How to Use Color in a Painting

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	"A warm color will make your subject advance, while a cool color will cause it to recede."

	Home Basics and Skills How to Use Color in a Painting
		How to Use Color in a Painting
		Selecting your main colors Using warm colors Using cool colors Using complimentary colors Echoing color
	Deciding which colors to use in your painting can leave you feeling quite overwhelmed, especially if you are new to watercolor. A good place to start would be selecting which three primary colors you would like to use in your painting. Those three colors, a yellow, red, and blue, will give you a solid foundation to build upon. Once your primaries have been selected, you can then select your workhorse and special colors that you would like to use in your painting.

Selecting Your Main Colors
	Where to begin, or how to start? I find the best place to start would be selecting which three primary colors you would like to use in your painting. Once you have decided which yellow, red, and blue to use, then you can move on to selecting what I fondly refer to as workhorse colors. These are colors that you find you use in the majority of your paintings. Last choice of color would be your special colors. These special colors are tube colors that are the exact color that you are using in your painting. Try to be sparing with your special colors, and select only a few. You can mix these with your primary, or workhorse colors to create variations of these colors.
		Color Wheel for the Tulip Painting		New Gamboge Permanent Rose French Ultramarine Blue
				Raw Sienna Permanent Alizarin Crimson Sap Green
				Cadmium Yellow Scarlet Lake Winsor Red
		Selected Primary Colors New Gamboge - a warm, transparent, non-staining yellow. Permanent Rose - a very cool, transparent, non-staining red. French Ultramarine Blue - a semi-transparent, non-staining color, with sedimentary properties.
		Selected Workhorse Colors Raw Sienna - a cool grayed yellow, transparent, with granulating properties. Permanent Alizarin Crimson - a deep cool red, transparent, and highly staining. Sap Green (Holbein) - a warm grayed green, transparent, and non-staining.
		Selected Special Colors Cadmium Yellow - a warm yellow, opaque, and slightly staining. Scarlet Lake - a warm red, transparent, and staining. Winsor Red - a deep cool red, transparent, and highly staining.

Using Warm Colors in Your Painting
	When you use a warm color in a painting, your subject will appear to advance. This works with colors from both sides of the color wheel.		Example 1.		In Example 1., all three tulips are equal in size, shape, and color. Nothing exciting going on here.
			Example 2.		In Example 2., the tulips to the left and right of the center tulip have been painted Scarlet Lake, a red-orange color located on the warm side of the color wheel. The two tulips now appear to advance forward and away from the yellow tulip in the center.
			The stems have also been painted with a warm color, a yellow-green, which is located on the cool side of the color wheel. Even though the yellow-green is from the cool side of the color wheel, by mixing yellow in with my original green, I was able to warm the temperature of the green.

Using Cool Colors in Your Painting
	When you use a cool color in a painting, your subject will appear to recede. This works with colors from both sides of the color wheel.		Example 3.		In Example 3., all three tulips are equal in size, shape, and color. Again, nothing exciting going on here.
			Example 4.		In Example 4., the tulips to the left and right of the center tulip have been painted Cobalt Blue, almost a true blue, located on the cool side of the color wheel. The two blue tulips now appear to recede backwards and away from the yellow tulip in the center.
			The stems have also been painted with a cool color, a blue-green, located on the cool side of the color wheel. By adding blue to my original green, I was able to cool the green's temperature down, helping to set the stems back further.

Using Complimentary Colors in a Painting
	Using a colors compliment next to a subject in your painting is a great way to enhance your subject, but you need to watch your proportions. For the complimentary color to be effective, the amount needs to be either less, or more, than the color you are trying to compliment.		Example 5.		In Example 5., both tulips are equal in size and shape. One tulip has been painted yellow, the other tulip has been painted violet. Although the two colors compliment each other, they fight for dominance.
			Example 6.		In Example 6., I reduced the size of the violet tulip, allowing them to now compliment each other and no longer fight for dominance.
			Example 7.		In Example 7., I painted the center tulip yellow, the tulip on the left a cool violet, and the tulip on the right a warm violet. By altering the size, color, and color temperature of the three tulips, they are now more appealing to look at.

Echoing Color in a Painting
	Below I have painted the same three tulips and stems, but this time I painted one Permanent Rose, one New Gamboge, and one Scarlet Lake.
	To create movement and harmony within your painting, add or glaze (which is a thin wash) an adjacent color from your surrounding subjects.		Example 8.		In Example 8., all three tulips are equal in size and shape, and each painted a different color. Although harmonious in color, they appear stagnant and separated from each other.
			Example 9.		By glazing only a small amount of color from the adjacent tulips, as shown in Example 9., I was able to create movement amongst the tulips. Your eyes now move across all three tulips effortlessly.
			I also glazed a small amount of the tulips color at the top of each of their stems. By doing that one small thing, the tulips now appear more connected to their stems.

NEXT: How to Mix a Puddle of Color

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