Our painting program, to date, has focused on layout and some design aspects of composition: monochrome and low-tone foundations, elements of composition, rhythm, and perspective. These ideas are at the core of image making, largely independent of medium and the effect of  colour.

This week, let’s turn on the colour!  Colour can be a crowning glory, that final zing and perhaps even a world in itself!

 

Self Portrait  by Arthur Shilling, 1985

Arthur Shilling was Anishinaabe, from the Chippewas of Rama First Nation Reserve  in Southern Ontario.

Those who have taken a portrait course with me will recognize his 1985 self-portrait,  his last before his death in 1986. It’s a fine  example of expression and vibrancy, with a darker edginess. He’s a wonderful colourist and an inspiration for confident brushwork.

Shilling was unusual as an aboriginal artist in pursuing the portrait as a means of expression, over more traditional narratives. He was master at capturing something of the personality of those around him.

“Most people I paint don’t like themselves. I try to reveal their spiritual soul, the quietness that makes us different, that no other nation or people have.”

Arthur Shilling was a natural colourist and whilst bold and expressive, he places colour  based on clear principles for impact and effect. Notice for example the purple in the background – it weaves it’s way down the side of his face, suggesting contour.

In my own work, I hope l have been influenced a little by Arthur Shilling!

Colour and Colour Mixing

Whether you’re new to colour practices, or as a refresher, a great start is to investigate the mixing of colours in a colour wheel. Using your own colours rather than those any website or book might recommend is where the real value lies. There’s no theory that can replace the experience of how your tubes mix together – it’s a tangible, real-world experience.

Firstly, become comfortable with the basics of the colour wheel. Most art books have something sensible to say about this and a good summary is contained in the first couple of sections on this website: http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory

Secondly, watch the following video, which summarizes my approach to colour and mixing:

Exercises

1. Now see if you can develop a colour wheel along similar lines – repeat the video, pausing as you go. My approach is to follow a variation of a palette based on 2 versions of each primary, in “warm” and “cool” versions. This aids more predictable colour mixing.
2. When you have finished following the video, prove to yourself that you can “decolour” each of the primaries by mixing in a little of the complement: what tonal colour does each give?
3. Finally, take one of your tonal colours: burnt or raw Sienna, yellow oxide/ochre, burnt or raw umber…it’s not really important which – put out a small squirt and then see if you can replicate the same colour by mixing just the primaries together…as you see, that same target tone will appear…perhaps a little magically!

The Impressionists and their Colour

The Impressionists changed the world of colour and in this section, I review their lasting legacy. Colour theory described how colours work together and this, along with the advent of tube paints enabled painters to paint where they previously couldn’t and the invention of the camera loosened the bonds of reality – all of these really changed the game.

In the following video, I expand on how the Impressionists changed the face of painting, using colour in fundamentally new ways:

Relative colour exercise

Here’s the relative colour exercise from the video: look unflinchingly at the dot in the center of the red circle for about a minute; then look at the dot in the center of the white circle.

 

Lessons from the Impressionists

The Impressionists were the first group of painters to use colour differently. They went from primarily using colour for description to experimenting with expressive colour. They knew the colour theory and practice from lesson 2 and used it for impressionistic rather than descriptive purposes. This consisted of 3 main elements:

The colour of Shadow

Higher use of full-chroma (high colour content) throughout, particularly in the shadows. Previously, painters had dulled down shadow areas by taking out colour with the complement, darkening toward black in the same colour range. The Impressionists, seeking to maintain vibrancy, moved to cooler versions of the in-light colour, essentially swinging around the colour wheel rather than going through the center towards black. So bright oranges become crimsons, purples and blues. Yellows move from green to blue and indigo. I don’t imply that they did this consistently: they were in reality a fairly disparate variety of painters, turned into a movement by history. However, the shift in use of colour exists and continues with us today.

Placement of complements

Whereas mixing complements neutralize each other, placing them next to each other has the opposite effect: it creates excitement and vibrancy, each emphasizing the other. Complements, directly opposite each other on the colour wheel, are in effect the opposite and if you like, create a stronger colour gradient or cliff. The fundamental characteristic is that all colour is relative and placing dissimilar colours one by the other makes for high relative contrast: red next to green, blue with orange, yellow with purple. Seems familiar – just ask the advertising industry, they know full well how to grab your attention!

Broken colour

The Impressionists also used dabs of pure primary colour, placed next to each other, to blend in the eye, often with short, broken brush strokes. This “optical blending” was taken to the limit with Pointillism: Seurat and Signac being perhaps the best known. This group used tiny dots of pure colour, essentially pixelating the image for it to be reconstructed in the eye of the viewer. All impressionists did some of this, placing yellow and blue to form green, red and yellow in lieu of orange, reds and blues for purple. Using this as part of a picture can be very effective, although I have never been totally convinced about the pure Pointillist theory, as these images leave me a bit cold. As a footnote, I’d also mention that I’ve not encountered much Pointillism in the world of watercolour.

Exercise

• Paint from a reference of your choice. Use cues from impressionism in use of colour in the shadows: cooler but still noticeable. Add in colour to the cast shadow areas as well. Brushstrokes of broken colour and placement of complements will complete the impressionist effect!