1/26/2016

The Basic Principles 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.

Green and magenta enable a painter or mixer to experience a new dimension in all colors. The idea is that colors have inner feelings that lighten them up and make them to appear lovelier. By appreciating this dimension, one is able to fully interact with images and objects and in a way figure them out.

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 how bright a color is in respect to its own value or lightness. It can be simplified as the difference in brightness relative to gray. Colors that are near gray are less saturated while those further away from middle gray are more saturated. Simply put, saturation is the freedom from interference or dilution by gray.

When mixing colors, for instance during painting, this advanced theory advises you to avoid holes or jumping colors. A hole is a dark section on a painting or surface that appears distant yet is on the same level as the other objects. If distant objects are painted with similar saturation or intensity colors, they will appear as though they are jumping out. This will affect the aesthetics of your painting, image or surface.

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.

Optical illusions are part of this theory. They are used to create a feeling of correctness on objects and surfaces that appear to play tricks on eyes. It is important for an artist to capture the illusions and master their use so that your work appears as realistic as possible. A perfect example is where strips running bottom up make an object or person to appear taller than those running horizontally. Such illusions should be appreciated to avoid imbalance.




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