A few things about colours and painting pictures

Here I am discussing some of my findings while painting pictures. Hope students of fine art find them interesting, even if not very academic. These are just a few tips worth trying, though some may sound unconventional.

First imagine your picture in monochrome colour. That will help you to decide which particular colour will play the most important role in the painting you are about to do. That particular colour is the one that comes to your mind first when you try to visualize your painting in colour.

A very clear concept about complementary colours is necessary to give your painting a striking visual effect. My experience with colours show that red and blue are complementary colours. Violet and orange, reddish-violet and yellowish-white, yellowish-white and light-blue, brown and prussian-bluish-brown are some other complimentary colours. By placing complementary colours side by side, the visual effect of the painting can be increased many times.

Now a few words about warm and cool colours. Red, orange, yellow and brown are warm colours that evoke excitement. It should be mentioned here that diagonal lines also evoke excitement, whereas horizontal lines evoke tranquility. Also curved lines evoke love and affection. Upward brush strokes evoke excitement, downward brush strokes evoke tranquility. Warm colours catch the eyes first. Blue, green and violet are cool colours, though violet, with varying proportions of red, can, at times, work as a warm colour, as it contains red in it.

Warm colours tend to bring an object near, whereas cool colours push an object to the distance. Thus cool colours have a retreating effect. So the foreground of a picture should be in warm colours and the background in cool colours. This is the basic rule.

Complimentary colours can be mixed together to produce various types of grey colours. Grey colours, when placed near any of its constituent colours, give a good visual effect. Grey colours can also be used to reduce the effect of primary colours.

Shadows mean areas where there is less light. Proper colouring of shadow areas is very important. Colours of shadows also depict the time of the day.
In the morning shadows have a bluish-grey tinge. Morning light is slightly blue in colour.
Bright sunlight, as found during the afternoon, is yellowish white in colour. Afternoon shadows are bluish-violet in colour.
Evening light has an orange tinge and evening shadows have a reddish-violet colour. Length of the shadow also indicates the time of the day.

A coloured object reflects its own colour. So it tends to throw light of its own colour. This has to be kept in mind while handling light and shades. Primarily shadows tend to have some blue in it mixed with some other colour(s).

Borrow some colour from the main object of the picture and use it in a nearby area of the picture. This mostly gives a very good visual effect.

Pencil-sketch is the best thing to keep in constant touch, even if one fails to sit with brush and paints. After a long lapse, it is pencil sketching that will again bring back the touch. Every fine artist must do at least one pencil sketch every day.

Hope to share more of my experiences with pencil, pen, brush and paints again.

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