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Experience Speaks

Arline Barker on Color

 

As important as design is to painting, there are other elements important for a painting to be successful. Consider color, rhythm, texture, value and technique.

Color is that element in your painting that can make it sparkle.  You can let your use of color help you make your painting say what you want it to say. You do this by selecting colors that enhance your subject. Use color to intensify or add darkness to a shape.

Think about playing a cool color against a warm one. Use color  to add darkness to a shape. Paint the heat of the tropics by using a warm palette or the chill of a winter’s day with an array of cool colors.  Consider the value of your colors.  Value can bring your subject closer to you or further away.  Whatever is your center of interest in the painting, the use of color can be one way to direct the to that point.

There are very few colors that cannot by mixed from the primaries. My own idea of a good palette for watercolor, acrylics, or oils consists warm and cool pigments in each of the three primaries, red, yellow and blue. I like to add a brown such as burnt sienna as a toning color. This basic palette is a very limited one. Whether you are a novice painter or a master, I WOULD SUGGEST A LIMITED PALETTE. The primaries that I use may be different hues than those you choose, but that is where we express our individuality. You are going to choose other hues simply because you like them or you are painting something that calls for that special color.

Select the palette that says YOU, staying within the warm and cool primaries.  I think I cannot live without thalo blue, so that is my cool blue. Using color in an adventurous way is yet another way of putting your personal stamp on your work.

Your basic colors are primaries, red, yellow and blue. Secondary are green, orange and purple or violet and are  a mixture of two primaries. Mixing a secondary color with it closest primary will give you a tertiary color. (Tertiary means third mixture or third rank.) The study of color is a science in itself so I have only made suggestions regarding color.  I recommend studying “Exploring Color” by Nita Leland. Leland is a watercolorist but what she has to say about color and the exercises she recommends are excellent for any medium. Once you have established her color variations in your mind, you will find their use will come to you automatically.  It will be built into your system just as the color mixes you are now employing. In using Leland’s book, you will find that it is a book to study, not one to simply browse through.

I have just covered color for watercolor, acrylics and oils. Pastels are another thing. You do not mix blue and yellow to get green. You buy green in all its various hues.

Your palette is two things. One is the surface where you store and mix pigments. The actual colors you choose for your palette are also your palette. My own palette is that basic limited palette using a John Pike palette where I store and mix colors. I use this palette for small works. From Cheng Khee Chee I learned to store my basic colors in small plastic containers with tight seals. Into each container I squeeze a quantity of pigment and mix in water to make a thick creamy consistency. Working out of these containers is great for large paintings. When I use odd colors I squeeze a little pigment onto a plastic jar lid. Sometimes I mix on the Pike tray and sometimes I mix on the paper, depending on how loose I am painting. I do this for both acrylics and watercolor.

Thalo blue is my favorite and consequently my signature color. You too have a signature color. I tend to introduce that color into just about every painting. You might not always be aware of it, but it’s there. Have fun playing with your signature color. Playing with color and design can be very rewarding.

Suppose you want to mix a sky color, a skin color, or a tree color. Is there a recipe? “Formulas may offer temporary solutions but one-size fits-all doesn’t work. Develop your color sensitivity and color knowledge so you can devise your own solutions to color problems with style and elegance, using color with confidence,”  Nita Leland

Experiment with the three primaries, both warm and cool from your own palette. You will have fun and learn a lot.