Focus On Colour in Painting: Pigments, Mixing, Tone, Temperature and Behaviour

Colour is often the reason someone chooses to paint. Even tone has colour. Black is a mix of all colours; white has nuance. Nothing is truly black or white. Blue brings notions of coolness, distance. Red advances with warmth and intimacy. Every colour from green to purple stirs mood and longing. The artist pigment becomes the tools from where the language of colour can be placed onto canvas. But which pigment should the beginner choose? What does the perfect collection of art pigments look like?

 

The Meaning of Colour

This hub-page brings together my selection of articles on many aspects of colour mixing. See it from a painter’s perspective, covering everything from colour mixing and translucency to tonal values and colour temperature.

 
Colour remains one of the most confounding aspects of painting. Many artists struggle with what pigments to choose from; what colours to mix. Frustration blooms when their colour mixtures fail to match what is imagined. Muddy hues, dull patches, insipid tones or a failure to capture atmosphere onto a painting instils defeat. Flowers look garish. What appears simple in theory becomes muddled on the palette.

Like learning to read and write, practice nurtures instinct. The colour language becomes second nature and easier to understand.

The Question of Colour Transparency, Opacity and Temperature

But controlled colour mixing begins with an grasp of the pigments being used. Every pigment is unique in spectrum profile. Cadmium red and permanent rose differ in colour temperature and translucency, and yet both are ‘red’. Similarly, French ultramarine and cerulean blue stand at different points on the colour wheel. One stands truer to a primary colour. When applied on a pale surface, a translucent pigment will appear to glow. A solid colour appears dense.

From the pathways on this hub page, learn about colour temperature and opacity, the four states of colour, light, shadow and atmospheric effects See how two reds and to blues have vastly opacities and colour behaviours. So, where to begin.

The Primary Colours Versus the Colour Wheel

My hub of articles begins with the basics: the primary colours. Learn what they are and how each colour behaves in mixes, applied on top of another colour and alongside it.

Learn to control your colour mixing, prevent dirty colours and why red and blue make grey. These articles explain why some mixtures become vibrant while others end up dull.

The Science of Colour

From this, it can be seen that a science exists behind colour mixing. Like perspectives in drawing and the Golden Ratio of composition, colour follows principles. Mix opposing colours and the tone will darken. Place such colours side by side and the painting shimmers. Likewise, the underpainting will affect the appearance of the overlying paint.

Complementary colours form the foundation of colour mixing. A multitude of pigments is not required to mix a vast array of colours. I have often completed a landscape painting with just five oil pigments. Even the subtle colours found in skin tones is achievable with just a few pigments.

Essential Art Pigments to Choose From

So, which pigments are ‘essential’ to the beginner. Do I need all these pigments? Does the artist buy artist grade or student quality pigments? What about the quantity of the art tubes, the size? Should I buy an artist’s collection box or tubes singly?

Every pigment has unique properties regarding tinting strength and consistency. Lemon yellow requires white to give it opacity. Cadmium yellow (by comparison) is solid. On the ‘yellow spectrum’ are opposites. Burnt umber, a dark, cool chocolate brown, dries quicker than burnt sienna, of a caramel hue, yet both are ‘brown’.

White is vital to any palette. I use Titanium white, but flake white can be used for softer highlights. I prefer a simple art kit to suit my projects.

The Tonal Value of Pigments

Colour cannot detach from light and shadow. Many colour mixing problems stem from faulty tonal judgements. Often the colour can hinder the artist ‘seeing’ its tone, particularly bright colours like red or green. This can make the painting appear flat, insipid or heavy. Tonal balances go hand in hand with colour values.

A weak relationship between lights and darks can kill a painting. Artists seeking to capture atmosphere must understand the colour’s tonal value. Learn how to judge lights and darks, inject atmosphere into your paintings and how to capture light like the impressionists

Colour Use in Alla Prima Painting

The art techniques bring another factor to colour behaviour: Painting wet-into-wet, for instance, enables ‘accidents’. Colours bleed into each other in a vibrant, fluid manner. Alla prima on the other hand presents a solid more controlled way of colour application.

Colour as the Artist’s Tool

This hub page aims to demystify colour and provide practical solutions to common problems with colour mixing. Whether the aim is clean fresh outdoorsy hues or a sombre feel, these resources will help strengthen your understanding of one of the most fascinating aspects of painting. Colour.

Colour is not just an artistic tool. It is the language through which to convey light, depth, and atmosphere in a painting. Learning how colour behaves will improve all aspects of your artwork, regardless of the medium or subject matter. But particularly in oil painting, the theme of this blog.

Further Reading

How to preserve your art brushes
How to make oil painting cheaper
Odorless oil painting mediums
Browse my full collection of articles on colour mixing.
Or explore my sister blog's article the incorrect colour wheel and the trouble with the beginner's pigment kit.