is to HAVE FUN while you create!