Tuesday, January 19, 2016

The Basic Tenets Of Advanced Color Theory

By Ronald Howard


Classic paintings involve more than mere application of colors on the canvas or surface. The painter must tap into a deeper perception in order to produce a picture that looks more realistic. Advanced color theory helps you to recognize and take advantage of outer qualities of light which lend form or objectify your images or matter. This is a departure from the basic understanding of colors which emanated from primary and secondary groupings.

The game of colors changed with the discovery or advanced use of magenta and green. The new dimension enabled people to appreciate the essence of colors beyond what is perceived with naked eyes. It is this intrinsic essence that makes different colors unique and lovely. By appreciating this aspect, you will produce a fantastic image from ordinary colors.

Colors were originally defined by the perceptions people obtained using naked eyes. This meant that there was little or no appreciation of the individual qualities that differentiates colors. Human perceptions were subjective and would therefore lead to glaring errors when the colors were applied on different surfaces. The perception is blind to saturation, hue, lightness and other elements that are distinct to light.

Hue is considered as the distinct characteristic that enables you to differentiate red from blue and yellow, among other colors. It is largely dependent on dormant wavelengths that are reflected from the object or emitted by its surface. The use of black and white on these colors yields tonal families that are basically different in lightness, saturation and hues.

Saturation is defined as the brightness individual colors based on their lightness or value. It can be viewed in light of middle gray such that less saturated colors are nearer to gray while more saturated colors are further away from gray. A simple explanation is the extent to which gray dilutes a color.

The use of any color on a surface is guided by the basic elements of this theory. A significant element is the holes and jumping out of colors on a surface. Jumping out is where a distant object appears closer to the foreground because similar color intensity was used as that of objects on the foreground. A hole is where an object is painted using saturated colors yet it is in the background. Such errors will affect the aesthetics of your work.

The theory lays a lot of emphasis on shadows. There is an element of directional light on every painting. This has been witnessed on every classic painting. Your work should depict consistency in shadowing which is conscious of the shape of the object and the surface on which the shadow has fallen. While painters depend on memory their recollection must produce a realistic image.

Optic illusions will affect the realistic appreciation of your work. These tricks to the eyes change your intention and will end up eliciting a different interpretation of your painting. For instance, a lit window on a night painting appears bigger than it actually is. As such, you should draw a smaller window since the illusion will enlarge it. Failure to appreciate illusions will create imbalances in your coloring.




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