COLOUR THEORY
T
he choice of colours will have a real impact on the
mood of a painting and also the dynamic, exciting
the eye with the visual impact. A basic knowledge
of colour is essential to achieve successful mixes and
combinations – a lot of time and paint may be wasted
otherwise. Artists usually develop their own selection of
colours that they prefer and then choose from them for
specific paintings. My own basic palette is based around
the three primaries: Cobalt Blue and Prussian Blue for
blues; Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Lemon
Yellow and Quinacridone Gold for yellows; and Cadmium
Red, Quinacridone Magenta and Cadmium Scarlet for
reds. In addition to this, I also use the following colours:
Titanium White, Payne’s Grey, Raw Umber, Raw Sienna,
Yellow Ochre, Dioxazine Violet, Cadmium Orange,
Turquoise and Pale Olive.
From these colours, I then select a “family” of usually
no more than four or five colours that I mix together and
juxtapose to create the desired effect in a painting. I have
examples of tried and trusted palette combinations in both
acrylic and watercolour on my studio wall; sometimes thenames are a little different, but they are basically
the same hue with the same colour characteristics.
My oil pastel selection is also very similar.
A representational combination of colours in a painting
to describe the world around us can be just as exciting
as using a more personal or heightened colour choice.
For the former approach you will need to spend a lot of
time observing the exact colours of the scene and thinking
how to achieve them on your surface. Painting the scene
on location is an advantage as you can constantly assess
the hues to arrive at an accurate representation.
If you are going to make your painting at home, accurate
and specific note taking on location can help a lot. The
camera is also a very useful tool, and most artists use
them, to a greater or lesser degree. They can, however,
apply a little distortion to colour, sometimes altering the
colours to appear sharper in sunshine or greyer if there
is cloud. The eye is a better tool for seeing subtle colours
that the camera doesn’t read. Perspective can also be
altered: most smartphones, tablets and compact cameras
distort to a degree as the lens, usually 35mm, doesn’tBELOW St Michael’s
Mount 1, acrylic on
paper, 28x40cm
A simple, straightforward mixture
of two or three colours can provide
a surprisingly large range of hues.
Cadmium Orange and Cobalt Blue,for instance, can create a brown,
which, with white added, gives you
a wide range of colours.
Likewise, Dioxazine Violet mixed
with Lemon Yellow makes a brown,and Lemon Yellow mixed with
Payne’s Grey creates a very useful
green. These few colours can easily
provide enough colours and tones
to paint many a landscape.MIXING COLOURS
Cobalt Blue Cadmium Orange Payne’s Grey Lemon Yellow+ Titanium White + Titanium WhiteDioxazine VioletArtists & Illustrators 53