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This information assumes that you are only working with the twelve high chroma colors that are single pigment (no white added) and are as opaque as possible. If the tube of paint has a PY number on the tube it is just yellow but if there is a PY number and a PW the color has white in it. I recommend the Gamblin line of colors but you can choose any brand that gives you a highly saturated opaque or semi-opaque color at each of the twelve spots on the color wheel. I included a list of recommended high chroma colors from Gamblin Paints in my previous blog. When referencing a color I will be using the Initials rather than a paint color because each company has their own names for color. EAMPLE: R - for red or BG - for a blue green.

VALUE

Value refers to how dark or light a color is. It directly relates to the black and white grey scale. If you produce an underpainting in just tones of gray, you are producing a value study. Color can be very deceptive when evaluating value. An opaque painting made with only black and white paint is called a Grisaille. This is an excellent way to understand the value structure of the painting before going to color.

There is a warm side of the color wheel and a cool side. Warm colors on the color wheel are RO - Red/Orange, O- Orange, YO -Yellow/Orange, Y - Yellow, YG - Yellow Green. To lower the value of the warm color you cannot just add black because black will shift warm colors into a different color hue. For example: Yellow and black mixed will shift to a green, red/orange and black mixed will appear to move to the violets. So how do you lower the value of warm colors without changing the hue?

I touched briefly on this in the last blog but let me go deeper with this method. Once again let’s work with yellow. Assuming you are working with the twelve high chroma colors which represent the spectrum of color that the human eye can see, you will mix the colors on either side of a color that you want to make darker. To lower the value of yellow you would mix the two analogous colors to yellow on the color wheel.  Example: mixing YO-yellow/orange with YG-yellow/green will give you a slightly lower value yellow. If you need an even lower value yellow, you could mix RO-red/orange with G-green and you would achieve an even darker yellow.  Mixing R-Red and G-Green would make the darkest yellow or what would be considered a dead neutral. You have also lowered the saturation of the color as well with each cross mixing. Here are some examples of lowering a hue’s value without shifting it to another color.

Each paint color has its own unique strength so the mixes will not necessarily be direct 50/50 mixes. You need to balance the two so that one color does not dominate the mix.

Now let’s look at the cool colors on the color wheel. You can use the system I have outlined above or you can simply use black. Black is a cool neutral and will not shift cool colors into another color family.

To raise the value of all the high saturation colors you add white.  The overuse of white can result in very chalky looking colors so avoid over whitening your high saturation colors. The Cadmium colors mellow out very quickly when white is added. In a future blog I will be discussing the use of modern chemical colors which hold up much better when lightened with white, but they are primarily transparent colors and for this blog I wanted to only address opaque or semi-opaque colors.

In my next blog I will discuss adding transparent colors to the basic twelve high chroma colors to enrich your mixing possibilities.

I welcome questions or comments, and can be reached at - [email protected]

We work with color because it fascinates us but it can be disappointing if you don’t understand how color works. I hope to give you some basic information that you can apply when mixing colors and choosing a palette. Over the next few weeks, I will be posting blogs discussing the property of colors and how to achieve the results that you want. It is a complex subject for those who cannot resist all the fabulous colors available to artists. In the future I will be discussing the use of limited palettes as well as how to use the fullest palette of colors. I will discuss the properties of transparent as well as opaque color and their uses. Let’s start studying color by using a very high chroma palette which gives the artists a very large range of color mixing options but can lead to muddy or chalky results and difficulty achieving form.

 WORKING WITH A HIGH CHROMA PALETTE OF COLORS:

There are so many colors on the market that it can be confusing as to which colors to start with. Having the right color at each wheel position is very important because a color that is too warm at the red position will throw off your ability to mix clean red violets. These are the twelve colors that I recommend for the color wheel of high chroma colors. You will need to also add Titanium White and Ivory Black to your colors for future mixing.

Y - Cadmium Yellow, YO - Cadmium Yellow Deep, O - Cadmium Orange, RO - Cadmium Red Light, R - Cadmium Red Deep, RV - Quinacridone Magenta, V - Dioxazine Purple, BV - Cobalt Blue, B - Cerulean Blue, BG - Viridian, G - Permanent Green, YG - Cadmium Green. Three of the colors on this list are transparent, V, BV, and BG, but for the most part I try to use opaque or semi-opaque colors for this palette.

It is a helpful to make a twelve hue color wheel from your colors. The hues move around the wheel the way the colors of the rainbow merge into one another. Color is directly related to light. Choosing the right color for each wheel position is very important because a color that is too warm at the red position will throw off your ability to mix clean red violet.

The color wheel represents the spectrum of colors that humans can see. In order for an artist to master the use of color you need to understand how to decrease or increase a colors saturation (saturation is how intense the color appears) and how to raise and lower the value of that color (value is how light or dark a color is). Let’s start with how to control the saturation using a high chroma palette of colors when mixing.

CONTROLLING THE SATURATION

The colors on the top half of the color wheel represent warm colors and the bottom half of the wheel represents cool colors. Red and Green divide the wheel and do not seem to exhibit a strong sense of cool or warm. Starting with high chroma colors will give the artists the largest range of clean saturated mixtures.

Mixing with high chroma colors from the warm side of the wheel will make beautiful warm hues and will not result in muddy colors. Mixing together any of the colors on the cool side of the wheel will give you beautiful cool colors. It is when you mix colors from the cool side with colors from the warm side that you start to see the colors becoming less saturated. If you start with high chroma colors your mixed colors will remain fairly high chroma even when mixing cools with warms. This is the advantage to working with the most intense colors.

HOW TO LOWER THE SATURATION OF HIGH CHROMA COLORS;

You can decrease the saturation of a high chroma color in two ways.

1.  Mixing a gray into any of the high chroma colors will decrease its chroma. This method introduces black and white to the mixture which has the tendency to cool down warm colors. This method can decrease saturation as well as raising or lowering value. Gray is actually a very neutral blue because black is actually a blue. Using this method to decrease the saturation of yellows will turn them slightly greenish and if that is not what you want then try this second method.

2. To maintain the integrity of colors I prefer to mix a lower saturated color in this way. Referencing the color wheel, mixing the two colors on either side of any color will give you a lower saturation color. Example: to make a lower saturated yellow you would mix orange and green together which would give you a lower yellow similar to yellow ochre. This principle works around the wheel so to make a lower red you would mix an orange with a violet. This method maintains a richer less saturated hue without moving the color into another color family.

If you are going to use a high chroma palette you should spend some time mixing to see what can be achieved. When you want control of color you need to practice mixing till you understand what your colors will do for you. When you are painting you want to know how to make your palette of colors work to get the results you need. The color wheel made from your colors is a visual mixing reference.

Here are two examples of the power of working with very high chroma colors. Both were by Vincent VanGogh.

Next blog I will discuss how to lower and raise the value (dark to light) of colors when using a high chroma palette without shifting delicate colors like yellow to green or orange.

I welcome questions or comments, and can be reached at - [email protected]