COLORtools of the Painters' Trade

BY GAINOR ROBERTS"All colours are the friends of their neighbors

and the lovers of their opposites.“ Marc Chagall:

•What is color

•Simplified theory of color in light

•Eyesight influence on color perception

•Pigments and paint

•Color Mixing

•Local color vs atmospheric color

•Impressionist ideas about color

COLOR = LIGHT + VISION

COLOR BASICSColor is the perceptual characteristic of light described by a color name.

Specifically, color is light, and light is composed of many colors—those

we see are the colors of the visual spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green,

blue, and violet. Objects absorb certain wavelengths and reflect others

back to the viewer. We perceive these wavelengths as color.

DESCRIBING COLORS

A color is described in three ways: by its name, how pure or desaturated it

is, and its value or lightness. Although pink, crimson, and brick are all

variations of the color red, each hue is distinct and differentiated by its

chroma, saturation, intensity, and value.

Chroma, intensity, saturation and luminance/value are inter-related terms

and have to do with the description of a color.

Chroma: How pure a hue is in relation to gray

Saturation: The degree of purity of a hue.

Intensity: The brightness or dullness of a hue. One

may lower the intensity by adding white or black.

Luminance / Value: A measure of the amount of light

reflected from a hue. Those hues with a high content

of white have a higher luminance or value.

Shade and tint are terms that refer to a variation of a

hue.

Shade: A hue produced by

the addition of black.

Tint: A hue produced by the

addition of white.

COLOR THEORIES science, poetry, philosophy

A FEW OF THE MORE MODERN CONTRIBUTORS There were many color theories from the ancients to our times. Even Leonardo had

his ideas about how color worked.

NEWTONNewton introduced the term 'colour spectrum' and although the spectrum appears

continuous, with no distinct boundaries between the colors, he chose to divide it into seven:

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Newton chose the number seven as this

reflected the Ancient Greek belief that seven is a mystical number

GOETHEJohann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was the greatest poet, playwright, novelist and essayist in the German language – comparable to Shakespeare and Dante.He said “That I am the only person in this century who has the right insight into the difficult science of colors, that is what I am rather proud of, and that is what gives me the feeling that I have outstripped many.”

CHEVREULIn 1839, the theory of color interaction

was first put on a sound experimental

base by the French chemist Michel

Chevreul (1786-1889). His De la Loi du

Contraste Simultané des Couleurs (the

law of simultaneous color contrast)

introduced theories that led to new uses

of color. The 19th century also witnessed

the Industrial Revolution that made

available new technologies such as

synthesized pigments, augmenting the

artist’s palette. A new scientific

worldview searched to describe

experience, including art, light, color and

vision, in scientific terms. It was

Chevreul’s work and ideas that are the

basis of our modern color theories.

Chevreul's color model

the hue circle is exemplified by 72 normal scales

of tones, arranged with white at the center and

black at the circumference; as shown for yellow,

each normal scale produced 9 broken scales of

tones by means of increasing proportional

mixtures with the achromatic gray scale located

as the vertical axis of a hemisphere

AND IT GETS EVEN MORE COMPLICATED!

Albert Munsell

A color is fully specified by listing the three numbers for hue, value, and chroma in that order.

For instance, a purple of medium lightness and fairly saturated would be 5P 5/10 with 5P

meaning the color in the middle of the purple hue band, 5/ meaning medium value (lightness),

and a chroma of 10 (see swatch).

The system consists of three independent dimensions

which can be represented cylindrically in three

dimensions as an irregular color solid: hue, measured

by degrees around horizontal circles; Chroma,

measured radially outward from the neutral (gray)

vertical axis; and value, measured vertically from 0

(black) to 10 (white). Munsell determined the spacing

of colors along these dimensions by taking

measurements of human visual responses. In each

dimension, Munsell colors are as close to perceptually

uniform as he could make them, which makes the

resulting shape quite irregular.

TYPICAL EXAMPLE OF A CONTROLLED

PALETTE

The Classical Realist method of painting uses the

Munsell theory of color. The artist uses value

“strings” of color on the palette and has a wide range

of values and hues available as mixes that the artist

makes before painting. Some of these energetic

painters actually premix their paint and put it up in

tubes with a numbering system that indicates the hue,

Chroma and value of the contents.

The Munsell Color theory has been arranged in a book that is quite pricey and has page after page of swatches that the student has to match by color and value

Frank Mason (1921-2009) was a

painter and teacher at the Art

Students League who used a shelf-

like palette arrangement for his oil

paints called "The Prismatic

Palette."

Many artists and illustrators

used the Controlled palette

system

Frank Mason "Margaree River Valley, Nova Scotia" oil on canvas, 24" x 30" (1999)“Frank was inspired by, and paints in the tradition of, the old masters like Velasquez, Rubens or even Rembrandt,” says longtime Mason student and Ohio-based artist Jack Liberman. “And he has worked tirelessly to pass on that tradition to his own students.”

Graydon Parrish (born April 3, 1970) is a

realist painter living in Austin, Texas. He

is both trained in and an exponent of

the atelier method which emphasizes

classical painting techniques. He

espouses the use of a controlled palette

and the Classical Realist movement in

art today harks back to Bouguereau and

other 19th Century Classical painters,

NOT the Impressionists!

Van Gogh’s Palette Monet’s Palette

FOR COMPARISON…

THESE ARE “OPEN” PALETTES

MONET VAN GOGH

DID YOU EVER WONDER WHAT THE NUMBERS MEAN?

Color Index Name Code:

This is the official code given by the Color Index International for that particular

pigment. The first 2 letters describe the general pigment color and the number is the

individual pigment identifier. N/A (not applicable) means that pigment has not been

given a color index name or number. The number after further describes the exact

pigment in the tube.

PY = Pigment Yellow; PO = Pigment Orange; PR = Pigment Red; PV = Pigment

Violet; PB = Pigment Blue; PG = Pigment Green; PBr = Pigment Brown; PBk = Pigment

Black; PW = Pigment White; PM = Pigment Metal

This system of color designations works really well when a designer, say of a car,

wants to tell the Ford Factory exactly what color to paint it, or when two classical

painters converse over coffee they talk in this obscure code! Do YOU need to know all

this? Probably not, but if you are an Industrial Designer you would need to know this

system.

Color of Art Pigment DatabaseAn Artists’ Paint and Pigment Reference with Color Index Names, Color

Index Numbers and Chemical Composition

Local color refers to the language of color; a banana is yellow, a traffic light is red, the pear is

yellow-green, and so on. We need to navigate our world this way, identifying colors around us

to make sense out of our everyday experiences. Manufacturers and advertisers rely on local

color and the way color affects our emotions.

Atmospheric Color was used by many artists, especially the Impressionists when they realized

that light hitting any object would have all the spectrum of colors with it. What we see depends

on what is reflected, what is absorbed and how our own eyes, retinas, rods and cones, and

brains interpret those colors. The time of day will affect those colors too. Monet’s Haystack

series was his experiment showing how the time of day and season changed the colors and

values of not only the objects themselves but the air around them.

LOCAL COLOR AND ATMOSPHERIC COLOR

WHAT IS PAINT?All paint is based on pigments; some are dug out of the

earth, and others are made from coal tar extracts and

petroleum. Pictured here are pigments before they have

been mixed with their binders to form our paint.

Pigments come from the earth in the form of colored

clays, plants such as indigo, and mines where we get

coppers, cobalts and cadmiums. Some pigments are

ground up jewels, as in Lapis Lazuli and Azurite.

In general, our paints are made from pigment and linseed

oil, for Oil Paint, polymer resin to make Acrylics, gum

tragacanth to make Pastels, and gum arabic to make

Watercolors. That is a huge simplification to the subject

of the chemistry of paint! But we even use egg yolks to

make Egg Tempera paint! The binder acts as the glue to

hold the molecules together and stick it to the support.

WHAT DOES ‘HUE’ MEAN?

If there ever was a confusing term!“Hue” is the name of a color like Red or Yellow or Violet

It also refers to what is in the tube of paint you buy. Cadmium Red (Hue) is not

Cadmium Red. Rather it is a mix of pigments to make the paint in the tube resemble

what used to be Cadmium Red. These are usually synthetic pigments with

unpronounceable names like dioxazine purple, napthol red, phthalocyanine blue, and

Irgazine orange although it can contain some cadmium so it is not always free of some

of the more toxic pigments, but you can check those mysterious numbers on the tube

to find out what has been mixed to make that color.

These paints are generally less toxic than the cadmiums and cobalts. In my lifetime I

have seen a decline in the quality of genuine Cadmium Red paint and a huge increase

in price due to its scarcity and uses in industry and medicine. Those tubes that are

called “hue” are generally very much cheaper than the tubes that contain cadmium or

cobalt.

THE ELUSIVE NATURE OF VALUE

I was taught to evaluate value by creating a value scale as an underpainting on

my canvas leaving the highest values open to the white of the canvas, and

establishing the darkest dark. Some people will see a high key value and others

a darker key, but everything is compared to each other and to the neutral

background. In Impressionism color and value are not predetermined but

sought after intuitively.

USING COLOR IN OUR PAINTINGS

DO YOU NEED A COLOR WHEEL?

No you don’t but it is handy. I painted for years without owning one. I was taught

to view colors intuitively rather than intellectually, and to view the subject and

try to replicate what I saw on my palette by trial and error. We were advised to

forget the “names” of colors as that is meaningless to the Impressionist painter

and only helps when buying the tubes. Colors may be mixed on the palette, on

the canvas or laid down optically, next to each other, or in prismatic layers.

Sap Green Cerulean Blue Hue Cobalt Blue Hue Ultramarine Blue Yellow Ochre Raw Sienna Paynes Gray

Cadmium Yellow Pale

Hue

Cadmium Yellow Deep

Hue

Cadmium Orange Hue Cadmium Red

HueCadmium Red Light

Hue

Crimson Alizarin Viridian HueTitanium White

Cadmium Yellow

HueNaples Yellow Buff Titanium Dioxazine Purple Burnt SiennaPrimary Magenta Phthalo Blue Phthalo Green Prussian Blue

You can not paint without the primary and secondary colors on your palette! Lay them out every time you start to paint and put them in the same place each time.

The third row represents colors that I need for specific objects or colors that simply

don’t mix well like purple. I need magenta too, and sometimes the really strong

“Thalo” Colors.

I am always experimenting with new colors but my basic palette always is the same

and it becomes like a piano keyboard. Mixing colors becomes intuitive and a matter

of trying a little of this and a little of that, until you have it. It is your most important

tool in painting and needs to be managed with thought. How you do it is up to you

but do it the same way each time.

These two rows are my basic colors that I have on my palette at all times

THE PALETTEIt is important to have a toned palette, not white. Your eyes can not adjust to white and

it is nearly impossible to judge your values accurately. The palette may be natural

wood, or plywood stained grey, or you can even use the Richeson Grey Matters paper

palette sheets. I tend to leave my colors around the edge and scrape them when they

begin to skin over. Skinned over paints should not be used, as they have undergone a

chemical and physical change that makes them less archival. I always clean the center

area of the palette so I have a fresh mixing area. Impressionist painting often mixes

paint directly on the canvas, without blending the color. The viewer’s eye will do the

mixing.

My basic Palette on grey stained plywood A variety of store bought wooden

palettes

Left to right: Titanium white, Primary Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Cadmium

Orange Hue, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Crimson, Sap Green, Viridian,

Cerulean Blue Hue, Cobalt Blue Hue, Ultramarine, Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna,

Paynes Gray

the second row shows each color with white added to it. Note: The set of 24

colors is fine for most people but I had to add a few favorite colors that were

available only as 38ml tubes; Cadmium Red Light Hue, Viridian, Cobalt Blue Hue,

Paynes Gray.

MY PALETTES

THIS IS MY WORKING PALETTE OF DICK BLICK STUDIO OILS

see below for the colors

THIS IS MY WORKING PALETTE OF SOHO COLORS

left to right:

Naples Yellow, White, Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue,

Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue, Red Orange, Cadmium

Red Light Hue, Alizarin Crimson, Viridian, Sap Green,

Cerulean Blue, Cobalt, Ultramarine, Yellow Ochre, Raw

Sienna, Paynes Gray, (the next three are optional

depending on the painting) Dioxazine Purple,

Permanent Rose, Chromium Oxide Green

Soho and Dick Blick oils are very much less expensive than other brands on

the market. I use them for their price as many high brands are not in my

limited budget. Most of them mix fairly well but muddiness does play a factor

in paint and we often have to add colors to the palette to get a pure violet for

example.

THIS IS MY WORKING PALETTE OF DICK BLICK STUDIO OILS

see below for the colors

The big one!

Yello

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1. Monochromatic

2. Analogous

3. Complementary

4. Split-

complementary

5. Triad

USING THE COLOR WHEEL TO DESIGN YOUR PAINTING

1. Monochromatic - one hue (color) and tints, shades and intensities of that

color. Example: blue in various values as shown in the painting on the left

COLOR SCHEMES

Primary Trilogy (Blue, Red, Yellow) oil on canvas 16 x 20

2. Analogous - colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel.

Example: yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue

Fuji Mum and Grapes oil on canvas 16 x 20

3. Complementary - colors directly opposite each other on the color wheel.

Example: blue, orange and tints, shades and intensities of those colors.

Birds in Flight pastel on Art Spectrum paper 18 x 24

4. Split-complementary - one color and the two colors on either side of it’s

compliment. Example: Red, yellow-green, blue-green

Grannies oil on canvas 8 x 10

5. Triad - any three colors that are equal distance away from each other on the

color wheel. Example = violet, green, orange

Purple Pitcher with oranges and green drapery oil on canvas 14 x 18

NOW, LET’S PAINT!

PRIMARY COLORS

RED BLUEYELLOW

SECONDARY COLORS

ORANGE VIOLETGREEN

SHADES

TINTS

TERTIARY COLORS

YELLOW/GREEN RED/VIOLET YELLOW/ORANGERED/ORANGEBLUE/GREEN BLUE/VIOLET

COMPLEMENTARY COLORSI remember these combinations by thinking Easter (yellow/purple), Christmas (red/green),

July 4 (orange/blue)

YELLOW VIOLET RED GREEN ORANGE BLUE

NEUTRALIZED COMPLEMENTSYou may have to add more of one or the other complements to make a nice

gray

YELLOW VIOLET RED GREEN ORANGE BLUE

ADD WHITE ADD WHITE ADD WHITE

THANK YOU FOR

WATCHING!

HAVE A COLORFUL DAY