From Frederic Whitaker’s book, Whitaker on Watercolor

Chapter 4

4. COLOR FUNDAMENTALS

The unique characteristic of painting––the attribute that distinguishes it from all other forms of art expression––is color.  The beginning painter should understand color fundamentals so that when he applies his paints to paper or canvas, reason and knowledge will guide his movements, quickly telling him things that trial and error might taker longer to teach.  Surprisingly, many students, and even some successful painters, know very little about the laws of color although the general principles are easily memorized.  In fact, it was not until Isaac Newton’s experiments, less than three hundred years ago, that the world at large began to understand the nature of color.

SPECTRAL COLOR AND PIGMENT COLOR

Color is simply light, broken up into its component parts.  When a ray of sunlight is transmitted through a glass prism and projected onto a white wall, it appears not as clear light, but in rainbow hues of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.  Observing this, Newton reasoned that light is not a simple element but the combination of colors we now call the spectrum.  He saw then that a rainbow is simply sunlight separated into its basic parts by refraction through rain or mist.  To demonstrate that light, or white, is a combination of all other colors, divide a cardboard disc into six equal sectors and paint each of the six divisions with one of the spectrum colors noted above.  If the disc is spun rapidly, no color will be seen at all.  The effect produced approximates white.  I say “approximates” because the actual effect will be a light gray.  Pigment color, with which we paint, tends to absorb some of the light by which it is seen; thus, in a visual mixture using pigments, it is impossible to obtain pure white.  If the spectrum color are combined by projecting colored lights on a screen, however, pure white light will result.  White, then, is not a color but a combination of all colors.  Nor is black a color.  Black is the absence of color.  Were there no sun in the sky, everything would be black, as it is when you shut yourself in a lightproof closet.

THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF COLOR

Color is said to have three dimensions: hue, value, and chroma, which is also called saturation or intensity.  If the degrees of these qualities could be stated accurately, it would be possible to duplicate any tone of any color without seeing the original, just as it is possible to duplicate any geometrical form from written measurements or any musical note or chord from a printed score.  Color meters and color systems have been devised which are scientifically valuable, but the practicing artist must still depend upon his eye for color analysis.

Hue

Hue refers to a particular color, such as red, blue, or green.  It is the name by which we distinguish a color.  Hues may vary in value and intensity.  Light red and dark red, for instance, are both red and are therefore of the same hue.  Crimson and brick red are both red and are therefore of the same hue.  Color Wheel I on page 41 shows the six basic pigment hues.  Color Wheel II shows a wide range of intermediate hues.

Value

Value refers to depth of color, that is, its degree of lightness or darkness.  It has no bearing on hue.  Thus a light and a dark blue are of the same hue but they differ in value, whereas a medium red and a medium green differ in hue but may be identical in value.  The Color Chart on page 41 shows different values of the same color.  The rectangle at the top center of the color panel shows a pure red.  In the rectangles to its left, the colors progressively become lighter in value, while those on the right become darker.

Chroma, Saturation, or Intensity

These terms, which are used interchangeable, refer to the purity or strength of a color.  Thus pure Cadmium Red is a bright red of very high chroma, brick red has a less intense chroma, and a grayed red, one that might appear almost brown, is a red of very low chroma or saturation.  The word “grayness” is sometimes used as a negative way of measuring this quality.  Chroma, saturation, or intensity stresses the purity or brilliance of a color, while grayness emphasizes the departure from brilliance.  The top line of the Color Chart on page 41 shows seven values of a single hue.  As the colors descend on the chart their chroma is reduced.  In other words, they become grayer without changing in value.  For the purpose of simplification, we have shown only 24 hues on Color Wheel II and only six values and two degrees of grayness in the chart of values and chroma.  Actually, there can be an unlimited amount of gradations in each department.  The steps between red and orange, for example, could be measured in hundreds of degrees.  Each hue can become progressively lighter until it reaches white or darker until it reaches black, or it may gradually lose its chroma until it becomes a pure neutral gray.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY COLORS

Color Wheel I on page 41 shows the painter’s basic colors: three pigment primaries (red, yellow, and blue) and their three secondaries (orange, green, and violet).  Red, yellow, and blue are called primaries because they cannot be reduced to subdivisions.  They cannot be produced by mixing other colors.  Orange, green, and violet are called secondaries because each is a mixture of two primaries.  Orange is red and yellow combined; green is a mixture of yellow and blue; violet is a combination of red and blue.  Tertiary colors, which are mixtures of all three primary colors, are really grays with a tendency towards one or another of the prismatic colors.  Mixtures of any secondary with either of its component primaries produces an intermediate hue such as red-orange or yellow-orange, blue-green or yellow-green, blue-violet or red-violet.  The above facts apply to pigment color mixture.  Physicists, psychologists, and others interested in color designate other hues as primary and secondary.  In the mixtures of colored light, for instance, certain tones of red, blue, and green are primaries.  Anyone deeply interested in color will want to investigate the subject more thoroughly.  For the average painter, however, it is enough to know that when dealing with artists’ pigments, red, yellow and blue are the basic colors.

COMPLIMENTARY COLORS

Every color wheel, whether it contains only six hues or is made up of many more, is based on the three primary colors––red, yellow and blue.  Between each pair of primary colors is the secondary color which is the product of the two primaries.  Orange, for example, the product of yellow and red, is placed between them.  Any two colors opposite each other––red and green, yellow and violet, blue and orange––are complementary colors.  When the two are added together, the result is a combination of all three primary colors.  Green, for instance, is a mixture of blue and yellow.  When it is added to its complement, red, all three primary colors are, in effect, combined.  The result when two complementary colors are mixed is always the same: gray.  It would, of course, be white were it not for the absorption of light by each of the pigments.  Sometimes, in practice, the gray will appear quite brownish.  Again, this is probably due to the nature of the pigments.  Few, if any, are pure in color; most have an undertone of warmth or coolness that affects any mixture in which the pigments are included.  The color wheel is not necessarily limited to six colors.  It may be subdivided by sixes into as many divisions as desired, but the hue in any given sector must be halfway between the hues of its adjacent neighbors.  Whatever the number of intermediate hues, any two opposite numbers when mixed together should produce the name neutral gray.  Yellow-orange and blue-violet, for example, are complementaries.  They should always be located directly opposite on a color wheel and, if mixed together, will produce gray.  How do you as a watercolorist use this information about color?  There are many ways, which will quickly become apparent when you begin to paint.  For example, if you have used a color which is too bright for the rest of your picture––a red, for instance––you may neutralize or “gray” it by adding a small amount of complementary color, in this case, green.  This subdues the red, but does not change its value (depth of color).  Some artists add black to neutralize a color, but black will darken it as well as dull it.  A peculiarity of complementary colors is that they do not usually combine well in close proximity.  A visual vibration is sometimes set up that is painful to the eyes.  For example, if bright red letters are painted on a bright green ground, many people will find it almost impossible to read.  However, if the red and green colors are separated by a reasonable amount of white, the effect will not dazzle the eyes.  With practice, an artist looking at any surface can estimate accurately the various colors that go into its appearance.  Viewing a barn of an unusual brown, let us say, and equipped with a knowledge of color mixture, he will say to himself, “That calls for Raw Umber with a little Emerald Green.”  With experience, this diagnosis and prescription will operate without conscious effort.  I remember the first time I painted outdoors with an instructor.  Referring to the heavy clouds I was trying to reproduce on paper, he said, “You haven’t enough pink in them.”  My reaction, though unstated, was a flip query as to how anyone might imagine that gray rain clouds could be pinkish.  Since then, of course, experience has taught me that very few hues ever rest on the dead center of any one color.  Virtually all include a slight cast of something else.  The trained eye can sense it as quickly and intuitively as a color meter.  This faculty, which starts with calculation based on knowledge of color rules, soon becomes almost automatic.

WARM AND COOL COLORS

Colors are divided into “warm” and “cool” groups.  Blue is usually considered the coldest color and other colors seem cold or cool according to the degree of blue in their makeup.  Red and yellow, on the other hand, are warm colors.  In combination they make orange, the complement of blue.  Other colors are called warm if they tend toward red or yellow.  Violet and green are intermediate colors in this sense.  They can appear either warm or cool depending on whether they favor blue or orange.

ATTRACTIVE COLORS

Teachers often hear students say, “Your colors are beautiful.  Mine are drab.  Why?”  Actually the beauty of color in a painting depends almost entirely upon the way the several colors are used together.  Attractive pigments do not automatically make for beautiful color combinations in a painting.  Colors that by themselves are sparkling may be hideous when used side by side, particularly if they happen to be complementary.  Two or three nondescript hues, on the other hand, may unite into a lilting color pattern.  Although there are traditional rules of color harmony which can be studied, it is, in the long run, only experience with your own pigments which can tell you how to put together combinations your artist’s eye will tell you are pleasing.

IMAGINATIVE COLOR MIXTURES

Once you are familiar with the standard color mixtures, experimentation and practice will show you how to make innumerable others and to foresee exactly what any two or three colors on your palette will produce in combination.  Few artists deliberately mix complementary colors as a general practice, for if used in equal strength the two complementary pigments neutralize each other completely.  If, however, complementary colors are mixed in unequal strengths, or if the two colors are each a little off-center chromatically, unusual and desirable results may be obtained.  For instance, Alizarin Crimson (a red tending toward purple) and Emerald Green (lighter than the green used on the color wheel) add up to a quiet red-purple.  Innumerable “off-center” blends are possible and they need not be complementary.  Vermilion mixed with Cerulean Blue produces a lovely gray-violet.  Cobalt Violet and Emerald Green combine to make an attractive muted blue.  For blue skies, which can be sickening when painted with pure blue straight from the tube, I sometimes mix a wash of Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Violet and Emerald Green.  Spend some time trying out other possibilities.