37 Thoughts About Color

What a glorious day it has been. I planted my spring garden today and I am enjoying a breezy Florida late afternoon as I write this on my back porch.

My mind is on color.

I taught a wonderful, day-long color class yesterday. It is always a treat to be live with students since I mostly teach online these days. It was very special that 3 of my online Essential Elements students were actually at the class and I got to paint with them in person!

Today I gave myself an exercise to make a list of color musings to share with you - things I've come to learn about color and how I use it.

Here are 37 things that came to mind:

• Sir Isaac Newton passed a beam of light through a glass prism. It broke in the colored bands, and later became known as the color spectrum (and lead to the color wheel).
• The definition of color = hue, value & chroma
• Hue = color. That’s all
• Good value means you can use any color you want.
• Knowing chroma will help mix better color.
• Color is relative to whatever color is next to it.
• Without light there is no color.
• Color can be the subject of a painting (think abstracts).
• Knowing the properties of each tube of your paint will help you mix better.
• Using only analogous colors, warm colors or only cool colors will make a more unified painting.
• Inorganic colors produce more local color.
• When painting bright colors, keep the value close.
• Organic colors produce more intense color.
• Your own color mixing bootcamp: Use the 3 primaries and white to mix all your colors
• Gray = red, blue & yellow
• Adding white to a mixture will cool it down.
• Colors have different values right out of the tube.
• When mixing dark colors add a touch of white to see which color it is leaning toward.
• Mix your pigments with a palette knife and not your brush to avoid gloppy-brush-syndrome.
• Color speaks to our emotions.
• Color can be used to emphasize an area - like your focal point.
• Color can be used to create form.
• Complimentary colors just look good together.
• Complimentary colors mixed together = gray
• Adding white too early can lead to mud.
• Place warm spots of color near cool ones, and cool spots near warm ones.
• When adding a new color to a painting, look for other areas of the painting to add that color.
• The key to more natural greens is mixing in a warm color (red or orange).
• Indian Yellow will brighten a dull, lifeless area of my painting.
• I often use Ultramarine Blue for a sky.
• Indanthrone Blue is my newest favorite color.
• I splurge on ultra-saturated, premium quality, GOLDEN Acrylic Paints.
• I save money using white gesso instead of titanium white in my acrylic paintings.
• Orange and pink look really good together.
• I use blue the most.
• I start my panting by “drawing” in transparent oxide orange.
• Most of my paintings are a majority of grays ( a mixture of red, blue & yellow.

Wishing you a most colorful week!

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