Color Theory

[Chapter 1]
Mastering Color
Richard Robinson's
Copyright 2009 Richard Robinson. All Rights Reserved. www.livepaintinglessons.com
Look at the black dot above for 20 seconds ... Now look at this black dot.
Sir Isaac Newton
I think it's important to know where we've come from in terms of our understanding of color so that we
can see clearly where we are at the moment, and know what discoveries lead us to this point. I don't
want to bore you with the physics of light and everything, so I'll just give you a brief overview and make
sure you know roughly how it all works so that you don't believe something like what Plato first
hypothesised in his 'Emanation Theory' that an inner fire gives rise to visual rays shooting outward from
the eye, interacting with the "outer rays" and thereby allowing objects to be seen.
Newton showed us in the 1700's that white light from our Sun contains all the colors of the spectrum -
the ones you can see in a rainbow plus a whole bunch of others that we can't see like ultraviolet and
infrared. He then noticed the similarity between red and violet at either end of the spectrum and
joined them together making a circle - the color wheel as we know it. This was the birth of modern
color theory.
This knowledge didn't become practically useful to artists until Michel Chevreul, who managed the
production of dyes for a French Tapestry Manufacturer, made the remarkable discovery that an intense
dye color would produce the appearance of color on surrounding neutral areas and that this new
perceived color was almost directly opposite the original color on Newton's color wheel. Let's have a
look at this visual phenomenon - keep your eye on the middle of the orange square for the next 20
seconds you'll see when I remove the square that a blue after-image is formed in your eye, and blue
just happens to be the 'complementary' colour of orange, meaning it's directly opposite orange on the
colour wheel.
Color Theory
[Chapter 1] Mastering Color
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Claude Monet
Eugene Delacroix Eugene Delacroix
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Again in France, the painter Eugene Delacroix used these new discoveries to further his study of realistic
lighting effects. He learned things like: red cloth has greenish shadows, and the shadows of yellow
objects have a tinge of violet in them. In doing this he was able to break away from the classical dark
backgrounds and dull 'tonal' treatment of shadows and introduce color into shadows, effectively
making the whole painting more vibrant. He later was reported to say that "I can paint you the skin of a
Goddess with mud, provided you let me surround it with the right colors." This is actually possible too -
if you surround a warm grey with a strong blue it will actually resemble Caucasian flesh.
The Impressionists were inspired by Delacroix's discoveries and aided by the invention of a wider range
of more vibrant paints sold in easily transportable tubes, they painted outdoors in search of a more
meaningful expression of natural light and color. Instead they tended to paint in a mid or high key and
add compliments to their lighter shadows. These artists included Monet, Renoir and Pissaro. In London
at the same time Joseph Turner was exploring bold color and atmospheric effects which also had an
effect on the work of the Impressionists.
Color Theory
[Chapter 1] Mastering Color
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Camille Pissarro
Georges-Pierre Seurat Pointilist Technique 4 color printing closeup
CMYK - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black
Joseph Turner
Meanwhile Georges Seurat developed a very technical approach to color, a painstaking method called
'pointillism which attempted to mix colors visually on the canvas rather than on the palette. To make a
green for example he would place a small stroke of blue beside one of yellow, so that from a distance
the two colors combine in the eye to create a more vibrant green than what can be achieved by mixing
color on a palette. This is in fact how a modern 4 color printing press works, placing tiny dots of pure
color next to each other to create an image in the eye, the process is just too taxing for most artists so
pointillism as a movement didn't last for long.
Post Impressionists like Paul Gauguin and Van Gogh learned the techniques of the Impressionists but
began to use color in a more emotional manner and were less concerned with the actual appearance of
light and atmosphere than with emphasising the beauty of pure color and line in a fairly flat picture
plain. Van Gogh felt that colors had symbolic meaning. To him, yellow symbolised love and light, red
and green conveyed passion and conflict, deep blue was the color of spiritual rest, and grey was
associated with surrender.
Paul Cezanne's later work can be seen as one of the bridges between the art of the 19th century and
the 20th century. He used color almost as a chisel to shape objects, where he enjoyed the contrast of
greyed color with saturated color. He wrote, "When the color achieves richness, the form attains its
fullness also."
Paul Gauguin Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh Paul Cezanne Paul Cezanne
Sergei Bongart Charles Hawthorne Henry Hensche
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[Chapter 1] Mastering Color
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Cezanne's work along with others inspired the Cubists, Expressionists and Fauves who all used color in
an arbitrary fashion, no longer concerned with representing nature in her richness but turning more to
the inner world of the artist to draw inspiration from. Post modernism was born and a gap of some 100
years ensued until today when we are seeing a resurgence in the academic popularity of
representational art. Over that time there have been artists who have kept the flame alive and passed it
along to their own students, safeguarding knowledge that was hard won over many years. Some
include Russian artist Sergei Bongart, American Charles Hawthorne and Henry Hensche.
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[Chapter 1] Mastering Color
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So through all these artist's efforts and many more we now have a good understanding of what we can
achieve with color in painting. We are standing on the top of a mountain of discoveries and
achievements and we're now in the enviable position of having the knowledge and technology to
achieve with paint, a range and depth of color expression that simply was not possible in the past. The
next chapters are going to walk you through discovering your own power with color, so you too can
climb up the mountain and see what the view is like from up there.
Sources:
'Alla Prima' by Richard Schmid 1998
'Basic Color Theory' by Anthony Holdsworth 2005
'Color' by Barry John Raybould 2002
'Colour Mixing' by Winsor & Newton 1997
'Hensche on Painting' by John W. Robichaux 1997
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/theme/impressionnisme.html
'Mastering Color' by Vick Murry 2006
'Monet' by Frank Milner 1991
'Painting the Impressionist Landscape' by Lois Griffel 1994
'Rembrant' by Dr. Susanna Partsch 1991
'Sergei Bongart' by Patricia LeGrande Bongart 2000