"Paintings With Personality"

Title: Sir Richard in Alaska. This is my brother-in-law, Richard, fishing in Alaska. Richard's beard is what inspires me to paint him. It makes him look quite the character.

Art in Color, Color in Art – Color Schemes, Continued…

Honey isn’t the only color deprived one in our family. I think our son puts on some pretty weird things too, but I don’t care a bit. That’s his wife’s problem - WooHoo.

Remember all of the color schemes require a dominant, secondary and accent color, and the artist needs to subdue very bright colors with tints and shades.

1. Triadic: This color scheme uses three colors that are equidistant from each other on the color wheel. Split complements are three colors and really a triad but they have their own group because of the way they relate to each other. Triadic color schemes are vibrant so add a little of the dominant color to all mixtures to tone them down. As long as you don’t add any colors outside those in the color scheme the triadic colors will go together.
2. Complementary-Triad Color Scheme: Is a modification of the triad scheme. You begin with two complementary colors then looking either left or right from one of them, choose a third color halfway between the two. This triangle shape only uses half of the color wheel. Use neutralized colors when working with this scheme.
3. Modified-Triad: is another version of the triad scheme, in this case the three colors have one space, on the color wheel, between each of them. They are almost analogous; there is a little more contrast because of the two colors with more spaces between them. The artist shouldn’t use any of these colors straight from the tube but mix a neutral to be the dominant color.
4. Rectangle-Tetrad Color Scheme: Tetrad means four items, just as triad means three. The rectangle tetrad uses four colors making two complementary pairs. Because the painter is working with two pairs of complements the colors need to be mixed gradually to keep them from quickly getting too dark. If you choose a tertiary color to be dominant, the result can get very complicated. The non-dominant colors should contain a little of the dominant color to calm them down. Also decide on a dominant warm or cool.
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6. Title: Sir Richard's Big Catch. This is Richard in Alaska with one of the fish he caught. That's nothing, my other brother-in-law caught a skeleton.
7. Square-Tetrad Color Scheme: These four colors are in the shape of a square on the color wheel; choose a main color and every third color after that. Again, you’ll be working with two pairs of complementary colors and it will be difficult if you aren’t careful. The secondary color will be the complement of the dominant color and the other two colors will be tertiary. Each one can neutralize or enhance the other. Add a little of the dominant color to the other colors to create harmony, and be careful to keep the mixtures from overpowering the dominant color.
8. Adjacent-Tetrad Color Scheme: Is a narrow rectangle on the color wheel. Choose your dominant color and the color next to it, then go across the color wheel and choose the opposite two colors. This scheme is complex because there aren’t any spaces between two of the pairs of colors. The complementary colors can get muddy fast so be careful when mixing. You’ll get completely different results in your work based on which color you choose to be dominant. Avoid using the colors straight from the tube, add a little of another color to make them softer.
9. Full Wheel Scheme: Sometimes called a multi-color scheme can be a big mess if you don’t have a plan. Make sure you know what mood, color or temperature dominance you want before making any color choices. The main thing to do here is create dominance by using closely related and same intensity colors in the largest areas. Use your darkest or lightest colors for the accents; it is by keeping the other colors low-key that your accent choices stand out.

I hope you have learned as much as I have from these posts on color. The whole thing started through a friend’s suggestion that I blog about color. There are volumes of information written about color and color theory. Stephen Quiller’s book is one of the best I have seen on the subject. I am now finished with the subject and unless there are some comments or questions, I’ll be back on Monday with a whole new topic.