Color and TechniqueNewsletter of the School of Color August - September 2011

Michael Wilcox

Author of the book ‘Blue & Yellow Don’t Make Green’, inventor of the Split Primary System,

Color Bias Wheel and Head of the School of Color is visiting from England to present a series of

one day Seminars

For artists, craft-workers, designers, interior decorators and all who use color in their work or leisure

Color Bias Wheel and Head of the School of Color

Michael Wilcox

Blue don’t make

and Blue don’t make

and

Yellow

Green How to mix the color you really want - every time.

Fully updated, packed with new information, 80 extra pages - new layout

and color swatches

Second edition

A DAY OF Color

The aim of each event will be to impart a full understanding of all aspects of color mixing. The basics of color harmony & contrast will

also be covered as will the selection of suitable materials and their use

Topics will include the mixing of greens, the colors of shadows, mixing grays, the colors of nature, color mixing by glazing and

making full use of the complementaries

One day Seminar with leading Color Specialist

We are planning a series of one day seminars, as outlined below, across the USA and Canada over this Winter and next Spring. If your art group or institution would like to host one of these events please contact David at: seminars@schoolofcolour.com

The contrast of visual complementaries - by Michael Wilcox

Continuing our examination of the various contrasts which are available to the artist.

Of direct interest to the painter is the fact that a color can appear brighter or be changed in some other way by a neighbouring color or group of colors.

Patterns of Rooftops, 1920-22, Mary SwanzyNational Gallery of Ireland

Orange-reds and blue-greens balanced against violet-reds and yellow-greens. Additional vibrancy is provided by the light/dark contrast.

A combination of after-image and eye movement can lead to one color greatly influencing another.

There are many ways in which the range of after-image complementaries can be employed. They can be encouraged to harmonise, to contrast, to clash or to add

a sense of movement and excitement.Complementary pairs, applied fully

saturated and covering about equal and relatively large areas can appear harsh and inharmonious to many, but will contrast vividly.

Although difficult to handle and suitable only for certain types of work, complementaries used in this way can certainly bring interest to a painting.

Subtle contrasts can be obtained by desaturating one of the pair and leaving the other at full strength.

Desaturating the color with white will allow that color to be used over a greater area and will move the main interest onto the saturated color. The latter is probably best applied in small patches or strokes.

Alternatively one of the pair can be ‘darkened’ by the addition of the other. By now you will be very familiar with this process. Again such a desaturated color can be used over larger areas and will concentrate attention onto smaller, more saturated touches of color.

As previously discussed, the effect of the after-image can be very dramatic and lead to powerful contrasts. Where a complementary pair are involved, at or near full saturation, the contrasts can be very powerful indeed. You can certainly make your work eye-catching with this approach.

For most purposes the painter does not need to be particularly concerned with the exact matching of complementaries.

If red and green are being used, for example, it is not vital that the precise complementary green or red be used.

A particular orange might have Cerulean Blue as its complementary, (decided by the afterimage given by the orange) but a different blue, say Ultramarine, might be more suitable for the work in hand. Alternatively, differing oranges can be used with the one blue.

Some painters will look at a patch of color, decide on its after-image and try to match that exactly with a paint.

This approach can be useful in extracting

Use our mixing palette or any other color wheel as general guidance only

the maximum contrast and will keep both colors closer to their true character, but it can lead to stilted work.

Stilted because the painter is perhaps looking too hard for a ‘formula’.

To quote Eugene Delacroix ‘Cold exactitude is not art; ingenious artifice, when it pleases or when it expresses, is art itself ’.

Our color mixing palette has been designed to indicate the mixing complementaries. These are to be found opposite each other. With certain slight variations these are also the visual complementaries. For practical purposes, visual and mixing complementaries can be considered to be one and the same.

The painter should not, I feel, try to match up the complementaries exactly. Color use by the artist should be more about expression than exact measurement.

As with all information on color, the artist should feel free to work around it, to adapt and to be flexible.

It is important to realise that every color, and we can recognise several million, has a visual complementary. No color wheel can show more than a small percentage of such pairings.

For any color wheel to be truly accurate

and cover the full range of color pairings it would have to be several miles across.

As such, it is better to rely on your knowledge of the situation and use such devices as general guidance. It is for this reason that I went into such detail earlier concerning the after-image.

A word of caution: paint tube labels provide little help in our search for

complementary pairs. For example, in some manufacturers’

ranges, Cobalt Blue and Cadmium Orange are complementary, while in others this is not the case.

A violet-red might be very closely paired with Viridian in a particular manufacturer’s water colors but not with their oils.

As in the painting to the left, a complementary pair can be used close to, or at, full saturation and still be coaxed into harmony; rather than simply contrast.

By setting fully saturated colors against desaturated areas a balance has been maintained. Light against dark and warm against cool combine with the contrast of saturation and of complementary.

The dark areas in such a painting should be produced by mixing the blue and orange without the addition of white. Such darks harmonise readily with the complementary pair as they are produced from them. The common practice of introducing ‘outside’ darks such as Payne’s Grey can only upset the balance.

The mixed darks can, of course, be reduced with white to add to the range.

Saturated colors, neutralised hues, colored greys, tones (a colored grey with added white), played one against the other can produce amazing and very attractive results.

And all from just two hues, white and a little knowledge of color mixing.

The Dropping Well Public House, 1922-23, Maurice MacGonigalNational Gallery of Ireland

The Pope accords Recognition to the Franciscan Order, 1437-44, Stephano di

Giovanni called Sassetta© National Gallery, London

May in a Red Dress, 1926, William Leech

I have chosen to show this painting because I feel that it echoes the color work of that shown top right.

An almost identical green is set against a very similar red. Desaturated versions of both hues are present.

Blue and orange are also in evidence, as is the contrast of light and dark, although

Although the Impressionists, preceded by that great colorist William Turner, made full use of the complementaries, they had also played an important part in earlier work.

Not, I would suggest, in such a refined way, but certainly as far as providing contrast was concerned. In the painting to the right, the pairings red and green and blue and orange have been combined to give a strongly contrasting arrangement.

As with many later paintings, saturated hues have been set alongside neutralised colors, colored greys and tones (lightened colored greys).

The contrast of light and dark, saturation and warm and cool are also present.

to a lesser extent. Various colored greys are also present.

I can have no idea whether or not William Leech had studied or even seen the earlier work. If I could say for certain that he had, it would be very encouraging.

If a gifted and knowledgeable colorist

such as Leech felt free to draw inspiration from earlier work, so should we all.

Artists have always learnt from earlier painters. But very little, if anything, can be gleaned simply by looking at paintings or quality reproductions of work that we might find attractive.

Learning is only possible once we know what is going on, when we can ‘read’ the color arrangements, when we can analyse them.

When you can look at, say, a Monet and understand his work, you can not only learn from him directly but you will be in for a real buzz. It can be heady stuff.

Similar arrangements are to be found in many earlier paintings, particularly those produced by Chinese artists, where such contrasts were often employed.

Bright orange-red and green is still very popular with Chinese people, particularly in decorative items.

The Michael Wilcox School of Color

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Extracts from the book ‘Advances in Color Harmony and Contrast for the Artist’. A School of Color publication.

www.schoolofcolor.com

Andre Derain, 1905, Henri Matisse© Tate, London 2002

© Succession H Matisse/DACS 2002

After the Impressionist era, certain artists rebelled against the earlier approach and used color in a quite different way.

What should be realised however, is that they had a good understanding of the effects of the after-image. Much of it learnt directly from the work of the Impressionists.

They took this understanding and produced some very striking work.

As you look around this painting you will see examples of complementary pairings and various contrasts.

I will leave you to decide on the actual arrangements that have been used.

This article has been concerned about the contrast of complementaries.

As discussed in earlier articles, the complementaries can bring a wide range of harmonies to a painting when employed with skill.

When they are used at or close to full saturation they can bring an intense contrast to any type of work. Such strong contrasts have to be handled with care but can bring their own rewards.