Drawing lessons - illustrated lesson notes for teachers and students

The psychology of color No2

My action painting of cricketers in the West Indies has highly saturated hues (calypso colors)

but note how all their values are similar. The red is separated from the dominant green and the

white uniforms provide the unifying force. You can get away with a lot if you utilise high

contrast neutrals! The major chord (the green, red, blue and yellow hues of similar value) is

played again in the white of the uniforms where it is repeated in a 'higher key'.

When color becomes highly saturated (as in the yellow toga above) it begins to elicit more

attention. In this painting 'Thor' I have used colors of similar hues but differing values and

saturations. Similar blues appear in the sky breastplate and hammer, yellows in sky water and

toga, reds in the flesh and twice in the hammer. These are all minor chords. The major chord is

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